ICC profiles: are we better off without them?

Giordano B. Beretta,Gary J. Dispoto, Eric Hoarau, I-Jong Lin, Jun Zeng

Printing & Content Delivery LabHewlett-Packard Laboratories

Palo Alto, California

Color Imaging XVI:Displaying, Processing, Hardcopy, and Applications

San Francisco Airport, 24 – 27 January 2011

Beretta et al. (HP Labs) The Dark Side of Color EI 2011 paper 7866-26 1 / 14

ICC profiles

PhotoCDscanner

digitalcamera

graphic artsscanner

businessTIJ printer

digitalproof printer

platemaker ordirect press

graphic artsTIJ printer

workstationand archive

display andsoftcopy

spectro-photometer

raster imageprocessor

repository(database)

profile

ICC

profile

ICC

profile

ICC

profile

ICC

profile

ICC

profile

ICC

profile

ICC

ICC profile

ICC profile

profile maker

color rendering dictionaryICC profile

YCC

AdobeRGB

RGB

sRGB

RGB

CMYK

CMYK

CIELAB

RGB

anyCIELAB+sRGB

negative

positive

Internet

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Problems with ICC profiles

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

ICC maker

proof vs. press

color transform proofer drift

press drift

inter-instrument

intra-instrument

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Classical workflow

purchasing

fulfillment pre-presspress

layout

sales rep

art directorclient

contract

copy editorphotographerillustrator

contract proof

bindery

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Contemporary workflow

print service providerstudent

office worker

consumerservice license

agreement

Web authoring service

print service provider

print service providerprint

service aggregator

Paradigm shift enabled by digital printingCombination with e-commerce and services (cloud computing);run length can be as low as 1Artwork creators are no longer highly skilled

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Conventional vs. PSP

metric conventional PSP

creator designer laymen + web servicecustomer direct indirect contactrun length > 500 > 1scheduling simple complexmotivation business vanity, hobbymarketing CRM social networkexpectations realistic highchallenge cost manage expectations

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ICC nightmare

Jonathan Phillip et al: Comparing image quality of print-on-demandbooks and photobooks from web-based vendors, Journal of ElectronicImaging 19, 011013 (January 2010):

1 ICC profiles are still a nightmare. Although with Version 4 profilesthe technology has reached full maturity, there still is no reliableworkflow for using ICC profiles and ICC profiles are usedincorrectly

2 The color gamut volume is not a statistically significant correlate ofbook quality

3 Color accuracy is not a statistically significant correlate of bookquality

4 Especially for photobooks, there is a lot of variability

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Production Framework

Convert customer orders to production jobs

Production services:workflow executionjob servicesprocessor servicessystem resourcessecurity services

Production processes:planningpreflightimpositionbatch / gangDFE / RIPload balancefinishing. . .

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Production Framework

Convert customer orders to production jobs

Production services:workflow executionjob servicesprocessor servicessystem resourcessecurity servicesICC profile services

Production processes:planningpreflightprofile intelligenceimpositionbatch / gangDFE / RIPload balancefinishing. . .

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Profile intelligence

Active intervention of workflow algorithms into color management

Analyze the profile header informationAnalyze the profile dataAnalyze the image data

Replace inappropriate profilesReplace poor profiles

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Analyze the profile header information

Which is the preferred CMM?Which is the specification version?What is the quality flag?What is the rendering intent?What is the creator’s reputation?

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Analyze the profile data

Does it have the device data?What is the number of sets?. . .

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Analyze the image data

Analyze EXIF data if availableAnalyze memory colorsAnalyze color gamutAnalyze histogram (where curves edited?). . .

Is it all consistent with the ICC profile?

Profiling by correlation:would a different profile yield a more likely image?

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Proposed solution

Many self-publishers care about their printed colorsICC profile specification has no provisions for workflow: untenablein today’s PSP ecosystemMore active intervention of workflow algorithms into colormanagementICC profile appropriateness & quality must be assessedICC profile must be consistent with image contentModel: color by correlation

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