I have a question related to how RIPs process images with
embedded profiles
A RIP vendor (which one doesn’t matter for this
question) told me that they will read the profile in the image as the input
profile and convert it to the output profile configured in the RIP.
I asked, “what if the two profiles are the same?”
(i.e. Photoshop or some other edition software was already used to do the
profile conversion before sending the file to the RIP.)
The answer was that a conversion would happen anyway. They
also said that the colors in the file would likely be modified slightly due to
this conversion. Huh?
My (perhaps naïve) assumption would be that the RIP *SHOULD* behave in one of the following two
ways:
A)
First see if the profile with which the image is
tagged is the same as the output profile configured in the RIP. If they are the
same then do nothing. If they are not the same, then do the conversion
according to the rendering intent configured in the RIP.
B)
Even if the RIP can’t tell that the two
profiles are the same and does the conversion anyway, the result of the math would
be that there is absolutely no change to the colors in the file.
Is there a reason why a RIP wouldn’t be able to tell
if the profile in the image is the same as the output profile configured in the
RIP?
Even if there is no way to tell for sure, then why wouldn’t
the math simply result in a null change?
What am I missing?
Michael