(v13) Color conversions

This page applies to Harlequin v13.1r0 and later; both Harlequin Core and Harlequin MultiRIP

Jobs written in PDF will typically specify the color space in which painting operations occur. There are different color space cases of interest to alternate CMMs:

• Untagged Device spaces
• Device spaces tagged with an ICC Input profile
• Device spaces expressed directly as an ICC input profile
• Non-device color spaces expressed via an ICC input profile.

The RIP is capable of sophisticated control over the color space in the job. It can optionally honor all color spaces in the job, set a default profile to use with Untagged device spaces, and it can override the ICC profile used for device color spaces with a different ICC profile. As an example, a devicelink ICC profile may override all CMYK color spaces from the job, and be used to directly convert CMYK objects to the output device. More typically, an ICC input profile will convert color values to the ICC Profile Connection Space (PCS).

The RIP environment contains a means of configuring an ICC Output profile that will specify color conversion from the PCS to the output device. This control is sophisticated, with override control over the ICC profile and rendering intent to use based on the type of object and/or the color spaces. It will also allow the configuration of sequences of ICC profiles of arbitrary length, including abstract profiles.

NOTE:  The term 'input profile' is typically an input profile as defined by the ICC specification, but could also mean either an ICC display or color space profile, that is, a profile that converts color values to the ICC PCS. Similarly, an output profile is typically an output profile as defined by the ICC specification, but could also be a display profile (but not a color space conversion profile).

Named color profiles are not handled via alternate CMMs at this time.