ColorSync preferences, Preview issues
ColorSync preferences, Preview issues
- Subject: ColorSync preferences, Preview issues
- From: John Zimmerer <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2004 13:49:23 -0700
All,
The ColorSync preferences for Default Profiles are there only for
applications to use as a starting point when managing untagged images.
The intention was to provide as single set of preferences that all
applications could use, rather than forcing the enduser to set
preferences in each individual application. Unfortunately, precious few
applications look to these preferences.
Keep in mind that this concept was a hold-over from long before Mac OS
X. Frankly, the only reason we kept them around is because some
applications (e.g., Photoshop 7 and CS) actually allow the user to
choose the Default Profiles.
The Default Profiles were never (never, never ever, really... never)
designed to be used by the operating system, and have absolutely no
effect on the applications we ship with the OS, nor on any of the
frameworks, including Image Capture or printing.
Mac OS X has continually evolved to support a new usage model: tag all
data. There are numerous tools in Mac OS X that can be used to
automatically tag images with profiles, including Image Capture and
AppleScript. The goal is to make sure each image's color
characteristics are defined by an embedded profile, so "untagged data"
no longer exists.
There is a fallback mechanism built in to Mac OS X that uses the
Generic profiles in /System/Library/ColorSync/Profiles for untagged
images, both for display and for printing of untagged data. This is a
"last resort" measure -- we absolutely want to see every image tagged
so we don't have to resort to using the Generic profiles.
As for individual applications not displaying what you'd expect, this
is likely due to one or both of these two things:
1) A bug in the app.
2) A poor choice of API.
We will, and do, address any limitations we find in our own
applications w/r/t the proper handling of profiles. I only directly
influence a handful of applications, and do not control what apps like
Keynote do w/r/t color management.
We have tried to deprecate any API that does not respect embedded
profiles, or that does not use the Generic profiles in the absence of
an embedded profile. As applications rev to take advantage of newer
API, the number of apps exhibiting the correct behavior will increase.
Your patience with those apps, and with Mac OS X, is appreciated.
With respect to Preview, if you're not seeing the embedded profile used
for display or printing (including Save as PDF), then you should
upgrade to Mac OS X v10.3.4.
JZ
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