[Openicc] GoSoC 2011: CPD and ... Mike Sweet workflow

[Chris Murphy]

On May 13, 2011, at 1:20 AM, Michael Sweet wrote:

> On May 12, 2011, at 11:52 PM, Graeme Gill wrote:
>> ...
>>> So no, I don't want users printing targets from arbitrary applications that have no
>>> notion of color management. Instead I want to see applications that are specifically
>>> written to print targets, measure them, and produce profiles that can be used by
>>> arbitrary applications.
>> 
>> Nearly all existing color profiling tools assume that a normal
>> test chart printing process can involve using a normal application
>> (like Photoshop) to print the chart. Taking away this capability
>> and not providing any other means of achieving this necessary
>> step (never mind negating the possibility of application color
>> matching on the assumption that there is no justification for it),
>> flies in the face of reality.
>> 
>> If this is the way Apple sees it, no wonder there are a lot
>> of angry Color professionals out there. I certainly wouldn't
>> want to see any of the Linux systems to go down this route.
> 
> 
> Please. I said:
> 
> 	I don't want users printing targets from arbitrary applications that have no notion of color management.
> 
> Photoshop (and other professional graphics applications) definitely has a notion of color management. Thus I would expect it (and other professional graphics applications) to support printing target images.
> 
> However, I would not expect a UI control in the regular print dialog to enable a target (color management disabled) printing mode for, say, Firefox which *can* print images but doesn't have any real notion of color management.

Well it does, it has a CMS integrated into it (qcms) and it will be used by default, and you can enable a whole pile of assumptions about untagged images. All the more reason why I would not want it printing targets because it very well may convert them before sending them through the print pipeline - even if the print dialog were set to "no color transforms" there's no way for that to kick back to the app and have it not convert images already converted, if they've been converted.

So yeah - no I'm not a fan of just any application having the ability to print targets either. But I'm also not a fan of considering the off switch for ColorSync some massive secret. It should be documented, publicly, thoroughly, and be an official API, found when searching the dev web site. If some 3rd party writes an app that disables ColorSync and everything it displays and prints looks like ass, well that's a negative on that developer and their product, and is not Apple's responsibility. I think Apple worrying about such potential is diddle shitting with minutia.


Chris Murphy