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Managing color
There are many color management systems on the market today. They range from simple
swatchbooks to specially designed and designated color servers. A color management system (CMS)
helps you match colors across a number of devices, including scanners, monitors, and printers. A CMS
ensures what you see at every step of the publishing process matches the printed output. Color
management systems compensate for device limitations by taking into account the varying capabilities
of different brands of monitors and printers. There are three major elements of a CMS: they are the
device profile, color calibration, and translation.
Device profile
Each piece of equipment is characterized or profiled. The profile reveals the color capabilities of the
equipment. The profile includes details about which colors the device is capable of detecting,
displaying, or printing. The device profile is used to convert different color values from one device to
another.
Color calibration
Even the best equipment ages over time. For example, a monitor capable of displaying very accurate
colors when purchased eventually dims as it ages. Calibration ensures consistency by returning colors
to their original specifications. You should calibrate your equipment at the interval your CMS specifies.
Without calibration, your output may be different than you expect.
Translation between color models
Translation is the most complex element of a CMS. Because each device is based on a device-
dependent color model, such as RGB or CMYK, the range of colors each device supports is different.
It is difficult and sometimes impossible to produce a particular color on different devices when each
device uses a different color model.
Translation requires a device-independent color model. Most color management systems are based on
the CIE color space model. This color space specification was devised by the Commission
Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE). Rather than translating RGB to CIE and CIE to CMYK, most CMS’s
translate directly from RGB to CMYK using the CIE color space as a reference.