Re: Inadequate ColorSync support.
Re: Inadequate ColorSync support.
- Subject: Re: Inadequate ColorSync support.
- From: Pete Carter <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2003 00:03:17 +0000
Interesting post John, Thanks.
some more info there to compile the 'OS X ColorSync User Guide FAQ' !!
Things are becoming gradually clearer....?
Pete
on 19/11/03 10:29 pm, John Fieber at email@hidden wrote:
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On Nov 19, 2003, at 2:34 PM, Armand Rosenberg wrote:
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>
> Sounds like you are confused as to how to apply printer profiles in
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> PS. I don't recall at what version the printer profiles started
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> working right (it was long ago) but as of v.7 "convert to profile"
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> works fine for printing under both 9 and X.
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>
Is this different in any way then specifying the printer profile in the
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"print space" setting of the print-with-preview dialog?
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>
> There is always room for improvement, but to say or imply that
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> printing is currently broken in PS on the Mac is entirely inaccurate.
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>
Look at Pete Carter's original posting. He pointed out that the PS
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printing method you describe (convert to output profile, select "no
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color management" in the driver) is the only reliably way to print. I
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don't think I said anything to refute that. I certainly didn't intend
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to. But just because there is a way to print accurately doesn't mean
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there are not some problems. In trying to figure out some puzzing
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behaviors, I've spent a bunch of time digging into the MacOS X printing
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system and was just sharing some of what I'd found.
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>
Also to be clear, the topic has to do specifically with Inkjet printers
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using Tioga style drivers.
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What I see as broken is:
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(a) The design of the MacOS X printing system has a pretty clear vision
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of color management in printing: the application passes off CORRECTLY
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tagged PDF spool files. The print system and the driver then negotiate
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rasterization and color management. The system does NOT have appear to
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have a provision for applications that want complete control of their
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own color management.
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(b) Many Tioga drivers implement a hack they call "no color management"
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to solve problem (a), but it isn't reliable.
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(c) Photoshop relies exclusively on hack (b) for printing. Because it
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refuses to correctly tag the raster data, a failure of (b) or the
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absence of (b) in a particular printer driver guarantee incorrect
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output in ALL cases.
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(d) But hack (b) requires data being tagged as Generic RGB, which will
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usually be an incorrect tagging.
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(e) There is no officially sanctioned way for the user to *reliably*
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control any aspects of the conversion, namely profile selection. You
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can twiddle things with the ColorSync utility, but the driver has the
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final say. From reading this list, there appear to be a number of
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drivers that foil users attempts in this way.
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(f) Assorted other "ColorSync" aware applications I've tried are
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generating incorrectly tagged PDF files as well which leads me to
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believe that Apple has really not made it clear to developers how color
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management in MacOS X printing works. Specifically, a "What you have
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to do in your (Carbon | Cocoa) application to get correct colors when
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printing". I've seen both Carbon and Cocoa applications get it wrong.
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(g) Printer manufacturers may just be stubborn about relinquishing
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total control for fear that it will generate a support load. Witness
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Canon's "ColorSync isn't supported" response to my queries.
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>
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The result of these problems is user interface confusion that creates
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lots of opportunities for error. These are the second tier problems I
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see:
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(h) The driver option for "no color management" is misleading because
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it simply doesn't have that effect except in very particular
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circumstances that are far from obvious, even to a sophisticated user.
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(i) For applications providing their own color management, there are
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two interfaces for configuring color management and only particular
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combinations of settings work. The two interfaces need to be mutually
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exclusive in the user interface. If the application is doing the color
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management, the option shouldn't even be available in the driver.
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(j) It should be quite simple for an application like Photoshop to
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either take over all printing color management, or do it Apple style.
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All it would take is correct tagging of the PDF data. As it stands in
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PS7, only Photoshop color management works, provided the driver
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co-conspires to evade conversion in the PDF rasterizer.
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>
So, in summary, I think the lack of a way for an application to bypass
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print system color management and the resulting "no color adjustment"
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hack is a substantial problems that generates a variety of other
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problems. There is a need for some applications to do their own stuff.
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So, in addition to adding an officially sanctioned ColorSync bypass
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method for applications, which disables the interface elements in the
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Print panel/panes, I think this would make plenty of people happy:
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(k) A more standard print panel the user to select a per-job
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parameters. It would have a drop down menu with something like:
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Auto (driver decides)
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None (disable color management, REALLY)
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list of installed profiles
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...
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"Other..."
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An option to select rendering intent would be the icing on the cake. I
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got excited about the new "ColorSync" panel in the print dialog in
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Panther, but I'm still puzzling through how it works...it doesn't seem
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to work like I thought it might.
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>
-john
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