Message
Re: [colorvision_group] Vista Color Management
2007-04-18 by CDTobie@aol.com
In a message dated 4/18/07 4:44:24 PM, rw3st@... writes:
Has anyone had any experience using Vista's Color Management? I've got
PrintFix Pro & Spyder2Pro, all drivers & software are working (fairly)
successfully, but I am unsure as to what I should be doing with Vista's
color management's settings, both before and after calibrating.
Any suggestions (or better still step-by-step instructions) will be
greatly appreciated.
There was a lot of PR about the new color management engine in Vista for the year before its release, but most of it does not actually apply to the released product. Vista defaults to the same ICM2 calls and settings as XP (and 2000, and Win98...), and there is not really any way for users to access anything more, so its basicly a matter of what minor fixes or bugs were introduced.
As far as I can tell to date, the Windows bug where an application asks Windows to set a profile as the default monitor profile for a given monitor, and Windows for some reason fails to do so, and also fails to return any kind of warning that it didn't do so, is at least reduced. But that may just be because Vista does not support the videocards with which this was occuring.
On the other hand there is a new issue where XP assumed sRGB; if there is no monitor profile set at all, then sRGB is assumed. This was problematic as sRGB isn't really a monitor profile and has no VideoCard corrections in it, but at least its a profile. Under Vista, its possible to query the OS about the profile for a given monitor, and get the answer that the default profile is... none. Not good.
But both of these issues are about situations where there is something wrong, and Windows doesn't handle it very gracefully; if nothing gets messed up, you won't run into either. The new Color Control Panel looks pretty, but it basicly sets up the same stuff, with a bit more visibility and a bit more flexibility. Still no real way to use Windows Color System profiles and stuff, just the old ICM2 calls for ICC profiles, but at least that still works; I was more worried about what Vista would break than what it would add.
Most color mangement issues under Vista have to do with what applications are Vista compatable at this time, or what printers and color measurement devices have Vista capable drivers; the same issues that are paramount in general Vista use.
So download the lastest "Works with Windows Vista" versions of both Spyder2PRO and PrintFIX PRO from the colorvision.com website, and just run them as you did under XP... should be fine.
C. David Tobie
Product Technology Manager
ColorVision Business Unit
Datacolor Inc.
CDTobie@...
www.colorvision.com
**************************************
See what's free at http://www.aol.com.