Von: Olaf Drümmer <o.druemmer(a)callassoftware.com> Datum: 22. Mai 2008 20:12:24 MESZ An: Florian Süßl <fsuessl(a)metadesign.de> Kopie: Olaf Drümmer <o.druemmer(a)callassoftware.com> Betreff: Memo from the board of the ECI to the Offset profile Working Group (April 2, 2008 ) From: The board of the European Color Initiative (Olaf Drümmer, Florian Süßl, Darrian Young, Dietmar Wüller) To: ECI Working Group Offset Profiles (to the attention of Florian Süßl, Chairman of the Working Group Offset Profiles) Berlin/Cologne/Valencia - March 2008 Dear members of the ECI Working Group Offset Profiles, based on the developments of the last twelve months, and in reply to your request to advise how to proceed regarding the development and publication of new offset profiles, the members of the board of the European Color Initiative would like to recommend the following procedure: [1] the main purpose of the development and publication of ECI profiles has always been and shall continue to be, that we help out those who are not in a position to create their own profiles - whether due to lack of tools, expertise or motivation. While we do know that no single profile can ever be the best profile for all needs and situations, we share the belief that profiles can be developed that will do a substantially above average job for many people in many situations. Thus it is the goal of the ECI to develop and publish such well-crafted profiles based on best effort and knowledge of those involved in the making of such profiles. In no event will the ECI ever claim to have prepared the best possible profiles ever. [2] A carpenter needs a hammer and nails, and his choosing one hammer over another does not mean the other hammer is not as good as the one he is actually using. Along the same lines anybody developing profiles needs a profiling software. As we have seen in the past it is in many cases more a matter of taste or personal preferences which profiling tool is chosen. No choice implies that all other tools are inferior. As we wish to come up with one set of profiles (and not with one set for each available tool in the market) we will always have to make a choice. That choice is already restricted by the number of software products for which the licensing terms are flexible enough to grant ECI the necessary free rights for distribution and re-distribution. In addition, there might be additional reasons for choosing one over the other beyond technical and licensing considerations. [3] Based on experiences in the past with various makers of profiling software the board would like to recommend the following: unless new developments in the world of profiling software are coming to the attention of the working group, we recommend the working group uses the profiling software from Color Logic, whenever the need to develop and publish a new profile or a revision to an existing profile arises. [4] Furthermore we recommend to only publish new profiles or revised versions of existing profiles if there is a very clear need to do so. At the moment, based on the testing and discussion within your working group it seems that "ISO coated v2" does not need to be revised any time soon. In the case of "ISO Uncoated" this might be very different, and there might indeed be a need to come up with a new or revised profile in the coming months. In the case of publication of any new or revised profile in the future please be aware that we have to follow a new naming convention as per the request of the Central Secretariat of the ISO (I am assuming the necessary details are known already and need not be repeated in this mail). The board believes that the resulting inconsistencies - both in naming convention as well as technical origin of profiles - might be less than ideal but are not expected to seriously harm the overall goals. [5] In order to keep all mud throwing contests as far away from the work of the ECI we would also recommend to share as little as possible about the internal work of the Working Group Offset Profiles. It is always preferable to make clear - whenever asked about this aspect - that choice of profiling software is not to be mixed up with a competition and assigning an award for whatever reason. On a more formal level the board thus recommends to proceed as follows with regard to the actual profiles to be published: - remove the copyright info in the ICC profile with ECI copyright info (Thorsten Braun from ColorLogic has granted us the rights to do so) - if needed (i.e. for v4 profiles) make sure to recalculate the ProfileID tag (MD5 profile hash) - do not mention the profiling software used in the accompanying information (Read me files etc.) or anywhere else - for those wishing to create their own profiles for a given printing condition, include generic information (i.e. not unique to the tool used) in the accompanying documentation about the parameters used for creating the profile at hand (most of the relevant parameters by now are very similar between an number of profiling software products) In addition, Thorsten Braun from ColorLogic has promised not to spread the word in case we begin to use their profiling software for ICC profiles to be published by the ECI. [6] We should all be very proud of what the ECI has achieved in the past ten years in terms of developing and publishing a wide range of profiles - we have definitely helped many thousands in the graphic arts industry (many among them being very high level professionals who could have built their own profiles but decided not to) and beyond to do a better job than they could have done otherwise. Also, a large number of vendors have received (and made use of) a license to ship ECI profiles as part of their solutions, whether these are RIPS, proofing systems, digital printing systems, layout software or what else. And - still living in a relatively free world - everyone always has the option to use something else than the ECI profiles or grow their own profiles. [7] It is the fate of the successful and famous (yes, ECI is relatively famous, not to the least because of the profiles published in the last decade) that they are envied and challenged. Whenever someone attacks you or the ECI because of some supposed weakness or deficiency in the profiles - that's a reason to be proud! Stay calm, relax and enjoy - and react with the certainty that this is happening because we all achieved something substantial. Listen, bring home whatever you can learn from such opinions, and we will make sure that next time around we are doing an even better job. Knowing the work on offset profiles has not been that easy and fruitful as expected, I would like to thank you on behalf of the ECI board for all the work - it is really very much appreciated! Anything that does not fit into written communication like this mail may better be discussed during the next ECI meeting in Wiesbaden, June 19-20, 2008. In the meantime you know how to get hold of myself or the other board members whenever needed. Best regards, Olaf Druemmer (on behalf of the board of the ECI) Chairman of the European Color Initiative -- Olaf Druemmer | Managing Director | callas software GmbH | Schoenhauser Allee 6/7 | 10119 Berlin Tel +49.30.4439031-0 | Fax +49.30.4416402 | o.druemmer(a)callassoftware.com | www.callassoftware.com Amtsgericht Charlottenburg, HRB 59615 | Geschäftsführung: Olaf Drümmer, Ulrich Frotscher ~~~~~~~ See you at: ~~~~~~~ ---> International PDF/A Conference, Amsterdam, Netherlands, April 10-11, 2008 (Register now at http://pdfa.org/doku.php?id=register:en )