Features/ColorManagement

Color Management

Summary

GNOME Color Manager is a session framework that makes it easy to manage, install and generate color profiles in the GNOME desktop.

Owner

• Name: Richard Hughes

• email: richard@hughsie.com

Current status

• Targeted release: Fedora 42
• Last updated: 2010-02-01
• Percentage of completion: 91%

Detailed Description

This project has the following features:

• Setting output gamma tables (with local brightness and adjustments) to any Xrandr output (falling back to the per-screen methods for drivers that do not yet support Xrandr 1.3) to make all windows look the 'correct' color.

• Setting of settings at session start, and when monitors are hotplugged.

• Easy install of vendor supplied ICC or ICM files, just by double clicking on the file.

• Easy display calibration using an external calibration device, and scanner calibration using a inexpensive IT 8.7 target. For calibration, the ArgyllCMS package is required.

• Integration X11 by setting the per-screen and per-output _ICC_PROFILE atom, which makes applications such as the GIMP use a color managed output.

• Easy to use DBus interface for applications to query what ICC profiles should be used for a specific device or device type. This is session activated and is only started when it is needed, and quits after a small period of idleness.

Benefit to Fedora

Fedora, and Linux in general is severely lacking when it comes to using color management in key applications by default. OSX and Windows 7 clearly show by making color management easy for the end user, it can be integrated into their working pattern to great affect. By providing a way to manage and assign profiles in Fedora we can make it easy for creative people to see the same color they just scanned, and also then see the same color when the document is printed. Only by making this stuff easy to use we'll actually get people to achieve this.

Scope

• Mainly isolated package
• Minor changes in gnome-settings-daemon that are already upstream
• Minor addition in shared-mime-info that are already upstream
• Minor code changes in gtk+ that are already upstream

How To Test

Need to test:

• Assigning profiles to devices, which bluish test and AdobeGamma can be used (screen should go blue and then pink)
• Creating profiles using external colorimeter devices (you'll need hardware such as a Pantone Huey)
• make check on the sourcecode to exercise the self test program
• Nuking the config file and starting from a new install (rm /home/hughsie/.config/gnome-color-manager/device-profiles.conf)
• Adding and removing ICC profiles at runtime (e.g. install share-color-profiles-nonfree or just use $HOME/.color/icc) and making sure the GUI is updated

User Experience

From a user experience point of view, they'll just be:

• A new icon in preferences "Color Profiles"
• The user can double click ICC and ICM profile to preview and install
• The user can just insert color calibration hardware and calibrate with two clicks
• More color-aware applications are automatically setup for color management

Dependencies

• small patch to comps/kickstart bringing in the package by default
• shared-color-profiles-0.1.1 (needs upstream release)

Optional dependencies (installed by PackageKit at run-time if required)

• argyllcms
• shared-color-targets

Contingency Plan

• Remove the package from comps, and continue like we always have with no color manager.

Documentation

For more information, please see http://projects.gnome.org/gnome-color-manager/ and http://live.gnome.org/GnomeColorManager

Release Notes

• Fedora now ships GNOME Color Manager by default, which allows end users to better manager their color workflow.

Comments and Discussion

• See Talk:Features/ColorManagement