[Openicc] Gutenprint mission as Linux moves towards color managed workflows

[edmund ronald]

Gutenprint has provided general print services for Linux users, but it
has also acquired a constituency of print professionals who use
externally color-managed workflows to drive legacy hardware. A typical
use of a professional externally color-managed workflow is "Photoshop
Manages Colors" driving a Linux printserver where an external instance
of Photoshop effects the color conversion to deviceRGB by means of
Adobe's CMM, and a user-supplied profile.

We understand the aspiration of integrated seamless color management
as proposed by the members of OpenICC. We too have subscribed to this
effort to provide better color for desktop Linux users. However, we
have responsibilities to our historical constituency, and we cannot
require existing users to abandon their workflows on the promise that
future Linux color management will magically replace decades of
proprietary development.

Therefore, we believe that any new print solutions that we support
should *also* fully enable the historical CM-off print queues
as these are important for our existing userbase. These are also essential
for our contributors  as engineering and diagnostic tools.

If the new code requested for color-management support does not
integrate the functionality of the old, then those new developments will be
relegated to our spare time, as our main effort goes into supporting
the existing users and providing drivers for new hardware.

Edmund, Robert.