CMS Utilities - Color Management for Photographers - page 286

Mac OS X as seen in Fig. 8-8. These Quartz filters and this area of
ColorSync Utility can be used for soft proofing in situations where a
user may not have access to an application like Photoshop. Since output
profiles can be selected in the Convert Data to Output Space pop-up menu,
all we have to do is load the image and click the Preview button to see a
soft proof.
Color space conversions can also be carried out using this utility, again
by selecting an output profile and rendering intent and then selecting
either the Save menu or Export menu (the later allows the original file
format to be changed). Therefore, images can be altered using Quartz
filters and then converted and even sized and exported into a different
file format, all within the ColorSync Utility. Note that when viewing an
image using the various Quartz filters, we can simply soft proof the effect
using the Preview button or apply the filters to the open image requiring
us to click the large Apply button. Once one or more Quartz Filters are
applied to an image, clicking the History button shows the list of filters
applied to the image.
This utility has promise, but is still very rough around the edges,
sporting a rather nonintuitive user interface. When applying a Quartz
filter to an image using Apply , there seems to be no way to remove that
effect. ( Revert doesn't work and clicking the Delete button actually
removes the Quartz filter from the list, not the effect of the filter on
the image). This is because a hard transformation of the data occurs,
it's not just applying a profile. The previews are quite low resolution
and although the window can be resized by clicking and dragging the
lower right corner of the image window, this only results in a courser
appearing preview.
Custom Quartz filters created by the user are found in a folder named
Filters in the user library. These Quartz filters do have enormous
potential for producing automation for the user, and I would certainly
suggest you keep an eye on this area of the ColorSync utility as it hope-
fully evolves. As I mentioned, this utility could use some polish regard-
Fig. 8-8 In a printer driver
like the Epson seen here,
Quartz filters can be
applied as the data is sent
to the printer or when a
PDF is created.