[Tfug] Color Management

[Zack Williams]

> What tools exist to build profiles for monitor/printer/scanner/etc?

What platform?

On Linux, good luck: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_color_management

On Mac, there's Colorsync.  Windows tends to be application specific.

> Likewise, I imagine monitors and printers can only be profiled
> with some external hardware (though I could envision being able
> to profile a printer with a suitable "source" and a *profiled*
> scanner?)

There are some cheap monitor calibration devices ($100-300) that will
generate a profile. Not sure on the free software compatibility of
them.

Often, printers will ship with profiles for a specific ink/paper
combination, and in my experience, these are specific to photoshop.
You can buy a calibrator to generate a printer profile, but these tend
to be much more expensive (>$1000)

> Lastly, can profiles be "convolved"?  E.g., if you scan something
> on an unprofiled scanner, can you later convolve P(scanner) with
> P(printer) at print time (i.e., redefine P(printer) as such)
> to get the same result as if the image had been scanned on the
> *profiled* scanner?

The end to end process requires calibration all along the, and devices
capable of reproduction of the same colorspace as the original.

> Are there any secret gotchas that differentiate printer profiles
> from, e.g., monitor profiles?  (in how the color is conveyed to
> the beholder)

Depends on the format used.  Printer and Monitor calibration profiles
will be different just by the nature of the device, monitors being RGB
and printers CMYK (sometimes plus a few).  ICC is a standard, but it
tends to be irregularly implemented.

- Zack