Gimp Users - getting colors to match.
This discussion is connected to the gimp-user-list.gnome.org mailing list which is provided by the GIMP developers and not related to gimpusers.com.
This is a read-only list on gimpusers.com so this discussion thread is read-only, too.
| Gimp Users - getting colors to match. | D Dziedzic | 19 Nov 01:07 |
| Gimp Users - getting colors to match. | Jay Smith | 19 Nov 02:00 |
| Gimp Users - getting colors to match. | Martin Nordholts | 19 Nov 08:21 |
Gimp Users - getting colors to match.
Hi:
Please add the following in response to the message regarding "getting colors to match" (bottom of this page) left on your blog from Martin. I would also be nice if you could somehow forward it to Tessanne who was basically steamrolled by Martin (who I think needs to do a little research before he opens his mouth).
Color management is device specific through ICC profiles. There are individual ICC profiles for specific printers and papers. For example if I want use Ilford Galeria Smooth Glossy Paper on my Canon Pro9000 Mark II, there is an ICC color profile for that combination. All major photo paper manufacturers provide ICC profiles for each of their papers matched to specific printers.
What Tessanne was asking is when will Gimp support printing using an ICC printer/paper profiles. Both PhotoShop and Adobe Elements can do this through a drop-down in their print menu - unlike the Gimp which relies on the printers' print menu. The current option, from what I understand, is to convert the image to an ICC profile for a printer/paper combination. Of course the image will be wrong on your monitor which hopefully is calibrated and you;ll now have an additional image in to manage in your files.
The objective here is to get colors that match from camera to computer to print (regardless of whether you print yourself or send the files out - they all should match).
I currently use gimp for editing and then print through Adobe Elements. This really is unacceptable in the long run.
So the question is: Will the Gimp get serious about color management as it expands into the 16 bit arena or miss the serious color management boat all together?
I'm amazed that no one from the Gimp community seems to be paying attention to this topic in a meaningful way (just google the topic and you'll spend massive getting no where). It is of critical importance to anyone who is serious about their photos and their color.
Dean
[Gimp-user] getting colors to match.
On 11/01/2009 08:52 AM, tessanne wrote:
Have you looked into doing proper color management with color profiles?
/ Martin
how do I do this... I am a beginner at gimp!
tessanne
Color management is not program or device specific, to start you need to learn about color management in general. Googling on "color management" and reading the first few hits would be a good start. Next could be to buy a book on the subject.
/ Martin
Gimp Users - getting colors to match.
If you don't like absolutely on-point discussion, please delete this email now. Sometimes there is more to the situation than can be said in 20 words. Thank you.
I am glad to see some mention of this subject: color
Background:
We are on an extended migration from Windows with mixed platforms (Win95, Win95, W2K Pro, and XP Pro) to Ubuntu Linux. We have always used Unix and then Linux servers, but with Windows workstations -- which in turn, for some apps, ran Linux under Cygwin.
We are now using Ubuntu Linux workstations and are trying (with only partial success) to migrate our workflow and applications usage to the equivalent Linux apps. Unfortunately, there are a lot of things that I could do on Win95 that I still cannot do efficiently/effectively on Linux. I wish that more Linux developers would get down in the work-a-day trenches with us humble users and see how difficult some simple things are under Linux, compared to older Windows. Don't get me wrong ... I strongly dislike Microsoft and I want _off_ of Windows!
Regarding color:
We had previously been scanning large volumes (nearing 50,000 now) of images (postage stamps) using Photoshop 5.5 on Win98 (yeah, right ... blue screens and all). We have been using "Epson Perfection 4490 Photo" scanners, which I highly recommend for this task. The color was terrific.
We have spent months experimenting with scanning, using the same exact scanners and the exact same monitors. We have scanned from inside gimp and with standalone scanning products. However, we have been editing (rotating, cropping, etc.) in Gimp. For scanning, we have used Xsane, VueScan Pro, and anything else we could find. We simply have not been able to get the color to come anywhere near an acceptable, accurate range. We have fiddled and fiddled and fiddled, but we just can't seem to get there.
The situation is so important that we are going to have to buy another Windows XP and run it under VMware from inside the Linux, and within that, run Photoshop and use the scanner manufacturer's TWAIN driver.
(Unfortunately, we can't use our existing W2K which we run under VMware because, apparently, to get the scanner's USB to work, you have to use W2K's Service Pack 4 ... and anything after SP2 let's the elephant's trunk under the edge of the tent. I would not be surprised if MS someday intentionally kills those SP3 & SP4 W2K systems with an "upgrade".)
I know that some of this is not a Gimp-specific problem, but some of it may be. The larger point is that for Linux to really become mainstream, everything running on it has to work at least as well as Win98 ... and that is not saying much! This is really frustrating because I _want_ a Linux/Gimp solution to work, but I can't spend any more months in failed experiments.
If I can do the task using the exact same physical monitor, computer box, and scanner... using XP under VMware on Linux... why should I not be able to do it natively in Linux with at least the same, if not better, color quality.
More holistic attention needs to be paid attention to this subject in my opinion.
Jay
Gimp Users - getting colors to match.
D Dziedzic wrote:
Hi:
Color management is device specific through ICC profiles.
Hi Dziedzic
I expressed myself a bit clumsy. What I tried to say is that the _concepts_ of color management is not GIMP specific. Before one learns how color management works in a particular program, one needs to understand color management in general. If tessanne already know about color management in general and were only after information on how to perform color management in GIMP, I apologize.
So the question is: Will the Gimp get serious about color management as it expands into the 16 bit arena or miss the serious color management boat all together?
Proper color management is essential to the high-end photo manipulation program that GIMP wants to be, so yes, GIMP takes color management seriously. We are not completely there yet, but we strive to be.
Regards, Martin
