Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
color management packages cost huge sums of money and required
serious study with usually heinous documentation. It cost at least $600
in 1990 era dollars just to calibrate a display. At this time, users can
produce better results for as little as $150. This doesn't mean the prod-
ucts are flawless by any stretch of the imagination. New users still have
no idea what targets to use to calibrate a display or why images can
appear correct in an application like Photoshop but poorly on their Web
browsers. Until true system-wide, application-wide, ICC-aware applica-
tions appear on both major platforms, confusion will result.
The other major problem with color management is implementation
outside our work environments. There are far too many printers, service
bureaus, and print shops that are color-management hostile. In the pho-
tographic RGB world, there are many labs that still send prints to their
customers and expect them to “match the print” to their display. By now,
I'm hopeful you realize this is simply an unacceptable form of color man-
agement (and I use the term color management loosely). Labs are either
reluctant to supply output profiles to their customers, or expect that you
provide files in sRGB; everything else will be fine, don't worry. The solu-
tion is to find another lab to produce your output. As more users seek
out color-managed labs and printers, those that are reluctant to provide
the services you demand will go out of business. You may have to pay a
little more for the output. Labs that implement color management have
a sizable investment in time and money to recoup. However, in the long
run, you'll save time and money yourself by using such labs.
Customers need to make manufactures aware of the need to provide
ICC profiles and ICC-aware applications with their hardware products.
Providing a product, which only encodes color into sRGB, isn't accept-
able. Digital cameras aimed at the advanced amateur (and of course, Pro)
must support RAW data, and we desperately need manufacturers to
support a RAW standard format so that third-party applications can access
this data, hopefully utilizing color management. Adobe has attempted to
provide this with their DNG (digital negative)
2
format. The only way this
will come about is by customers of these products who have educated
themselves make their needs clear to the various manufacturers.
Another issue is ensuring that all users in the production chain imple-
ment color management and are standardized on the same basic working
practices. That means a photographer who will be supplying digital files
to an art director needs to ensure that person is viewing and handling
the images using correct color management practices. Providing
education and clear communication is the obvious answer to these issues.
Color management isn't a magic pill, but when set up correctly, it pro-
vides many advantages in the digital imaging pipeline. For years, color
management critics have suggested that color management was too dif-
2
See http://www.adobe.com/products/dng/main.html.
