Re: [Fsfe-uk] Content creation

[Carsten Agger]

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Ian Lynch wrote:

> So you have to map RGB to CMYK and it has been done in quite a few
> proprietary products so there is some sort of mathematical relationship.
> Sounds like a university applied maths project. Ok, I'm probably missing
> a lot but if that relationship was cracked and put out into the public
> domain surely it would be then relatively easy to build software to
> implement it? The mathematics wouldn't be patentable would it? 

If it were that simple it would probably already be  done.

In the document linked earlier,

http://rants.scribus.net/2006/06/03/why-no-cmyk-in-gimp-is-a-good-thing-now/

there's some parts which explain a bit further why it's not so easy:

"Those who have not worked on a project like Scribus or GIMP or Inkscape
may not be aware how difficult it is to make CMYK work properly. We are
rightfully proud of the CMYK and color management capabilities in
Scribus. But it is not perfect and we still have more work to do there ...

[To implement CMYK] you need developers who have pre-press and print
design know how — very different from RGB/Web/Video image editing ...

You need end users who understand how to use these features properly,
willing to dedicate time and effort to test and guide the developers
where they are right and wrong ...

You need a testing environment which is capable of testing CMYK output
in a realistic fashion. We were blessed early in Scribus’s life to have
clients who allowed me in early days to run and test Scribus in a real
world pre-press environment where you could compare Scribus’s and other
application’s output side by side. Bring heaps of money to recreate that
from scratch. ;-)

Think about spending tens of thousands in special pre-press software and
special equipment. Then, a bunch more time to learn how to configure and
calibrate these bits properly."

Which means that since the GIMP is a free software project with a
limited number of ressources and developers, it's perhaps not surprising
they haven't got round to doing this yet. Anyone who feels strongly
enough about it is more or less welcome to contribute in some way or
another, I'm sure :-)

However, the good news is that GEGL and CMYK and spot colours should be
arriving in Gimp 2.6 ... which, alas,  is however not very forthcoming,
as 2.4 was only just released.

br
Carsten

- --
http://www.modspil.dk


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