[cairo] Spot colors (and CMYK)

[Chris Murphy]

For an extreme example, imagine newsprint CMYK being the alternate CMYK space for the spot color. Almost no matter what spot color you'd choose, the original color is obliterated (lost forever) by being converted to CMYK. You can't go back to the original color unless you have a reference to the original color either by name or a LAB color (based on a reference medium).

If we want to be forward thinking with new architectures for a modern world, if anything we should be considering encoding spot colors with spectral data, if available. From that we can deduce illuminant specific colorimetry, estimate metamerism (failure) for various lighting conditions, absolute colorimetry for color appearance based implementations, as well as relative colorimetry for existing color management implementations, as well as densitometry for process control purposes.

Integration of spectral data to tristimulus values is simple math. Floating point not required. And empowers future and downstream workflows as well as supports legacy ones.


Chris Murphy
Color Remedies (TM)
New York, NY
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Co-author "Real World Color Management, 2nd Ed"