What Are Device Color Profiles; Where Do Color Profiles Come From - Microtek ScanMaker 6400XL Reference Manual

What are Device Color Profiles

Color Management Systems use Device Color Profiles to interpret color data
between devices. DCPs are a collection of one or more ICC Profile data files.
ICC Profiles contain color characteristics of a given device (input, display, or
output).
ICC profiles conform to the International Color Consortium profile
specification, allowing the same device profiles to be used across multiple
platforms.

Where Do Color Profiles Come From?

Color Profiles are created by either Kodak scientists or other color professionals
using specialized software packages, sometimes known as profile building tools.
Kodak scientists use sensitive, specialized equipment to measure the color
characteristics of a representative example of each device, as supplied by the
manufacturer, to determine the intrinsic properties of the device.
From these measurements they develop a "characterization" of the device, called
a Device Color Profile, for each make and model measured.
The Color Profile includes color tables that relates the device' s color space to a
Profile Connection Space, as well as information about key attributes of the
device for use by CMS-based applications.
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