[Openicc] [Gutenprint Color Management] Will my prints look good?

[Robert Krawitz]

On Sat, 25 Jun 2011 16:32:44 +0200 (MEST), Kai-Uwe Behrmann wrote:
> Am 25.06.11, 15:05 +0200 schrieb edmund ronald:
>> I'm the Gutenprint color geek, I guess. As such, I guess  in a way my job is
>> also to manage expectations.
>>
>> I don't think we are going to live in a perfect world. Color managed Linux
>> users are not going to see perfection.
>
> Perfection is a big word on all levels of expertise.
>
>> Screen and print won't match in most consumer scenarios, although they may
>> and should match on *our* systems. We should be well aware of that.
>
> agreed
>
>> For our purposes -Gutenprint- I think we should have agreement that
>> profiling will bring the print system into a well known state, which
>> incidentally means a decent screen to print match in strong print viewing
>> lighting, using a calibrated screen.
>>
>> Users should be free to move from this state, later, and tune the print so
>
> ... but not at cost of becoming ambiguous. Either the printing is in
> ICC mode and colour calibration related options are grayed out or it
> is work in free style mode.

No way.  We shouldn't be absolutely preventing users from doing
something that may be useful to them.  Having a warning or something
is fine, but absolutely preventing users from overriding settings
because of the possibility of ambiguity or because *some* users
*might* get confused and do something wrong, is simply being
gratuitously restrictive.

>> they are comfortable  their own esthetics, screen and viewing condtions.
>
> The other way around will be to adapt viewing conditions description
> in the CMS settings for a better document to screen colour
> transform.

Which may not be possible or practical for a given user.

> If thats not enough, a different or even custom profile can be
> recommended to users with high colour quality expectations.

Which might be easier said than done.

>> Telling users to go out and buy a viewing booth is not going to cut it. If
>> they say "my prints are too dark", we need to tell them, yes, that is
>> because you have a profile that is specifically tailored to irrealistic
>> industry-standard viewing conditions. And, if necessary we should be
>> prepared to tell them clearly that they need to compensate by eye for their
>> own esthetics and viewing condition psychophysics.
>
> IMHO these expectations, even though well drawn, are still too high
> to what most users want. We see users, which do not know the maning
> of one button in the colour management tab and are highly scared to
> have to think around that toppic, as it will take time, bring
> frustration and extra costs. So they do not want tweaks of any kind,
> but a clear way to let a colour guru like you say: "These are the
> colours from this driver for your printer."

Users don't *have* to make any changes.  Have a check box labeled
"Allow override (advanced users only!)" or the like that they have to
select in order to make any changes from the predefined settings.  If
they insist on checking that box and making changes, what's the worst
that will happen?  They'll get results they don't like.  They won't
fall off a 1000' cliff or lose their life savings.  Then they'll learn
better for the next time.

> To meet the demands of some people, who want tweaks and custom
> profiles, is fine. But the above glueless majority is IMO best
> served to see calibration state related options only grayed out in
> ICC mode. The most obvious thing is to remove the current ICC
> profile from the actual options and only then let users play with
> the calibration state. This way we preserve freedom of choice and
> can provide simplicity in a default workflow. To get the new
> calibration combined with the ICC profile it can be embedd and
> done. Thats a very clear and noticeable modification similiar to
> reprofiling. This matches as well with expectations of expert users,
> which want see a clear signal, when a calibration state/ICC profile
> combo has altered. The fact that expert users and beginners have
> very similiar expectations should guide us in designing the systems
> and UIs. I do not think power users, which tweak many jobs with new
> calibration settings and want therefor the most easy access to
> colour related calibration settings, are a good primary target.

I disagree -- vehemently.  I think we can accommodate everyone just
fine.

-- 
Robert Krawitz                                     <rlk at alum.mit.edu>

Tall Clubs International  --  http://www.tall.org/ or 1-888-IM-TALL-2
Member of the League for Programming Freedom  --  http://ProgFree.org
Project lead for Gutenprint   --    http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net

"Linux doesn't dictate how I work, I dictate how Linux works."
--Eric Crampton