HP LP2480zx Digital Color Workflows and the HP DreamColor LP2480zx Professiona - Page 6

The most widely adopted profile format is that created by the International Color Consortium (ICC1). The ICC was established in 1993 to encourage vendors to standardize on a single format, which would allow vendors to communicate profile information within a workflow. Figure 3. A typical digital workflow2. Color accuracy and predictability Well then, what is the problem? We have:  A "pretty good" way of mathematically describing how a color will look on a specific device (the CIE 1931 or CIE 1976 system);  A collection of pre-defined color spaces that describe the range of colors applicable to that space;  An international standards body (ICC) that defines how devices and systems can communicate color information with each other; and  Competitive pressures that encourage vendors to design devices that will depict color as accurately as possible. The challenge is to maintain both color accuracy and color predictability. Accuracy means that a color is always the same when measured against a known reference, and generally involves some empirical form of measurement such as a colorimeter or a spectrophotometer. Predictability means that a color is absolutely reproducible, across workflows, across pages, across projects and across teams spread around the globe. Both accuracy and predictability require a closed feedback loop. In other words, a sample of an output page on a printer (or a specific swatch on a display) must be actively measured, compared with a standard, and the results fed back to the device. This can be a cumbersome process (and almost always requires human intervention), and one that is only periodically performed on devices used in color-critical workflows. 1 See www.color.org. 2 "Color 101-Basic Color Science & Color Management for Electronic Displays," Bob Myers, HP Display Technology Center, June 2007. 6