> On Apr 28, 2016, at 4:19 PM, Mark C <pdml-m...@charter.net> wrote:
> 
> - Its not much of a hassle to work in Adobe RGB. Just convert to SRGB before 
> saving for screen devices. … 

It's not a 'hassle' to work with Adobe RGB. Any editing is a lossy process, 
with Adobe RGB you lose less than you lose with sRGB, with ProPhoto RGB you 
lose less than with either. It only makes sense to do your *editing* in the 
greatest bit depth and largest color space you can use, and convert/downscale 
color space and bit depth for output products. 

> - When it comes to printing - I may be wrong on this but I don't think that 
> the Epson printer I use is either an sRGB or Adobe RGB device. Basically 
> there is a native color space for each type of paper and a corresponding 
> color profile.  … The color space isn't sRGB or Adobe RGB, it's "Premium 
> Glossy" or "Enhanced Matte" or whatever... The color spaces for the different 
> types of papers can be fairly constrained (in the case of matte papers 
> particularly) or broad. It makes sense to use a wider gamut like Adobe RGB in 
> source files for printing and let the print process convert colors that are 
> outside the destination gamut if needed. Epson i s continually increasing the 
> gamut of their inks and papers, so it seems best to preserve as much color 
> info in the source file as possible, in case you want to print it in the 
> future.

Printers don't have a color space per se. They have gamut (the range of colors 
they can produce) and Dmax (the maximum density they can produce). Both of 
those are the combined characteristics of the printer's mechanisms, ink, and 
paper used. An output calibration profile maps the colors represented on screen 
in your image into the printer/ink/paper's Dmax and gamut. 

Most higher-end printers these days do a pretty good job of covering the 
standard sRGB colorspace. Adobe RGB, as I mentioned in another post, was 
designed to emulate (or encompass, probably a more precise word in this 
context) the gamut and density of a late 1990s CMYK web press, which is both 
slightly larger in gamut and differently weighted from an RGB display. 

> - Printing via services - for low end services (drug stores, big box stores) 
> converting to srgb makes sense. Its a safe harbor - sRGB is the least common 
> denominator so odds are any printer can handle it. If you are paying any kind 
> of premium or working with a lab that holds itself out as having any kind of 
> professional status, they should be using a color managed process and should 
> be able to work with the profile embedded in your image.

Consumer print services generally presume sRGB or untagged images, so you're 
safe with that. 

Good print services (high-end, pro, whatever) provide instructions and/or 
output profiles to optimize your image files for their printing process. Or 
they'll tell you whether they want 8- or 16-bit, and sRGB or Adobe RGB to print 
from. 

> From what I've been able to tell, monitors work within their native color 
> space, which may or may not correspond to sRGB or AdobeRGB or whatever. So a 
> monitor that is 78% of sRGB is just that - its native color space coincides 
> with 78% of the sRGB space. Some monitors can emulate certain standard color 
> spaces. I think this is what Igor was referring to when he mentioned that 
> some software assumes that the monitor is sRGB and can produce off results 
> when a wide gamut montior is actually used. But the color space used by the 
> monitor is not necessary a standard space, hence the need to use the 
> manufacture's profile, or calibrate with a colorimeter.

As I said earlier, sRGB color space was designed to *model* the native 
characteristics of a high quality CRT. Obviously, not all displays are 100% 
sRGB calibrated (or capable) as delivered. All displays, standard and wide 
gamut included, benefit from calibration and profiling for the purposes of 
being a reference display for editing. A good display profile is most 
definitely NOT sRGB or Adobe RGB … It's a device dependent color calibration 
profile based on the specific hardware characteristics of the display and the 
graphics adapter used to drive its display. 

Today's high-end modern displays have a built-in colorimeter and automated 
calibration and profiling hardware and software. 

sRGB, Adobe RGB, and ProPhoto RGB are device-agnostic color space standards 
created to enable a standardized transformation of image rendering from one 
machine to another, one display to another, enabling you to move files from 
machine to machine and get the same rendered result. Rendering software that 
honors color management takes the data from the image file, color space tagged, 
and transforms it through the La*b* domain using the display CCP on your system 
to show it to you. It similarly takes the data from your rendered image and 
transforms it through the La*b* domain using the output printer calibration 
profile to produce a high fidelity match on paper with ink. 

For a complete discussion of this color spaces, color management, etc, see 
"Real World Color Management (2nd Edition)" by Bruce Fraser and Chris Murphy. 
It is the definitive work on the subject. (I knew Bruce from several workshops 
and classes he taught back in the early 2000s. It was a very sad day when he 
passed away. :-()

G
-- 
PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List
PDML@pdml.net
http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow 
the directions.

Reply via email to