Re: ColorSync utility question
Re: ColorSync utility question
- Subject: Re: ColorSync utility question
- From: Chris Murphy <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2004 21:50:08 -0700
On Jan 19, 2004, at 7:18 PM, John Gnaegy wrote:
On Jan 19, 2004, at 5:12 PM, email@hidden wrote:
You can select New from the File menu, or hit command N to open a new
viewer window. Similar to Mail, Finder, Safari.
No, not really. Command N in Mail gives a new message
Did the meaning of "similar to" recently change to the definition of
"identical"? I must have missed that.
Apparently "similar to" in engineering speak means "kinda like this
other thing over here....sorta...maybe" because this is not at all
"similar to" from an end user point of view.
Ah, you're absolutely right. Actually it crashes if you have at some
previous point closed a browser window. We'll fix that.
The crash? Or the ridiculous notion of having two *or more* sets of
settings windows open at the same time? Because the latter is the real
problem which I think diplomatically could be called an insane user
interface:
1. What is the point of having two, ten, or fifteen windows for setting
ColorSync Preferences? One seems sufficient. Two seems like a great
start toward our next trip to la-la land.
2. What's the point of having more than one Profile First Aid window?
Am I going to Verify or Repair profiles faster if I have two windows
open and click Repair in one and Verify in the other? Hmmm...sure
enough ColorSync Utility lets me do this. I'm now in la-la land.
3. Profiles - fine, allow multiple windows for Profiles.
4. Devices - this is another settings window. Why allow two of them?
Bad idea. I'm now taking a side excursion to ga-ga-goo-goo land.
5. Filters - another settings window. There should be one. I'd like an
example of why I would want two. If the user shouldn't have two or
more, then don't encourage the user to do this.
6. BTW, I'm noticing that in 10.3.2 the ColorSync Utility indicates I
can make a Quartz filter that will produce a PDF/X-3 document. Yet it
doesn't. Acrobat 6 preflight fails the resulting document, and so does
Pitstop Pro. I can make sepia prints, and get the filter to use
abstract profiles, but it won't make PDF/X-3 even though the user
interface says that's what it's going to do.
7. There's a whole slew of made up terminology that I can't make heads
or tails of. I can make guesses as to what "Intermediate transform"
means, what "Convert color data to" means, what "Convolution" means,
but I have no idea if my guesses are right or not. Especially when
there appears to be three different settings for what amounts to a
destination profile. "Profiles to use when no profile is specified in
the document:" Wow. So does "to use" imply "as source" or "as
destination" or what? And if that's how these profiles will be used,
then why not use the proper term?
And that's the short list of complaints I have about it. Seriously
John, the user interface in ColorSync Utility is not just bad. It's
user hostile. This is what happens when Barney Fife doubles on Tuesdays
as Apple's head user interface designer as well as head of Apple
Security. It's as if no one who knows anything about good UI took a
look at this thing before it was released. I do not want an explanation
for this ColorSync Utility because I'm afraid I might require a
lobotomy after I read it.
I think the next go around attempt at a ColorSync user interface needs
to be vetted out by people who are going to actually use it. I find it
impossible to believe that was done with Panther. This list is full of
such people, quite a few would be more than happy to volunteer. As I've
said a number of times before, I will volunteer.
Chris Murphy
Color Remedies (TM)
www.colorremedies.com/realworldcolor
---------------------------------------------------------
Co-author "Real World Color Management"
Published by PeachPit Press (ISBN 0-201-77340-6)
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