Microsoft Windows 98 Color Management

Introduction The early days of computer systems were such that there was no such thing as color management. Until the 1990s, Apple Computer introduced ColorSync 1.0 color management, but they were all limited to color control between Apple devices. By the establishment of the International Color Consortium in 1993, the Open Color Management Rule, ICC, had been developed to enable the communication of colors between different brands of computer output/input devices to produce ideal and consistent color production. Afterwards, Apple Computer Systems, Microsoft Windows, and Sun Microsystems have successively supported ICC regulations, making it possible for a digital color file to output consistent colors not only on different devices, but also on different computer systems. ICC regulations enable color management to be compatible with different devices and computer systems, eliminating the difficulties of color control previously published on the desktop. In the past, Microsoft had no color management function. Until the emergence of Windows 95, it changed the previous production requirements that did not support desktop publishing. Windows 95 operating system uses ICM 1.0 to provide color management service inspection application software. As long as the application software supports ICM, and the features of color input/output devices are put into the computer system, color management can be smoothly performed. Now Windows 98 uses ICM 2.0, while the color management center uses LinoColor from Nolan Haier. ICM is a color management interface, just as the previous introduction to Apple's ColorSync.


Figure 1: Previous software uses incompatible color management methods. Files may have different effects when processed by different software.



The ICM (Integrated Color Management) operating window ICM technology uses the ICC device profile for color conversion in the same way as the AppleSystem's ColorSync. Microsoft proposes to create profiles for color input (such as scanners) or output devices (such as printers) that they have introduced so that the computer system can recognize the color performance of the device and allow users to effectively perform color management. The profile is designated as a separate file in the INF file. If the manufacturer provides an installation program, this program must require the Win32 APIs to install the feature file in the system. The program will usually copy the profile to the C folder so that the color conversion can be performed between the devices.



Figure 2: The new version of image processing software mostly supports color management. If ICM2.0 is used to process colors, different software will output the same result.



Operator's Mastering Color Microsoft's guide to developers is that input/output devices should use the operating system to process color as much as possible, especially if the device does not support ICM. In this case, the operating system will automatically change the image color. These decisions are automatically generated based on the color space of the input/output device, and are processed by the system before being passed to the device driver. For example, when the driver software of the printer does not support color management, the system does not perform image color correction according to the printer's profile, and then delivers the corrected image data to the printer driver for printing. Then the color and the color of the screen or the original are output. The degree of similarity will be greatly increased.

ICM Compatible Software Sometimes the software wants to handle the color of its own or the color of the image has been corrected, if the software supports ICM 2.0, it can call ICM 2.0 instructions, require the operating system does not have personality image color, then the system will not directly perform any correction when the direct The image is output by the driver. In addition, windows 95 and 98 allow users to turn on or off color management functions, and to freely set or add new color management centers. ICM 2.0 is used as a preset color management center (the default color management center of the Apple system is also LinoColor), which is the CMM (Color Management Module). CMM is the core of color management and can handle color conversion and other color management services for all input/output devices.

ICM 2.0 Features After several years, Microsoft finally introduced ICM 2.0. The new programming interface (API) has a new set of instructions for more efficient color management. The main features are as follows: Compatibility with older ICM 10 Support for ICC specifications Support for Microsoft applications such as Microsoft Office Support for professional graphics software such as Adobe PhotoShop support API UI and UI Interface Feature Management Support sRGB, RGB, CMTK, LAB, etc. Support HiFi Color Multi-color System Support Bitmap Format Improvement Palette Process Support Device Driver for Color Management Support Multiple Color Management Centers Built-in High-Performance Lino Color control center.
Summary Microsoft's Windows system to add color management services, not the United States Apple system, the United States, in fact, PC equipment can also become a publishing tool on the table, so that design and publishing practitioners have more choices. Microsoft, Apple Computer and Linuo Haier are among the founding members of the International Color Consortium. They jointly developed the ICC specifications to promote the creation of open color management.

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