The dilemma is that every device, be it monitor, printer, scanner
or digital camera, has very different color rendering capabilities.
If the device renders a certain RGB value, the display of that value
on that device will be different from other devices and it might not
even be capable of rendering certain values at all. The colors a
specific device can render describe a range of colors. Color Gamut
is the term used to define the range of colors captured or displayed
by a device. The basis of color management is the standardized
description of a device called an ICC profile. An International
Color Consortium (ICC) color profile is the color characterization
of your particular digital equipment. You either get these profiles
from the device
manufacturer or measure them with special calibration hardware.
Note: A RGB value by itself does not define an absolute color
Most people use the monitor as their "soft" proofing device. This is
why the first step towards complete color management is the
calibration of the monitor. Be aware that room lightning and even
your clothing influence precise calibration. Adobe Photoshop comes
with a utility called Adobe Gamma that lets you calibrate your
monitor. Although this is better than not doing any calibration, the
use of a hardware calibration device gives much better results and
is highly recommended. We have used the following tools:
GretagMacbeth Eye-One Display and the Sony Artisan monitor (which
provides an integrated solution with a monitor and a special
measuring device). Turn the monitor on for a minimum of 30 minutes
before starting any calibration. To do the calibration follow the
instructions provided with the tool. Do not change any monitor
settings without re-calibrating. The recommendation for
re-calibration is about once a month. Profiling LCD monitors can be
very tricky and the success depends on the tool and the monitor
brand. Current LCDs like the Apple Cinema Display
are used in the industry for serious color work. Continuing, we have
some image RGB values (CMYK is excluded from this discussion). Using
monitor and printer profiles will map these values to the
monitor and printer. This works for this single monitor/printer
setup, but what if you send the image file to a different person.
That person would need your monitor profile and then map it to their
monitor profile (which is certainly different). You can see that
this would not work in the real world, as we would end up with an
inflation of individual profiles for all kind of devices.