Presentation at the IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging Symposium, 2011

1. ICC profiles: are we better off without them?
Giordano B. Beretta,
Gary J. Dispoto, Eric Hoarau, I-Jong Lin, Jun Zeng
Printing & Content Delivery Lab
Hewlett-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

2. ICC profiles
p sRGB
profile maker r
I o
spectro-
C
C
f
i
business
negative
YCC p
photometer
l
e TIJ printer
r
I o
PhotoCD C
C
f
i p CMYK
scanner l
e I
r
o
C
C
f
i
graphic arts
CIELAB
l
e TIJ printer
RGB p
r ICC profile
I o RGB
graphic arts C
C
f
i workstation
p
r
I o
scanner l
e and archive C f digital
C i
positive
l
e proof printer
AdobeRGB p RGB
r CMYK
I o p
Inte
ICC profile
digital C f
I
r
o
C i
display and platemaker or
rn
C f
camera l
et
e C i
softcopy l
e direct press
CIELAB+sRGB any
ICC profile color rendering dictionary
repository raster image
(database) processor
Beretta et al. (HP Labs) The Dark Side of Color EI 2011 paper 7866-26 2 / 14

3. Problems with ICC profiles
intra-instrument
8
7
inter-instrument
6
ICC maker 5
4
3
2
1
proof vs. press press drift
color transform proofer drift
Beretta et al. (HP Labs) The Dark Side of Color EI 2011 paper 7866-26 3 / 14

4. Classical workflow
photographer copy editor
illustrator
client art director layout purchasing
contract proof contract
fulfillment bindery press pre-press sales rep
Beretta et al. (HP Labs) The Dark Side of Color EI 2011 paper 7866-26 4 / 14

5. Contemporary workflow
office worker print service
print service provider
Web print service
consumer service license
authoring provider
aggregator agreement print service
service
student provider
Paradigm shift enabled by digital printing
Combination with e-commerce and services (cloud computing);
run length can be as low as 1
Artwork creators are no longer highly skilled
Beretta et al. (HP Labs) The Dark Side of Color EI 2011 paper 7866-26 5 / 14

6. Conventional vs. PSP
metric conventional PSP
creator designer laymen + web service
customer direct indirect contact
run length > 500 >1
scheduling simple complex
motivation business vanity, hobby
marketing CRM social network
expectations realistic high
challenge cost manage expectations
Beretta et al. (HP Labs) The Dark Side of Color EI 2011 paper 7866-26 6 / 14

7. ICC nightmare
Jonathan Phillip et al: Comparing image quality of print-on-demand
books and photobooks from web-based vendors, Journal of Electronic
Imaging 19, 011013 (January 2010):
1 ICC profiles are still a nightmare. Although with Version 4 profiles
the technology has reached full maturity, there still is no reliable
workflow for using ICC profiles and ICC profiles are used
incorrectly
2 The color gamut volume is not a statistically significant correlate of
book quality
3 Color accuracy is not a statistically significant correlate of book
quality
4 Especially for photobooks, there is a lot of variability
Beretta et al. (HP Labs) The Dark Side of Color EI 2011 paper 7866-26 7 / 14

8. Production Framework
Convert customer orders to production jobs
Production processes:
planning
Production services:
preflight
workflow execution
imposition
job services
batch / gang
processor services
DFE / RIP
system resources
load balance
security services
finishing
...
Beretta et al. (HP Labs) The Dark Side of Color EI 2011 paper 7866-26 8 / 14

9. Production Framework
Convert customer orders to production jobs
Production processes:
planning
Production services:
preflight
workflow execution
profile intelligence
job services
imposition
processor services
batch / gang
system resources
DFE / RIP
security services
load balance
ICC profile services
finishing
...
Beretta et al. (HP Labs) The Dark Side of Color EI 2011 paper 7866-26 9 / 14

10. Profile intelligence
Active intervention of workflow algorithms into color management
Analyze the profile header information
Analyze the profile data
Analyze the image data
Replace inappropriate profiles
Replace poor profiles
Beretta et al. (HP Labs) The Dark Side of Color EI 2011 paper 7866-26 10 / 14

11. 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?
Beretta et al. (HP Labs) The Dark Side of Color EI 2011 paper 7866-26 11 / 14

12. Analyze the profile data
Does it have the device data?
What is the number of sets?
...
Beretta et al. (HP Labs) The Dark Side of Color EI 2011 paper 7866-26 12 / 14

13. Analyze the image data
Analyze EXIF data if available
Analyze memory colors
Analyze color gamut
Analyze histogram (where curves edited?)
...
Is it all consistent with the ICC profile?
Profiling by correlation:
would a different profile yield a more likely image?
Beretta et al. (HP Labs) The Dark Side of Color EI 2011 paper 7866-26 13 / 14

14. Proposed solution
Many self-publishers care about their printed colors
ICC profile specification has no provisions for workflow: untenable
in today’s PSP ecosystem
More active intervention of workflow algorithms into color
management
ICC profile appropriateness & quality must be assessed
ICC profile must be consistent with image content
Model: color by correlation
Beretta et al. (HP Labs) The Dark Side of Color EI 2011 paper 7866-26 14 / 14