CMS Utilities - Color Management for Photographers - page 298

tailed information about the embedded profile. Once a user loads either
images or profiles to plot and analyze, this can be saved to disk as a session
to be reloaded later or shared with other GamutWorks users. Gamut-
Works can run under Mac OSX or Windows (98SE/2000/ME/XP). For
more information, see http://www.xritephoto.com/.
ColorShop X
This product is the long-awaited update to the original ColorShop from
X-Rite. ColorShop has been around on the Macintosh since the first Spec-
trophotometer I used (the ColorTron) appeared in the early-to-mid
1990s. Originally bundled with the ColorTron from LightSource, X-Rite
purchased the technology and not much happened until the new release.
ColorShop X is a Swiss Army Knife of 21 different color tools. Some of
the tools are for analysis of ICC profiles, others are for creation of new
profiles from existing profile data. Some tools are aimed squarely at
designers or those that need to measure color from the outside world and
produce new colors to use in other applications. Some of the modules
are made for different disciplines (photographic, graphic design, printing,
etc.).
There is a nice 2D and 3D gamut viewer, which seems all too common
today. This version has all the bells and whistles to plot multiple profiles
on top of each other, view the internal structure of a profile (private tags,
media white point, and so on). Users can edit many of these values if
they are brave and so inclined. I was able to edit not only the internal
profile name, which is useful, but also the copyright tag. I have to say
from a profile-viewing standpoint I prefer ColorThink from Chromix
and even GamutWorks, but neither provides the editing abilities of
ColorShop X.
The Rich Gray Pigment module is an interesting addition (see Fig.
8-17). Load your RGB output profile and it will generate a new ICC
profile that will do a nice job of conversion from a full color image to a
Grayscale RGB file. Some users may find this a good way to quickly
produce color to Grayscale conversions using an ICC profile. The newly
generated RGB profile will create a new set of RGB values, not convert
RGB to a single channel Grayscale file. After this initial conversion, you
could use the Photoshop Mode - Grayscale command to convert from RGB
to a true Grayscale file. The RGB image converted to Rich Black provides
good color conversions (separation) from the original tones. I fed a
Macbeth Color Checker through a profile I built for my Epson 2200 and
the Rich Gray Profile produced very nice results, separating all the color
patches into different grays.
The Density Scratchpad is a module that would allow a user to measure
output to produce density readings; in essence, a Spectrophotometer now
can be used as a densitometer. Another interesting tool is called Color
Lens . Essentially, it allows a user to view, inside any application, how a