Introduction of Color Management Module in Color Management System

In July/August 1999, GATFWorld introduced some of the color management modules commonly used in current color management systems to facilitate user selection.
Adobe CMM Adobe CMM is a proprietary color management module for Adobe products such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, InDesign, etc. In these software pop-up menus, it is displayed as a "Built-In" engine (ie, a built-in engine). Adobe is considering not bundling its CMM with application software, but has not made a final decision yet.
Mark Heisten, Adobe's print technology public relations manager, said Adobe's goal in developing the CMM is to ensure consistency in the color processing of its products. “Our product managers feel that with ICC getting a wide range of industry support, compatibility with ICC has become the focus of support.”
Agfa CMM product support manager Anja Ruttyn said Agfa has its own color conversion engine for color conversion between Agfa's proprietary color profile before the release of the ICC specification. This is what everyone knows about Color Tags. It was used in FotoTune software, FotoLook scanner drivers, Chromapress RIP, and other Agfa applications. She said that Agfa was entrusted with the strategy of developing a color management system and he did not hesitate to convert his proprietary color conversion engine into a CMM.
Agfa introduced that its CMM was designed to maintain the gray balance of scanned images and color separations. Agfa CMM supports variable, real-time computed GCRs (gray component substitutions). It also supports Pantone Hexchrome six-color separation.
Steve Swen, chief engineer of the Apple CMM Apple ColorSync project, said that Apple hopes to launch CMM with color image processing partners to help end users rely on ColorSync to migrate from a private system to an open workflow.
Apple Inc. includes three CMMs in ColorSync, Agfa, Heidelberg, and Kodak, with Heidelberg's CMM as the default setting. Users can select their preferred CMM in the ColorSync control panel, or they can select “Automatic” to let ColorSync select the CMM specified in the device profile. For example, the equipment profile generated by Heidelberg PrintOpen selects Heidelberg's CMM, and the equipment profile generated by Agfa's ColorTune selects Agfa's CMM.
Peter Segin, Heidelberg CMM Heidelberg's senior manager of prepress color management, said that the basic color technology of Heidelberg CMM was developed by Rudolph Hell, which later merged with Linotype to form Linotype-Hell, and was later integrated into the Heidelberg Group in 1997. Hell introduced the commercially available electronic color separator DC300 for the first time at DRUPA 1972. The DC300 uses an analog computer that can control the conversion of RGB to CMYK using knobs and scales on the control panel. Subsequent models use digital color computers (rows of dedicated circuit boards inserted in the power sub-chassis). Advances in computer technology have enabled the Hell color computer to be integrated into an Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) and have been used with the Linotype-Hell extension until 1992. With the development of the Power Macintosh computer and its ever-running RISC computer chip, the Hell color computer can be written as a software core, which is known as the Linocolor CTU (color transform unit), which is a system extension of the Macintosh OS. At that time, ICC was established and Linotype-Hell actively supported the concept of an open color management system. This enabled Apple to adopt Linotype-Hell's color conversion algorithm in ColorSync 2.0.
Imation CMM This summer, Imation plans to introduce a CMM called the CFM-Color Fidelity Module. It can produce instant black editions and is longer than CMYK to CMYK conversions. According to Chris Edge, chief color scientist at Imation, Imation hopes to develop a CMM to support its Matchprint simulation and Rainbow digital proofing technology. The difference between dye dye sublimation method Rainbow and light imagery Matchprint will lead Imation to color management in the exploration of color fidelity.
Other CMMs only reference the CIELAB color space when performing the conversion from CMYK to CMYK. In this process, the four color channels are converted into three color channels, and the black channel information is lost. Imation's CFM not only calculates CMY information to ensure chroma matching, but also preserves black channel information in the image.
When the four-color ash is converted from CMYK to CMYK, the conventional CMM significantly changes the ratio between the basic color and the black ink. In an illustration, we use a conventional CMM to convert a CMYK=60 50 50 15 color from CMYK to CMYK in the same profile, and the result is CMYK=59 58 68 0 . However, doing the same conversion with Imation's CMM will keep the original ratio of CMYK=60 50 50 15 .
Another advantage of Imation CFM is that users do not need to use different ICC profiles when using different levels of UCR, GCR, and black generation. Imation CFM calculates black generation during conversion. Imation CFM provides a control panel that the user can use to set the UCR or GCR volume, or use the amount set in the ICC profile. In our test of the image, Imation CFM actually produced a more saturated version when converting from a large gamut CMYK space (such as SWOP) to a small gamut CMYK space (such as SNAP). The same is true for color, and vice versa.
People who use CFM for the first time will notice that it is very slow compared to other CMMs because CFM performs a lot of calculations like a color management characterization program, generating a color lookup table to go from one color mode to the other Another color mode conversion. Color lookup tables are stored on the disk cache, and subsequent conversions are much faster. Imation expects that the market for its CFM technology will be those users who must switch from one CMYK space to another, such as commercial printing to newspaper printing or vice versa. Dave Mayberry, Imation color fidelity program manager, said: "Many advertisements are produced for magazine printing (SWOP space) and can now be converted into newspaper printing (SNAP space) with a small amount of information lost."
Kodak CMM Kodak's color matching method was developed in the early 1980s by Eikonix, which Kodak purchased in 1985. Eikonix was the first company to implement color management in a device-independent way. Kathy Stein, marketing strategy consultant at Kodak, said: "In the late 1980s, when we adopted the method of color management, other companies began to develop their own methods. The solutions are similar, but they are still self-reliant."
In the early 1990s, Kodak began discussions with Adobe, Apple, Sun, SGI, Agfa, and Microsoft on the definition of a universal format for device characterization data. Stein said: "We defined the structure of the description matrix and look-up table data in the CMM. These definitions became the ICC specification and also defined the behavior of the ICC-compliant CMM."
X-Rite CMM X-Rite's CMM was originally developed by Ed Granger at Light Source Computer Images, a manufacturer of Colortron spectrophotometers, using a color model called "AeQa". Light Source was acquired by X-Rite in 1997.
According to Dave Hazlett, general manager of the X-Rite Imaging Business Unit, X-Rite’s current strategy is to transfer its CMM technology licenses to other companies. X-Rite's CMM is implemented by HexWrench, which is developed by Studion and marketed by Pantone. HexWrench Six color separations for Pantone six-color printing technology.
Conclusion Our research shows that users can choose from a wide Variety of CMMs for conversion from RGB to CMYK color modes without worrying about significant differences between different CMMs. High-end color splitters who require the best quality will use different CMMs to do experiments and make their own judgment on the color separation effect because slight, subjective differences in judgment do exist. When converting from the CMYK color of one device to the CMYK color of another device, Imation CFM does have advantages in maintaining black channel consistency and customizing UCR, GCR, and black generation before separation.