ColorSync on Mac OSX |
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ColorSync, Apple's system level Color Management System (CMS) has undergone a significant upgrade for Mac OSX For all previous versions of Mac OS, color management and ColorSync did very little for the user until an application was explicitly called on ColorSync to perform color matching tasks.(with the exception of Quickdraw GX, a minimally supported upgrade attempt at QuickDraw). Many Mac users remember the first time they opened their ColorSync control panel, changed some settings and then saw that nothing had changed on screen (again, in most cases). They may have concluded that color management doesn't work and left it behind. Well, with Mac OSX, ColorSync has finally been upgraded to a first-class citizen and is built into the Quartz imaging system at the heart of OS X. This means that if an application simply calls on OS X to display an image, it will be color managed to the best of ColorSync's abilities. At a bare minimum this means that the display profile set in the ColorSync preference pane will be use as the destination for all color heading to screen. Which profile will be used as the source? That depends on the application (which can override ColorSync defaults) and whether or not there is a profile embedded in the image. As the new print paths in OS X are also managed by Quartz, users run a greater chance of liking what they see coming out of their printers. A few other points worth mentioning are
Check back with us regularly for updated notes and links regarding ColorSync 4 on Mac OS X, ICC v4 profiles and other advances and changes in the color management world. In the meantime, pay a visit to the link below for a technote from Apple that starts at a basic overview and moves all the way into the system calls developers can make to ColorSync. Stop reading when your head gets full. Steve Upton |
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See Also
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