Implementing color management on monitors Color monitors are the easiest to characterize and generate profile files. The display and the graphics card communicate with each other, and the operating system is used to represent the color image. Users can manually adjust the display and graphics card, but the changes to the brightness, contrast, and color balance must be able to be loaded into the operating system.
Future display systems will use simple sensors to detect brightness, color balance, or "white field." The display should be capable of real-time communication with the color rendering state at that time, adjusting the offset and errors occurring at any time. The display and graphics card vendors should enable the operating system to intervene in the imaging system to simplify the upgrade of the display profile and implement correct color management.
The liquid crystal display is followed by a dye-based filter. The filter is stable in nature, has a long life, and the color rendering performance of the display screen is also quite stable. With the advent of liquid crystal display LCDs for desktop publishing, the importance of graphics cards and operating systems has become increasingly prominent. Any adjustments made to the monitor should be read by the operating system. Other types of display technologies such as FEDs, digital mirroring devices, etc. must also reflect feedback to the operating system.
Points to note when designing a monitor:
Display device features such as brightness and contrast must be recognized and processed by the operating system for proper color management.
Adjustments to the graphics card, such as gamma adjustments, must also be recognized by the operating system.
Still, the color rendering characteristics of the display and graphics card should be set by the operating system.
Scanners, digital cameras, and color management input devices such as scanners and digital cameras involve additional issues. The scanner usually comes with software to control the imaging. But any adjustment should be able to enter the operating system, and then enter the color management software. The scanner's status settings should also be entered into the operating system and used by color management software.
Digital cameras use external light sources, either direct sunlight, cloudy daylight, home white lighting, or office fluorescent lighting. Natural light may have many variations in spectral distribution and intensity. Various problems may affect the quality of digital pictures. However, if you can know the approximate brightness of the environment, then with CMS, this process will be much easier. Perhaps each digital camera should be equipped with a simple but effective RGB sensor on the body to detect the ambient brightness.
Points to note when designing a digital camera or scanner:
Bi-directional communication between the scanner and the operating system must enable the color management system to receive scanner or digital camera settings such as brightness and contrast.
Both digital cameras and scanners should be controlled by the operating system. Any settings that may affect image quality should be transmitted to the color peripherals through the operating system.
It is more convenient to set up peripherals through a color management system. If the user knows the profile file of the scanner he wants to use, he can immediately send data information to the scanner through the operating system.
Printers and Color Management Because of the large number of factors, printers can be said to be the most difficult part of a color management system. The way in which colors are represented by the printer is very different from how it behaves on a digital camera or scanner. This is a subtractive method. The three primary colors are C, M, and Y. They are represented by toner and ink droplets. In order to achieve better performance in dark and darkness and to save printing costs, black ink is generally used.
There are many kinds of printing technologies, such as thermal, electrostatic, ink jet, etc. Paper has a great influence on printing because toners, dyes, etc. interact with the surface of the paper very complexly. For display devices, to generate their profile files may need to measure tens of hundreds of color patches; scanners and digital cameras need to measure about 200 color patches; and printers need to print and measure hundreds or even thousands of color patches, This is a painful process that often requires the provision of professional instruments worth several thousand dollars, which can take hours or even hours.
Printer manufacturers should consider adding a printer's self-test feature that eliminates the need to print hundreds of color patches and only a few key color patches. A more sophisticated color management system can then read and process these measurement information and generate a new profile file. The current development of color management technology has taken this into consideration, and printer manufacturers should also clearly recognize this and make their own efforts.
Points to note when designing a printer:
The printer is ready to communicate with the user to adjust the color.
Internal monitoring capabilities should be able to monitor the density and spectral data of printed colors.
The printer should be able to "download" the paper and ink characteristics to some extent for use by the operating system and advanced color management software to control the output of the printer.
Developers should not expect that users will be able to independently perform spectral measurements and generate profile profiles for color devices. Only prepress and other professional users can do this.
Conclusion To get a high-quality color image, keep in mind, "If you can't measure, you can't control it."
If hardware manufacturers can provide good communication and control for their products, operating system and color management software can compensate for the state drift of hardware devices. With future color management, stable, high-quality color reproduction can be achieved with very few people.
Device manufacturers should implement bidirectional communication between peripheral devices and computer operating systems and color management software for various parameter settings that affect color reproduction.
Mature color devices should allow the color management system to capture any user-allowed device state drift information so that the device's profile file can be updated at any time.
Device parameters should be set by the color management system through the operating system, so that it can immediately reach the working status based on a previous color rendering performance.
For more information on the ICCprofile file, visit the International Color Consortium website http://