Color Management

Color Management - An easy introduction to consistent true colors in capture - edit - print
By Klaus Bjarner

Why do we need to spend time on color management?

Color management is the process of ensuring that colors are true and consistent throughout the entire workflow, from capture to edit to final print or display.

Every device displays colors differently. Printer, scanner and monitor each have their own interpretation (and range of colors they can reproduce). Even two monitors of the exact same brand, model and age will have slight differences. This may not be important to the average office user but have a huge impact on the work of a photographer or creative professional who needs to be able to trust what is displayed on the monitor.

In color management, the color displaying characteristics of each device are mapped to an ICC profile, which is the color fingerprint of the device. When the operating system of the computer reads this ICC profile it knows exactly how the device produces colors and can compensate for color casts and other variances so the displayed colors are exactly as they should be. 100% correct and true to the information stored in the image file.

Having an ICC profile for every device, the operating system knows the faults (or characteristics) of each device and can compensate for those and ensure consistent true colors throughout the work flow. If you hand off your work in the middle of the process (for off-site printing or editing), color management is even more important since others have no way of knowing how it looked on your screen unless its color calibrated. Color management is the only way to avoid costly mistakes and time consuming reprints.

Continue reading: How is calibration done? »