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What the users want

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Kai-Uwe Behrmann edited this page Dec 22, 2017 · 1 revision

Before we talk about colormanagement policies for applications, we should think about, what different users expect from colormanagement.

Table of Contents

Office Users / Webdesigners

Such users want an easy colormanagement. They don´t want to see pop-up dialogues, that the profile of an actual file is not fitting to the colorsettings of their application. RGB-colors should be unambigous specified by numbers. Input, Monitor, print-output should colormatch.

Graphic Designers

They want an easy workflow form delivered RGB-data to a CMYK-Editing space, which represents a standard printing condition (e.G. SWOP or ISOcoated). CMYK-colors should be unambigous specified by numbers. The monitor should simulate the editing CMYK-Editing space. The printout should also simulate the editing CMYK workingspace and should serve as proof for the printinghouse. It should be easy to create PDF/X-1a data, whith the CMYK-Editing space embedded as outputintent. 

  Question: should it here read "embedded as output profile" instead of "outputintent"?
  The rendering intent is a separate option and for Cmyk anyway not applicable, because
  an further colour transformation is unlikely. But for interpreatation the profile is needed.
  Answer from jphomann: There is a big difference between Output Intent in PDF/X- and
  Rendering Intents in ICC-Transformation. The OutputIntent in PDF/X is a ICC-profile or
  ASCII Text, which decsribes the colorspace of CMYK-objects in the PDF/X-File, which has
  no embedded profiles. (also called DeviceCMYK. This construct is choosen by the ISO TC130,
  because CMYK-objects with embedded profiles (also called ICCbasedCMYK) can cause unwanted
  colortransformations of this objects during the RIP-process of the PDF-file. 
  The construct of the output-intent in PDF/X prevents such unwanted colortransformtions.
  But the reciever can clearly see, for which CMYK colorspace the PDF/X file was generated.

They dont like pop-up dialogues, that the profile of an actual file is not fitting to the colorsettings of their application. They hate unwanted colortransformtions of CMYK-data, where e.g. black or grey objects turns to 4-color objects. 

  Hint: littleCMS has a black preserving feature with vesion 1.15. About others I dont know.
  Answer jphomann: One point is the possibility of the littleCMS. But the applications, which
  uses littleCMS must explizit use this feature, which is going ahead normal ICC-workflows.

Prepress specialists

They do more or less the same like the graphic designers, but want the most flexible control over the colormanagement-workflow. They need pop-up dialogues, that the profile of an actual file is not fitting to the colorsettings of their application. They must deal with different CMYK-Editing spaces and need control over gamutmapping strategies.

photographers

They want to use the full gamut of their camera and their inkjet printers. Editing of pictures should be done in a workingspace, where equal RGB-numbers result to gray.

Category:Concepts

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