Weekend Project: Tackle Color Management on Linux

“Do you see what I see? Maybe, if you have taken the time to
tackle color management on your machine. The major desktop
environments for Linux give 90 percent of users all the tools they
need to see all of their images in device-independent accuracy. You
don’t even need to buy special hardware. This weekend, pull up a
monitor and see what all the technicolor fuss is about.

“I’ll be the first to admit that I write about color management
more than the average Linux user cares to hear about it. I mention
it whenever I review graphics apps for two reasons: first, because
it is a must-have feature for photography and graphic design, and
second, because desktop Linux is right on the verge of making it
simple and ubiquitous, which will be a major win. But it is not
quite point-and-click simple yet. But it’s not pulling teeth
difficult anymore, either.

“For those totally new to the subject, the essence of color
management is that no two devices produce exactly the same colors,
but because all digital colors are nothing more than numbers (think
RGB triples…), we can mathematically convert each number so that
when it finally reaches the screen, it looks the same.
Theoretically, the only trick is knowing the characteristics of the
monitor — what part of the the 3D color space it can actually
display.”

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