Re: Color management in web browsers
Re: Color management in web browsers
- Subject: Re: Color management in web browsers
- From: Tom Lianza <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2011 09:37:18 -0400
- Thread-topic: Color management in web browsers
Hi to all,
First, I must state that comments that follow should not be construed to
represent any official position on this matter from the ICC (of which I am
co-chair) or X-rite ( in which I work in advanced product development) .
I do not believe, personally, that General Color Management should be part
of the world wide web. Color management addresses a very small (but vocal)
population of users. Under the best of conditions, color management imparts
a performance hit which for most web applications and browsers, is too
onerous for general distribution. Most important, for color management to
work, as defined today, the OS cm system would have to work well, and the
user needs a calibrated display. That alone should put a nail in the color
managed web coffin.
Both sRGB and the current Rec. 709 standard for HDTV share the same
primaries and similar transfer functions. Hence, properly rendered content
should look quite acceptable on a properly adjusted display. Even on a
poorly adjusted display, the content will look "as it should". Given the
legacy of sRGB images and current video content being produced to Rec. 709,
why would anyone, in their right mind, wish to upset the current situation
which fits the needs of nearly 100% of the consumers. The web is the
equivalent of a "standard printing condition", it is output referred and it
was never envisioned to convey color in an editable form for reuse in other
environments. This is the wrong venue for color management.
Does that mean that there is no solution? Well, the Web Kit is open source
and anyone can build a color managed browser if they had the time and money
to do so. The question would be, would any one pay 250 bucks for a color
managed web browser that offered display calibration and calibrated
printing? It would probably take two thousand users to cover the cost of
such a development. Is there anyone on this list that would actually pay for
the problem to get solved?
Is there another solution? If the image was cast as PDF rather than tif or
jpeg, the data goes through a completely different path. Many PDF plug ins
will honor input profiles. If you go to the ICC link
www.color.org/version4pdf.pdf you can test the pdf path in your browser. We
provide targets in HTML and PDF. GoogleChrome on the Mac is a good example
of a program that utilizes a pdf viewer application that handles the input
profile across all ICC versions, but probably renders to sRGB (which by the
way is the current specification). Chrome does not respect profiles for
images embedded in html. The advantage of this path is that a saved image
can now be repurposed or edited. This feature does not lend itself to
simple embedding in an HTML form so it is not a general purpose solution,
but for the few who need it, it is there and it works (as long as the PDF
display function is "really" a pdf viewer.
Now, onto the subject of wide gamut displays: the numbers are miniscule, and
there has not been a strong demand. Most consumers reject calibrated, wide
gamut displays as "dull". We see this all the time in home theater
calibrations: too dark, too dull. The fact that we meet an ISO or VESA
specification doesn't imply that the unsophisticated end user appreciates
it. The push today is towards white led backlight which generally has a
smaller rather than wider gamut. The tradeoff here is that a high luminance
will appear naturally more colorful. This is easily seen in an iPad. Ipad
has a smaller gamut than sRGB, but the images are generally highly
regarded. An application that rendered images for high luminance, moderate
gamut applications is needed. Maybe we could call this color space iRGB....
Before we whine about the lack of color management on the web or handheld
devices, we need to consider the market need and demand. The fact is, that
color management does not normally make the image look "better" to most
people. Absent that demand, you will not see any work in this area, from the
major industry players.
Regards,
Tom Lianza
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