Hi, > 2) Could someone explain the "Color Management" process. Does this process change the > information in a file, or does it merely alter it during the data process to change > it > for a specific use. Ex- > if I have a color profile for my scanner, does it alter the raw data coming in, or > provide > a means of interpreting that data? Similarly, if I changed a color profile for an > image in > photoshop one day, and then changed it back to the original later, would the result > be > different from the original? And lastly, is color management based on a standard > palette > that all profiles look to as a baseline, or does the process happen in the absence > of a > standard? how?
The profile doesn't alter the raw input data. The profile is a set of numbers which describe how far away from a standard your individual scanner is. When you read the data into an editor which understands profiles it uses those numbers to map the input data to the correct corresponding colours within its own colour space, as far as possible. Colour management uses a standard reference target. When you profile a device such as a scanner you get the scanner to read a standard target whose colours correspond with the reference numbers. The profiling software reads the colours your device scanned, compares them to the reference numbers for the target, and stores the differences as the device profile. To get a successful colour workflow you need profiles for each device in the chain - usually scanner, monitor and printer. Editors like Photoshop can read the files into a device-independent colour space which acts like a hub from which it can map between the different devices in the chain. It's quite a big subject. Probably more than can reasonably be covered by email. There's some useful information here: http://www.dl-c.com/Temp/ then click 'Downloads' then 'Miscellaneous files' and scroll down. There's also some good stuff here: http://www.hutchcolor.com/CMS_notes.html -- Cheers, Bob
