RE: ICC'S AND BESTCOLOR, tag usage
RE: ICC'S AND BESTCOLOR, tag usage
- Subject: RE: ICC'S AND BESTCOLOR, tag usage
- From: Steve Upton <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 10:00:28 -0700
At 9:07 AM +0200 9/14/01, Ulf Grossmann wrote:
The little Tool is called ProfileKeeper and you find it inside Tools and
Others on the BestColor CD.
If I could make an impassioned plea to BESTColor and other vendors
and standards-setting organizations:
If you need to alter a profile to link it with another file
(linearization for instance) or to mark it as in compliance with some
standard or for any other reason: Please use the extensible ICC tag
architecture and create a unique tag for your purposes.
BESTColor's tool alters the "desc" tag which is the internal profile
name/description tag. If a user wants to rename a profile after this
alteration, the link to the lin file is broken and the RIP may not
print color properly. It seems to us that altering a profile's name
is a reasonable change that any user can and should be able to make
without fears of breaking some link.
Other profile alterations that I believe cause problems include the
PDF-X specification which embeds a standards description (like for
TR001) into this same "desc" tag. (I'm not terribly well informed on
this one but I believe this is how it works)
I am interested in provoking discussion on the topic because up until
now I have been unable to determine the reasoning behind the choice
of the "desc" tag for this use. If there is a valid reason, please
mention it here for us to understand.
Please. Create a unique tag and fill it to your heart's content.
Another idea that comes to mind - for the BESTColor lin file link:
Why not embed the entire lin file into a new tag inside the profile?
Then you would be assured that the lin settings and the profile would
never be separated. Replacing the lin tag with other lin data would
be straightforward (no more complicated than using the current tool)
and it could be removed at any time.
Again, I understand the need for this type of information to be
embedded in a profile but please, take advantage of the extensible
architecture of the ICC profile to create your own tags.
I am happy to discuss this off list or answer any questions vendors
may have about how to implement these custom tags.
Regards,
Steve Upton
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