ICC PROFILE

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'ICC' (International Color Consortium) Profiles describe the colour attributes of a particular device or viewing requirement by defining a mapping between the source or target colour space and a ''profile connection space'' (PCS). This PCS is either L
★ a
★ b
★ or CIE XYZ colour space.
Mappings may be done using tables, to which interpolation is applied, or through a series of parameters for transformations.
To see how this works in practice, suppose we have a particular RGB and CMYK colour space, and want to convert from this RGB to that CMYK. The first step is to obtain the two ICC profiles concerned. To perform the conversion, each RGB triplet R,G,B is first converted to the PCS using the RGB profile. If necessary the PCS is converted between L
★ a
★ b
★ and CIE XYZ, a well defined transformation. Then the PCS is converted to the four values of C,M,Y,K required.
A profile might define several mappings, according to rendering intent. These mappings allow a choice between closest possible colour matching, and remapping the entire colour range to allow for different gamuts.
Every device that captures or displays colour will have its own profile. Some manufacturers provide profiles for their products, and there are several products that allow end users to generate their own colour profile, typically through the use of a colourimeter.
The International Color Consortium define the format precisely but do not define algorithms or processing details. This means there is room for variation between different applications and systems that work with ICC profiles.

Contents

See also

References in standards

International Standards

De-facto standards

External Links

See also

★ VueScan an application that can create, import and export ICC Profiles.

★ Colour management

References in standards

The ICC profile specification, currently being progressed as International Standard ISO15076, is widely referred to in other standards. The following International and de-facto standards are known to make reference to ICC profiles.

International Standards

★ ISO/IEC 10918-1: Coding of still pictures - JPEG

★ ISO12234-4: Photography - Electronic still-picture imaging – Part 4: Exchangeable image file format (Exif 2.2) (ISO TC42)

★ ISO 12639:2004 Graphic technology — Prepress digital data exchange — Tag image file format for image technology (TIFF/IT) (ISO TC130)

★ ISO/DIS 12647-1: Graphic Technology - Process control for the production of halftone colour separations, proof and production prints – part 1: Parameters and measurement methods (Revision under way in ISO TC130)

★ ISO/DIS 12647-2: Graphic Technology – Process control for the production of halftone colour separations, proof and production prints – part 2: Offset processes (Revision under way in ISO TC130)

★ ISO/CD 12647-3: Graphic technology - Process control for the production of half-tone colour separations, proofs and production prints - Part 3: Coldset offset lithography on newsprint

★ ISO/CD 12647-3: Graphic technology — Process control for the production of half-tone colour separations, proof and production prints — Part 4: Publication gravure printing

★ ISO/CD 12647-6: Graphic technology – Process control for the production of half-tone colour separations, proof and production prints – Part 6: Flexographic printing

★ ISO/IEC 15948: Portable Network Graphics file format (jointly defined with W3C – see www.libpng.org/pub/png/spec/iso)

★ ISO/IEC15444: Coding of still pictures - JPEG2000 (ISO JTC 1/SC 2)

★ ISO 15930-1:2001 Graphic technology — Prepress digital data exchange — Use of PDF. Part 1: Complete exchange using CMYK data (PDF/X-1 and PDF/X-1a) (ISO TC130)

★ ISO 15930-3:2002 Graphic technology — Prepress digital data exchange — Use of PDF. Part 3: Complete exchange suitable for colour managed workflows (PDF/X-3) (ISO TC130)

★ ISO 15930-4:2003 Graphic technology - Prepress digital data exchange using PDF - Part 4: Complete exchange of CMYK and spot colour printing data using PDF 1.4 (PDF/X-1a)

★ ISO 15930-5:2003 Graphic technology - Prepress digital data exchange using PDF - Part 5: Partial exchange of printing data using PDF 1.4 (PDF/X-2)

★ ISO 15930-6:2003 Graphic technology - Prepress digital data exchange using PDF - Part 6:
Complete exchange of printing data suitable for colour-managed workflows using PDF 1.4 (PDF/X-3)

★ ISO 22028-1:2004 Photography and Graphic Technology – Extended colour encodings for digital image storage, manipulation and interchange – Part 1: Architecture and requirements (ISO TC42)

De-facto standards

★ PICT standard specifications (file format published by Apple Computer Inc.)

★ Postscript Language (EPS file format published by Adobe Systems Inc.)

★ PDF Page Description format (file format published by Adobe Systems Inc.)

★ JDF v1.1 Revision A (Job Definition format published by the CIP4 consortium available from www.cip4.org)

★ SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) version 1.1 (file format defined by W3C available from www.w3.org/TR/SVG)

★ CSS3 (Cascading Style Sheets) (file format working draft defined by W3C available from www.w3.org/Style/CSS/current-work)

External Links

★ ICC profiles in Adobe Photoshop