[Openicc] What is exactly needed: Embedded Profile in CUPS raster !!

[Alastair M. Robinson]

Hi,

On 02/06/11 21:59, Michael Sweet wrote:

> I am very concerned that everyone seems to be focusing on Gutenprint as an example of a typical driver.
>  It is most certainly not because it provides a HUGE number of settings 
that are not provided by a typical driver,
> and most of those settings essentially control the printer (device) configuration and calibration.
> Automatic profile selection works just fine for the settings ordinary users are likely to tweak,
> primarily color mode, media type, and print quality/resolution (thus the defaults used for cupsICCProfile).

OK - instead of Gutenprint, consider the Epson Windows driver for my 
R285.  There are 11 different types of media, and four quality settings, 
so 44 combinations.  Some of those combinations are nonsensical of 
course, but realistically we're not going to have profiles for even the 
11 different media types, let alone each combination of media type and 
quality.  My concern is how transparent the selection of a profile will 
be, and how the user will be informed of whether or not a profile exists 
for a particular combination.

> Um, perhaps you missed this, but if you have two different kinds of "glossy" media you give then
> two different names. Aside from the custom option support in CUPS, a profiling application that
> updates the PPD file to list additional/different profiles could also inject alternate media
> types matching what was actually used.

Yes, agreed - I'd love to see the ability to add extra media types to 
the PPD - it would go a long way towards solving the problem.  However, 
the overriding attitude on this list so far has been that the PPD is 
owned by the package management system and is not up for modification. 
(I pointed out a week or so back that this is not the case for the 
"live" PPDs in /etc/cups/ppd - but if anyone even saw it, it wasn't 
acknowledged.)

> With two different names you never have a one-to-many  relationship

I do, actually, because I sometimes need to use different black 
generation settings for different types of job, but as Richard pointed 
out, I'm not a typical user and very few people will share that need.

> I think having a named preset that selects both the driver settings and profile is a compelling solution.

It is indeed, and it's precisely what I implemented in PhotoPrint 5 
years ago.  I'm just nervous about trying to automatically select a 
suitable profile for an arbitrary bundle of options without any 
user-visible feedback.  I have trouble imagining how it could work - and 
more importantly how as a user I can have any *confidence* that it'll 
work - without shipping a profile for every possible permutation of 
qualifiers.

All the best
--
Alastair M. Robinson