Re: Decent results with Gutenprint - the poor man's RIP
Re: Decent results with Gutenprint - the poor man's RIP
- Subject: Re: Decent results with Gutenprint - the poor man's RIP
- From: Marco Ugolini <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 14:00:51 -0700
In a message dated 6/15/06 11:58 AM, Stephen Lawrence wrote:
> It's impossible to leave colour management out of most printer
> drivers as they must do the conversion from RGB to CMYK or CMYK
> +additional inks.
Hi Stephen.
Without impugning the author's intentions, it seems to me that this
statement confuses more than it elucidates. There is "color management"
loosely defined as anything that changes the colors in an image (curves,
saturation adjustments, certain driver settings, etc); and there is *ICC
color management*, with its protocols and workflows. The two should not be
confused with one another.
What I would say is that a well-designed printer driver must allow the user
to make its behavior *stable and predictable* under all standard printing
scenarios, so that the manner in which it converts the image to numbers
usable by the printing device does not change from one image to the next. If
the driver does not allow the user to make it stable and predictable, it
becomes highly problematic to use ICC color management with it.
To refer to the *necessary in-driver conversion* of the image -- which is
the driver's "raison d'etre", i.e., translating the image file into numbers
formatted in a manner proper for and specific to the device -- as "color
management" has the confusing effect of improperly mixing the two separate
meanings of the expression.
Instead, what I think needs to be emphasized is that, as long as the driver
can be made to behave in a stable and predictable manner (thus becoming a
known constant), then the image can be safely color-managed by means of the
appropriate ICC color management controls within one's own application of
choice (Illustrator, Photoshop, etc. -- heck, even Quark!).
Best regards.
--------------
Marco Ugolini
Mill Valley, CA
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