Thank you, Don, for all your contributions to FRACoL and F7. My observation of the general situation in commercial print is that there is a widening gap between the capabilities of of available solutions and the level of knowledge and implementation by users. To take one example as an indication, I rarely encounter a prepress manager who knows what a device link profile is and nearly none that uses them, in spite of the fact that color cannot be properly managed in a conventional printing operation without them. Thanks to the efforts of Don and others, printers have a much better idea how to print optimally and consistently. One can do a great deal without CM when inks and press operation are already standardized and simply need to be used within specifications, targeted to standardized appearance values. But when needed adjustments exceed what is available through density controls and curves alone (for example when FM screening or hi-fi inks are used), there is little understanding of required steps upstream. The work of the ICC and software developers have given us nearly unlimited control over the color workflow, but that is not where the limitaions now lie. Photographers and wide-format printers are much more interested in CM general, because it is an obvious requirement for printing RGB and CMYK images on inkjet and other “nontraditional” devices if acceptable results are to be expected. These curious folks are well represented on this forum, and it is still a good and useful place to be. Mike Strickler mike@mspgraphics.com <mailto:mike@mspgraphics.com> 707.321.7855
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Message: 2 Date: Wed, 3 Nov 2021 10:17:43 -0400 From: Don Hutcheson <don@hutchcolor.com> To: colorsync-users@lists.apple.com Subject: Re: colorsync-users Digest, Vol 18, Issue 14 Message-ID: <3EDE6901-7B47-4893-956F-7F245B947AC1@hutchcolor.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
It?s a credit to the original ICC vision, the passionate software writers and the crazy-brave pioneering users, that color management has been integrated under the hood of virtually all color workflows. It?s hard to find a desktop printer or monitor that doesn?t produce pleasing color from Photoshop, regardless of the image source. At the commercial level, standardized color spaces like FRACoL and gogra plus G7 calibration have largely eliminated the old problems we pre-press/ pressroom wallahs used to tackle. But most of the improvement can be attributed to digital cameras and the astonishingly good image quality produced by today?s cell phone cameras.
Having said all that, there?s still a need for technical curiosity and ever more demanding problem identifiers like Refik. If we let go of the reins, economic corner-cutting will reduce everything to some low common denominator. Hopefully passionate photographers (which is what printing?s all about) will never stand for that.
Don Hutcheson don@hutchcolor.com 908-500-0341 (Typos courtesy of iPhone's teeny-tiny keyboard and not-so tiny thumbs)