Color Profiles - Konica Minolta Magicolor 7300 Reference Manual

Color Profiles

In the previous chapter, we considered the range of colors any device can
reproduce. Colors which a device can reproduce are said to be in the device's
gamut; those it can't reproduce are outside the gamut. For example, a
monitor can't reproduce all the colors in nature, and a color printer can't
reproduce as many colors as a monitor can—so some colors you see on the
monitor are outside the printer's gamut.
ICC Profiles
International Color Consortium (ICC) profiles have been developed to resolve
the discrepancy between the color gamuts of various devices. Most color
device manufacturers comply with the ICC profile specifications.
This means that a device, such as a monitor or digital camera, ships with a
specific profile to convert its gamut into the CIE LAB model. A color-
reproducing device (such as a color laser printer) should ship with a profile
that converts these CIE LAB colors to its reproduction method. Each color
producing or reproducing device has its own ICC profile that should be
provided by its manufacturer.
There are two ways to incorporate ICC profiles into what is called a Color
Management Module (CMM):
1
On the workstation. The disadvantage is that not all operating systems
support CMM (for example, Windows 95). Due to this, some software
manufacturers implemented CMM within their software (for example,
CorelDRAW 10, PageMaker 6.5, and PhotoShop 7). This may lead to
confusion and wrong implementations.
2
In the printer. This is the easiest way since all color processes are taken
care of inside the printer. The printer converts the color data received.
KONICA MINOLTA color printers are equipped with an internal Color
Management Module.
168 Color Profiles