With the confusion surrounding color management in mind, I toured the floor of NEXPO '98, held here June 20-23, and found incremental change but no Great New Product.

Color management software
Color management software products can be divided into two distinct camps, those that utilize ICC profiles and those that don't.

ICC stands for International Color Consortium, established in 1993 by a group of industry suppliers -- Adobe Systems Inc., Agfa, Apple Computer Inc., Eastman Kodak Co., Microsoft Corp., Silicon Graphics Inc. and Sun Microsystems Computer Corp. The goal of the consortium was to create "an open, vendor-neutral, cross-platform color management system architecture."

To provide a standard for measuring and reproducing color irrespective of the devices used, the ICC established a methodology for creating and maintaining profiles. An ICC profile is simply a method of describing a particular color gamut, or range of colors.

A profile may be used to describe the producible color gamut of a device such as a monitor, a color proofer or even a press. (While vital to color production, an image recorder is actually a monochrome device outputting four separate layers to represent cyan, yellow, magenta and black -- plates needed to create a full-color image. Thus, ICC profiles are not relevant to the image recorder.)

Color profiles also are used to describe the image-capturing ability of devices such as scanners and digital cameras. As long as the device can produce or capture a large enough gamut, and allows accurate control of colors within that gamut, ICC profiles can meet the promise of consistent color across multiple devices.

The use of ICC profiles is quickly becoming the standard approach to color management. Both Apple, of Cupertino, Calif., and Microsoft, of Redmond, Wash., not only were founding members, but have integrated the standard created by the International Color Consortium into their respective operating systems.

Microsoft supports ICC profiling through its Image Color Matching (ICM) technology. In 1997, Microsoft licensed Linotype-Hell's color management engine to fold into its ICM efforts. This was beneficial to publishers, because Linotype-Hell's color engine was already the foundation for Apple ColorSync, the publishing industry's most recognized color management tool.

Apple has pointed out that Microsoft's ICM 2.0 will be compatible with Mac applications, which should translate into color files that can move seamlessly between the Mac OS and Windows. These steps are leading to the International Color Consortium's original goal of a "cross-platform color management system."

Though Adobe Systems of San Jose was one of the first eight members of the ICC, it has taken it five years to bring ICC profile support to the industry's most popular image manipulation software, Photoshop. Version 5.0 of the widely used image-handling software directly supports ICC profiles without requiring the use of third-party plug-ins.

Support for ICC profiling has already been folded into Illustrator, Adobe's graphics design application, as well as PageMaker, Adobe's page layout program, for both the Mac and Windows. To ensure "consistent color from on-screen display to Cymk," Adobe offers ICC support using Apple's ColorSync Technology for the Mac and Rochester, N.Y.-based Kodak's Digital Science Color Management System (CMS) for Windows.

Adobe's commitment to ICC profiling is detailed by Gary Cosimini, the company's business development manager for publishing. "Ultimately," Cosimini said, "all Adobe products will support ICC profiling."

Adobe's support of ICC profiling is good news for those planning to or already using Portable Document Format (PDF) files, which Adobe created and markets as the Adobe Acrobat suite of products. The industry's increasing dependence on PDF file sharing and work flows makes PDF files an ideal carrier of a color management standard.

Quark Inc. of Denver had been using as its color foundation EFI Color from Electronics for Imaging Inc. of San Mateo, Calif. In Quark XPress 4.0, the latest version of the popular page layout program, Quark has adopted ICC profiling as its new standard.

While these industry leaders are fully in the ICC camp, other newspaper-specific suppliers are choosing different formats. One is binuscan Inc. of New York, which marches boldly to the beat of a different drummer.

The binuscan Image Processing Machine uses the company's own color modules to process images. Stepping away from the industry standard, binuscan claims its color management scheme is "superior" to using ICC profiles.

"We analyze the image and not only the device, making it so my own mother can scan the images," said Roland Caidoux, binuscan's pre-sales and technical manager. This analysis of images is what reportedly allows a less-experienced operator to produce excellent results.

At the other end of the spectrum from binuscan is Information Presentation Technologies Inc. of San Luis Obispo, Calif. IPTech's ColorTouch Server is not only ICC profile-compatible, but it makes no attempt to edit images. ColorTouch Server is a print spooler that applies ICC profiles to any PostScript file, "regardless of the origination software," as it moves on to its final output. IPTech salesperson Justin Vidler describes its product as "completely application and device independent."

Creating a color profile
ICC profiles are created by measuring the output of a particular device using a spectrophotometer.

Technically speaking, a spectrophotometer measures the relative intensities of light in different parts of the color spectrum. Practically speaking, a spectrophotometer measures and quantifies variations in color, allowing colors to be precisely mapped.

A spectrophotometer is used to read a target, a collection of color patches that when read by the spectrophotometer become the reference points to a device's particular color gamut. Once the target is measured, the data are fed into profiling software for the creation of the target profile.

This has to be done in a tightly controlled manner, which is a story all its own. For example, to generate a press profile, a specialized color target is printed on the press under rigid circumstances. Targets are used on other devices to similarly generate a profile.

An interesting twist to press controls is provided by Parascan Technologies Ltd. of Sparks, Nev. While the rest of us are figuring out new ways to convert RGB files to Cymk files, Parascan is taking our Cymk files and turning them back into RGB.

