Chapter 2. Color Management in Windows XP

In this chapter, you'll learn about the benefits of having color management functionality built into .he operating system; how to assign profiles to devices, such as displays and printers, from within Windows XP; how the Color control panel in Windows XP centralizes the setup of color management settings; and the difference between applications that use color management in the operating system and those that implement their own color management.

Download Chapter 2 files from www.peachpit.com/xpcolor.

This chapter takes approximately 60 minutes to complete.

Color management is most effective when it is an integral part of your tools and workflow. A solid color management strategy involves using applications that are color management aware, having high-quality profiles for your devices, and consistently applying color management throughout your workflow.

However, this strategy won't take you very far if your operating system doesn't also include some sort of core color management system, because the operating system is the one piece of the equation that interacts with all the components in your color management workflow.

Microsoft has developed a system-level color management implementa-tion called Image Color Management (ICM), which is a bit of a misnomer because the system isn't limited to color managing only images. ICM was first introduced with Windows 95, and now ICM 2.0 can be used with all applications that are based on the Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition (Me), Windows 2000, and Windows XP operating systems.