(v13) Color spaces and color management

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

The Harlequin RIP contains a color management system that is fully compliant with the requirements of the PostScript language, PDF, and all supported image file formats. This, however, is not enough to get the best color output on the wide variety of printers and the workflows the RIP is part of. For that, the RIP’s color management system (CMS) also contains highly functional extensions that can model the color in these workflows.

The use of device spaces to express color in jobs is a common theme. The use of device spaces only works well on devices that are closely matched to the intended device. If these jobs are to be rendered on other devices, the color needs to be re-purposed, which is often performed using ICC transforms using the RIP’s built-in color management model (CMM). Creating ICC transforms from device spaces relies on two Harlequin extension operators which are widely used throughout this chapter. The setinterceptcolorspace operator replaces, or intercepts device spaces with an ICC profile, while setreproduction configures an ICC profile for the output device.

To make use of the setreproduction extensions you must have Harlequin ColorPro installed and activated.

Harlequin color management is designed to make ICC workflows easy to model, while at the same time providing a highly functional and flexible CMS that can be configured for any known color workflow. More complex workflows use DeviceLink profiles, overrides, object-based color management, and callouts to C code.

While this section is the reference for Harlequin color, it has been written as partly a tutorial with many examples throughout.

A number of example page features are provided as part of the Harlequin Core SDK to illustrate various aspects of color management for CMYK, RGB and extended gamut colorant sets.