Image Inspector
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Images with embedded profiles are one of the keys to communicating color within an ICC workflow. An image with an embedded profile is changed from raw device data (RGB, CMYK, and so forth) to color. More precisely the image can be converted, using the embedded profile, to Lab. Lab is a numeric representation of color stimulation and with the use of additional profiles – for the monitor or printer – the colors can be converted to the device settings that will reproduce, as closely as possible, the colors originally viewed by the original image’s creator.
Use Image Inspector to open images and display, export, remove and embed images’ ICC profiles.
Images shown on screen in the Image Inspector are not color accurate. The purpose of the Image Inspector is the manipulation of image profiles, not editing of image colors or of profile colors.
The graphic image file types supported at this time are:
- TIFF (LZW compression supported in Mac OS X only)
- JPEG
- GIF
Contents |
To Open an Image
- Select “File:Open” and select an image file
- Drag an image file onto the ColorThink application icon or the Menu Bar.
- Image Inspector will open the image and display the embedded profile and other image information. Images shown on screen are not color accurate. That is, the image shown has not had the embedded profile or the monitor profile applied.
To Open the embedded profile
- Click the “Get Profile Info...” button or
- Drag profile icon to the Menu Bar to open it with Profile Inspector
To Export embedded profile
- Click the “Export Profile...” button or
- Drag profile icon to the Finder desktop or a Finder Folder.
- Select “Image:Export Profile...” to be able to specify the profile’s filename as it is saved.
- Exporting a profile does not remove the profile from the image file.
To Remove embedded profile
- Click the “Remove Profile...” button or
- Drag profile icon to the Finder’s trash icon.
- Select “Image:Remove Profile...”
To Embed a new profile
- Drag a profile icon into the Image Inspector window from any ColorThink window or directly from the Finder or
- Select “Image:Embed Profile...” and specify the profile in the resulting dialog box.
To Graph image’s colors
(this feature works only with RGB images at this time)
- Click 2D or 3D Grapher button
- Drag image icon or entire image onto existing 2D or 3D Graph or 2D or 3D Grapher button on Menu Bar.
Image Inspector will convert all image colors to Lab using the embedded profile and send them to the graphing tool for display. Important notes concerning this function include:
- Only RGB images are supported at this time. CMYK images are converted to RGB by QuickTime using an unknown transform so are only useful for loose reference.
- Plotting the image data along with the RGB profile for the image or the profile for an output device is an effective visualization tool.
- If the image has no embedded profile, the current RGB monitor profile is used to perform the conversions.
- If a different profile is desired, export the image’s colors into a color list and apply the profile to the color list. (see instructions below)
- The absolute colorimetric rendering intent is used to convert from RGB to Lab color. If a different intent is desired, export to a color list as above.
- Due to memory and processing limitations, images are downsampled to fit within 100x100 pixels prior to conversion. A 100x100 image contains 10,000 colors, which is typically enough to visualize an image’s colorspace. Please contact CHROMiX for information regarding plotting larger image samples.
- For greater speed and control, images may be cropped and/or resampled in Photoshop prior to opening in ColorThink.
To Export images colors to a list
- Select “Image:Export Color List...”
Image Inspector will convert image colors to a Color List for further graphing or processing. Please see instructions above for more information concerning how these conversions take place.
Go on to the next section: ColorThink Tutorials