Re: use of sRGB as a default
Re: use of sRGB as a default
- Subject: Re: use of sRGB as a default
- From: bruce fraser <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2004 08:39:22 -0700
At 3:51 PM -0700 6/20/04, John Zimmerer wrote:
Bruce,
The ambient light level has a dramatic impact on perceived contrast,
which is what gamma is all about.
!
Gamma is about many different things other than the impact of the
ambient light level on perceived contrast. Ambient light level is a
factor in choosing *display* gamma: the topic at hand is gamma
encoding of images. Gamma is already subject to enough
misunderstandings. I don't think it's at all helpful to muddy this
rather important distinction.
If Apple apps are going to assume Generic RGB for untagged images,
they need to match those images to the current display. Displaying
the images one way, then tagging them with a profile that doesn't
represent these viewing conditions, is not helpful.
We're at a stalemate on the sRGB issue. It won't be adopted by Apple
in the foreseeable future, except perhaps by Safari for viewing
untagged images in HTML.
Okay. The Web is the one place where untagged RGB makes sense, and
sRGB is really the only rational choice for interpreting untagged RGB
on the Web. If Apple wants to reinvent the wheel elsewhere and create
totally unneccessary confusion, I'm sure the market will sort it out.
However, if display matching continues to elude Apple (even though
Adobe, Microsoft, Quark, Corel, and a slew of other developers have
managed to find a way to do it with quite acceptable performance),
and you're going to simply send untagged RGB counts directly to the
display, the correct profile for said untagged RGB is the current
display profile. If you want to assume Generic RGB, it needs to be
matched to the display.
I believe that users have two major expectations wrt to color management
1.) Images should be displayed the same way by all applications.
2.) Images should be displayed the same way by the same application
each time it's opened.
The current scheme fails to meet either of these goals.
Recalibrate your monitor, or use the sRGB Profile, if you want your
display to look like Windows.
If I wanted my display to look like Windows, I'd run Windows. I want
my display to produce the maximum dynamic range of which its capable,
with the smoothest gradients possible. In practice, that means using
natve gamma where the calibration software allows it (as on the
Artisan, for example), and a gamma meaninglessly close to 2.2 where
it does not. (e.g., 2.18 on the LaCie Electron Blue III, 2.21 on the
Eizo ColorEdge, 2.17 on the LaCie Photon II.)
But if you match to the display, as every color-savvy application has
done since the mid-to-late 90's, you need neither know nor care how I
calibrate my display.
--
email@hidden
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