Re: [Openexr-devel] Color Management Proposal / Siggraph meeting

[Chris Cox]

A few notes:

A paint program does not necessarily paint directly into the display 
framebuffer - it paints into an offscreen buffer and transforms the 
color data to the display framebuffer.  Thus the painting may exist 
in a colorspace totally unrelated to the display device(s) used.

So paintings should have an image colorspace, with no reference to 
the display or framebuffer.
The inverse display transform should not be involved unless you are 
dealing with a primitive paint system that does draw directly to the 
framebuffer (at which point you simply use the display profile for 
the image colorspace).



There is already a well known and well used framework for describing 
color transformations: ICC profiles. They do have limitations with 
regard to HDR data - but that could be fixed.  Defining yet another 
color transformation syntax seems a bit silly.

Yes, the concept you describe is sound:  because it is a subset of 
the well proven concepts already in use within the ICC color 
management framework available in many professional applications and 
implemented in common desktop OSes.

Chris