Pacprint, this list and you 'guys' . . .
Pacprint, this list and you 'guys' . . .
- Subject: Pacprint, this list and you 'guys' . . .
- From: Darrin Southern <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 01 Jun 2001 22:14:25 +1000
We had a printing trade show here Down Under about two weeks ago, and one
and all came from across the land, and even some from the land of the Long
White Cloud. They had come to see presses, scanners, ink jets and the girls
handing out leaflets that they knew nothing about, and those receiving the
leaflets didn't care one bit.
Richard was giving his color presentation on the Apple stand, and then was
able to profile one of our demonstration Apple 22" LCD with his SpectroCam
and the demo of ICC Display that Dan from ProfileCity gracefully allowed us
to show - thanks Richard and Dan. Johno from Epson was on his stand, not
only showing the Epson range of printers, but helped us out with a
consumables problem we had - thanks Johno.
There were a number of other "Color Managers' who I know are on this list,
and what I realized was the 'community' atmosphere of sharing knowledge and
concepts that we shared, which raised the eyebrows of some of the 'sales
types' who consider us 'competitors'.
What surprised me was most people who wanted to know about 'Color
Management' were looking to learn how to use the magic application called
'Colorsync' that although they had it installed on their computer(s), they
did not know 'how' it could be used to solve all their color woes.
I normally suggest to those new to 'Color Management' and want to do it all
themselves, that they should sign up to this list, but they will need to put
aside about 4 hours a week to allow themselves to digest (this digest) - due
to the technical concepts involved in profiles, intents, CMMs, metamerism,
and my favorite - black generation.
You can guess their response.
But I a shored them that it's not all technical stuff, because Henrik will
post a very 'well written and witty' European view on any given subject, and
then the American guys will give a very frank response - giving their point
of view, and what follows is not only entertaining, but very enlightening
and educational.
The content on this list has a greater value than any given book, although
when it comes to recommending a book, I tell people to get themselves a copy
of Real World PhotoShop 6, and as the preface says, it's not about doing
cool filters, but using PhotoShop in 'real world' situations. It's enough to
say that there are two chapters on color. Thanks Bruce.
I explain that Colorsync is 'middleware', or enabling software (for want of
a better term), that is the framework for 'other' software to call and it's
the 'other' software that is the real minefield.
Through what I have learned from this list, I was able to show the visitors
to our stand how different the same image reproduced when analog proofed on
an Agfa and Fuji proof (and also the press itself) and how PhotoShop can be
set up to 'soft-proof' these differences, using the profiles I built in
PrintOpen, on the stunning Apple 22" LCD that Richard had profiled. (We also
had a TrueLux D50 viewing booth)
And finally, this list seems to be the only list I am on - AppleShare IP,
Mac OS X Server, and also WebStar - where the main topics are NOT about
people bitching about Apple's current upgrade charges or about features that
are broken or don't work as they expect. It also seems to be the only list
where most people think about editing <snipping> the previous posts - too
often the other lists are full of streams of unrelated posts from the same
day).
Well, that's my thoughts for the day, and as Neil says, we may all be 'nuts'
but I think we could all get together for a beer at the end of the day.
Now, beer, that's something that we Aussies could teach you guys about !
Thanks to all on the list,
Darrin.