Introduction & Overview

From ColorWiki

Contents 1 Purpose of this documentation 2 System Requirements 2.1 Macintosh 2.2 Windows 3 Overview 3.1 ColorThink Tool Set 3.1.1 Drag and Drop 3.1.2 Color Tabs 3.1.3 Add: Menu 3.2 Additional Menu Functions 3.2.1 About Box 3.2.2 ColorThink 2.3 > Preferences...

Purpose of this documentation

This documentation is intended as a description of the CHROMiX ColorThink tool set and not as a manual concerning color management, the building of ICC color profiles, or the use of profiles in a production workflow.

Tutorials have been supplied in the “Tutorial” section to aid in the use of ColorThink and to help communicate some of the intended uses of the application. They should not be considered the only uses of this tool set and it is sincerely hoped that any novel uses of these tools will be communicated back to CHROMiX so they may be included in future tutorials.

It is assumed that the user is far enough along the knowledge of color management that they understand what a profile is and have used profiles in a basic way in their workflow. Basic use of the computer operating system in use and user interface (pointing, clicking, dragging, dropping and so forth) is also assumed. Please refer to the documentation that came with your computer and your color management tools for more information.

System Requirements

Macintosh

• A Macintosh computer with a PowerPC or Intel processor
• Mac OS X 10.1 or later
• 10MB of available RAM, 15-20 MB is suggested if large images or color lists are in use

Windows

• Intel or compatible CPU 2.0GHz recommended
• 1024x768 display, True Color
• 1GB RAM suggested

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ColorThink is physically composed of a single application with several supporting files and folders. All files are gathered in two locations

Mac OS X

• {user}/Library/Preferences/CHROMiX ColorThink: - this folder contains the main ColorThink preferences file as well as the “Profile Manager Sets” folder. The “Profile Manager Sets” folder contains the sets the user may create when enabling and disabling profiles in the Profile Manager.

• Application Folder – this folder contains the ColorThink application as well as its subfolders. It is suggested that you always keep the ColorThink application and it’s subfolders together in the same folder on your hard disk. ColorThink will search inside these folders for required and optional files it needs as it runs. The ColorThink subfolders contain:

Profiles – place any favorite profiles in this folder and they will appear in all Add: menus (see below for more information regarding the Add: menu)

Stunt Files – these are data and image files supplied with ColorThink for use as examples, in evaluating profiles, or in the Tutorial section of this manual

Demo Files – contains the demo profiles and image file used when ColorThink runs in demonstration mode (without a serial number).

Windows

• Most of the supporting files are located in the same folder as the ColorThink program. This is usually found here:

C>Program Files>CHROMiX>ColorThink

Overview

ColorThink is a complete tool set for managing, repairing, evaluating and graphing ICC profiles.

There are software tools available for building and editing ICC-compliant color profiles. There are, however, very few tools available for handling profiles once they have been built.

ColorThink allows the user to

• Organize profiles and simplify one’s system
• Open any ICC-compliant profile and explore its color contents as well as its header fields and tag database
• Perform comprehensive 16-point checks on all installed profiles and repair problems if possible
• Modify both the internal and external profile names to clarify profile contents and purposes and how they appear in application menus
• Graph profile gamuts and other color information in two and three dimensions
• Open images and inspect, remove, and embed profiles
• Create device link profiles

ColorThink Tool Set

The ColorThink tool set is composed of eight distinct tools that are designed to work together whenever possible.

Profiles, colors, and images are objects that can be inspected, listed, and graphed as appropriate. The interface has been designed to present a view as consistent as possible of each object. Interface elements such as icons are used throughout to represent each object type.

The icons and interface elements used for the objects are:

Each of the major tools in ColorThink is described in its own chapter. The overall user interface design strategy and additional menu and tool choices are supplied in this chapter:

Drag and Drop

The Macintosh user interface feature “Drag and Drop” has been used extensively throughout the ColorThink tool set. Adding profiles to graphs or other tools and moving colors around is often just a matter of dragging them from one window into another. If a tool window has an icon in the upper left corner, the icon can be dragged “by proxy” to other locations. More detail is supplied with each tool on how and where to drag these icons.

Drag color files such as profiles, images and color lists onto the ColorThink application icon to open them using ColorThink.

When in either the Finder or ColorThink, profiles, images and color lists can be dragged onto:

• the menu bar area to open them
• any open graph to add them to the graph
• any menu bar button to perform that tool’s action on the file in question
• other locations described in each tool’s chapter.

Dragging items from lists or by proxy is an effective method of adding items to lists, graphing them, or performing other actions. Please refer to each tool’s description for full details.

Color Tabs

Whenever a specific color is displayed in ColorThink it is shown as a color tab. Color tabs share the same behaviors wherever they are shown.

• The color is displayed accurately on your monitor using the monitor profile specified in the ColorSync Control panel.
• If the color is outside the gamut of your monitor, a small black or white triangle “tick” appears in the upper right corner of the tab. Its color will be rendered as closely as possible but may not be precisely accurate due to the limitations of your monitor.
• Clicking on the bottom white area of the tab will open it and display more information. In most cases the Lab value for the tab will be displayed but in some cases device colors (for example CMYK values) are displayed.
• Dragging the tab by clicking on the top colored-portion allows you to move the tab:

• From profiles to graphs or color lists
• Between color lists

Add: Menu

The Add: menu is a popup menu that appears in several tools including the 2D and 3D Graphers and the Profile Linker. The Add: menu contains:

• All open color items such as profiles, images and color lists
• All color items listed in the “Profiles” folder in the ColorThink application folder. This folder is supplied as a method of listing often-used profiles such as popular Photoshop working spaces, the user’s monitor or printer profiles, and so forth. These are the files that show up when you click the Add: button.

Use this menu to quickly add color items to the tool in which it appears.

Note to Windows users: All profiles on the Windows platform generally reside in one folder, residing deep in the folder structure and sometimes hard to remember or navigate to: C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\color

In addition to rest of the system profiles, the Add: button lists any profiles you have placed in the ColorThink Profiles folder. This can be a great aid in finding popular profiles quickly. This folder is found here:

C:/Program Files/CHROMiX ColorThink Pro/Profiles

Additional Menu Functions

About Box

The About ColorThink is opened from the "ColorThink 2.3" menu item (Mac) or the "Window" menu item (Windows).
This window contains:

• The current ColorThink application version
• Credits
• Links for updates, feedback, and CHROMiX and other web sites. These links use the settings in your Internet Config or Internet control panels to find the appropriate Web browser or email application. If they do not function correctly, consult the Internet control panel and configure it to use your Web browser and email applications.

ColorThink 2.3 > Preferences...

Settings for multiple ColorThink tools and overall functions are set in the “Preferences” dialog. Some of these references are also set in individual tool windows. If set in either location, they are saved to disk and used for future sessions.

Next Section: Profile Manager & Profile Inspector

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