Parascan takes the bitmap image created by the RIP and converts it into an RGB file that can be displayed on monitors alongside a press as a soft proof. It also has developed technology allowing it to extrapolate those RIP data into preset ink fountain numbers to get the press run off to a good start.

Regardless of device, the equation is a simple one: no spectrophotometer, no ICC profile. Of the two leading spectrophotometer manufacturers for the newspaper industry, only X-Rite Inc. of Granville, Mich., was on the showroom floor, although products made by Gretag Imaging Group Inc. of Regensdorf, Switzerland, are available through Monaco Systems Inc. of Andover, Mass. X-Rite has several spectrophotometers, from handhelds for taking manual readings to auto-tracking or scanning instruments.

Though ICC profiling can create a very sophisticated "map" to guide an RGB image to its Cymk home, the concept relies on the simple fact that presses -- and all devices along the production line -- have to run the same day after day.

In the pressroom, ICC profiling does not remove our dependence on densitometers, gray bars, imagesetter linearization, plate exposure control, ink and water balance, etc. In many ways, newspapers are more dependent on such controls, as profiling can shield production professionals from many of the natural indicators of problems, such as dot gain, print contrast and ink trap.

"To be successful, color management must include process control," said David Hinson, president of Prismatic Inc. of Greensboro, N.C. Hinson described his company's role as providing "pieces to a puzzle, not just puzzle pieces," highlighting the need for all color management tools to work together to complete the same puzzle.

Prismatic creates and implements process control solutions for the publishing industry, reselling tools such as a scanning densitometer from Tobias Associates Inc. of Ivyland, Pa., and combining them with its own sophisticated process management software.

While the theory of standards-based color management is device independence, the profiles themselves are the epitome of device dependence. In fact, it is their close association with the profiled devices that holds the promise of getting the largest and most accurate color gamut from each and every tool in the process. This same device dependence makes the control and maintenance of these devices critical to any and all color management efforts.

X-Rite not only provides the spectrophotometers but manufactures densitometers and monitor calibrators to manage other critical parts of the process.

Tobias also supplies densitometers, but adds plate scanners and other ink presetting tools to its suite of process monitoring tools.

"If you can see it, and you can measure it, you can control it" is the motto of Beta Industries of Carlstadt, N.J., a long-time supplier of inexpensive process control tools. This year, Beta added the ProColor monitor calibrator to its long-standing line of plate readers, dot meters, loupes, screen testers and other equipment. ProColor not only calibrates the monitor, but it compensates for ambient light and its software is capable of creating ICC-compliant monitor profiles.

Of the NEXPO exhibitors, two suppliers of profiling software stand out: Monaco and Color Solutions Inc. (better known as ColorBlind) of Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Calif. Both companies offer suites of software dedicated to the creation and management of profiles. Their tool sets cover monitor, scanner, proofer and press profiling.

Understandably, each company believes its approach to the creation of profiles is superior to its competitor, but their differences don't end there.

While Monaco seems content to produce profiles and plug-ins to support products such as Adobe Photoshop, Color Solutions has opted to compete in the image-editing arena with its ColorBlind Edit software. Though ColorBlind Edit can't boast of a feature set nearly as large as Photoshop's, Color Solutions believes its product produces a "far superior" separation.

The limits to color management
One might think that with the support of Adobe, Apple and Microsoft, and the growth of the International Color Consortium to more than 50 industry members, choosing a color management system would be simple. Though ICC profiles provide a standard, certain aspects of profiling are still evolving.

Industry groups in concert with the Newspaper Association of America are working to "finalize" testing targets and the procedures surrounding profiling and the interpretation of profiles.

Color management based on ICC profiles is a promising young technology, but like a fresh young quarterback, it is only one member of a team. Before color management can be effective, it needs a solid foundation. In short, if you cannot get the members in your organization to follow checklists, read directions or maintain the tools you already own, don't bother investing in color management software.

Browsing the frequently asked questions section of the Monaco Systems web site further illustrates color management's dependence on a solid foundation. When asked why quality degrades over time, Monaco replies, "It's very important to remember that the conditions in which you created the profile must remain constant." Monaco further explains that the calibration of a device will "drift" over time, with some that may require profiling "every few weeks."

Can you produce excellent color without using color management software? Absolutely. Some newspapers have been printing great color for many years. You can have great color now and prepare for the future of color management by doing the same things: Linearize your imagers, dust off your go/no-go gauges, plug in your densitometers, set your rollers and read the directions.

These things become the very foundation for good color management, which will allow you to use the tools you have and the tools you might buy -- and truly make the difference for which they were intended.

-- Russ Leseberg

Beta Industries,
(201) 939-2400;
binuscan Inc.,
(212) 681-0600,
e-mail: binuscan@earthlink.net;
Color
Solutions Inc.,
(619) 436-6593,
e-mail: colorblind@color.com;
Information Presentation Technologies Inc.,
(805) 541-3000;
Monaco
Systems Inc.,
(508) 749-9944,
e-mail: support@monacosys.com;
Parascan Technologies Inc.,
(702) 358-6446,
e-mail: floydinman@sisna.com;
Prismatic Inc.,
(336) 644-2003,
e-mail: prismat@aol.com;
Tobias Associates Inc.,
(215) 322-1500;
X-Rite Inc.,
(616) 534-7663.

From THE COLE PAPERS, September 1998, Copyright © 1998, All Rights Reserved.