ICM-aware image viewer?

Hi!

Are there any [free] ICM-Aware picture/image/photo viewers out there? I
have just calibrated my monitor and now only Photoshop supports color
management.

Are there any free programs, like IrfanView, that support color
management, namely monitor profiles?

Thanks,
Miha.

On 18 Apr 2006 13:41:07 -0700, wrote:

Hi!

Are there any [free] ICM-Aware picture/image/photo viewers out there? I
have just calibrated my monitor and now only Photoshop supports color
management.

Are there any free programs, like IrfanView, that support color
management, namely monitor profiles?

Thanks,
Miha.


Hello, Miha.

I think you've asked a very good question.
I'm a bit puzzled myself. But it's late...

AFAIK, hardware monitor profilers usually perform
both calibration and profiling -- two different tasks.

I can rationalize part of it by noting that *calibration*
works independently of color management.

But even so, I'm not sure how my image viewer
(XnView) accounts for the fact that the image is
in AdobeRGB.


rafe b
www.terrapinphoto.com

What you see on your monitor is what you see on your monitor.
A calibration program, e.g. Monaco or Spyder, inserts itself into the video
card driver before any program shows you anything.
Many programs will open tif, jpeg and even psd files as long as they are
recorded in a recognizable manner, which primarily means sRGB or AdobeRGB.
I am not aware of any programs that will recognize a tiff file that
Photoshop records with a non-standard profile like LAB or CMYK.
Why you would want a cheapie program to view or interconvert unusual
profiles, which may cause irreversible loss of data from the image by the
conversion, is something I do not understand.

On Wed, 19 Apr 2006 03:00:49 GMT, "bmoag" wrote:

What you see on your monitor is what you see on your monitor.
A calibration program, e.g. Monaco or Spyder, inserts itself into the video
card driver before any program shows you anything.
Many programs will open tif, jpeg and even psd files as long as they are
recorded in a recognizable manner, which primarily means sRGB or AdobeRGB.
I am not aware of any programs that will recognize a tiff file that
Photoshop records with a non-standard profile like LAB or CMYK.
Why you would want a cheapie program to view or interconvert unusual
profiles, which may cause irreversible loss of data from the image by the
conversion, is something I do not understand.


I'm with you except for this part: does the viewer
read the image file's workspace tag and adjust
the RGB values accordingly?

In what way would an AdobeRGB file be treated
differently from an sRGB file?


rafe b
www.terrapinphoto.com

On 18 Apr 2006 13:41:07 -0700, wrote:

Hi!

Are there any [free] ICM-Aware picture/image/photo viewers out there? I
have just calibrated my monitor and now only Photoshop supports color
management.

Are there any free programs, like IrfanView, that support color
management, namely monitor profiles?

Faststone image viewer supports color management and works for jpeg
and tiff files that have embedded profiles. I am currently running
v2.5b2. A very nice feature rich free viewer, I might add.
www.faststone.org
--
jimbok

On 19 Apr 2006 06:05:50 -0700, wrote:

jimbok, thanks for the tip.

Raphael, I will also take a look at XnView, if it is ICM aware.


As far as I can tell, it is *not*. But I still use it.

I can't speak for other image browsers. jimbok
says Faststone is ICC-aware. I have that also,
but I'm less familiar with it. Like XnView, it's free.


rafe b
www.terrapinphoto.com

On Wed, 19 Apr 2006 09:29:02 -0400, Raphael Bustin
wrote:


I can't speak for other image browsers. jimbok
says Faststone is ICC-aware. I have that also,
but I'm less familiar with it. Like XnView, it's free.

I should have mentioned that you have to turn on color management in
Faststone's "settings" menu. It is not the default setting.
--
jimbok

Raphael Bustin wrote:




I'm with you except for this part: does the viewer
read the image file's workspace tag and adjust
the RGB values accordingly?

In what way would an AdobeRGB file be treated
differently from an sRGB file?



You're right, the monitor profile is used by the OS for EVERY application
once it's calibrated but most viewers assume the image is sRGB and don't
understand or even look at the color tags so aRGB images aren't displayed
correctly, they are displayed like they were sRGB ones.

That's why I tell people I teach, if you don't understand color management
well or really need aRGB, stick with sRGB. It makes life a lot less
complex!

--

Stacey