[scribus] Colour Profiles

[John Beardmore]

davecs wrote:

> I find Scribus an incredible layout program which I have used on Linux since
> version 0.8. Because it's Free, Opensource software, not all users will want
> perfection in colours, or professional standards, just a simple way of
> matching what they see on the printer to what is on the screen. Maybe a test
> page where you give it a photo to print, and instead of printing one copy,
> it prints 9, 16 or even 25 on one sheet, numbered, and asks what is nearest
> to what you see on screen. The number you choose reflects the balance of the
> final print.
> 
> Apart from the occasional newsletter, where colour accuracy is not an issue,
> I use Scribus to print photos to fit frames. For example if I have a few
> 15cm x 10cm ( 6" x 4") clip frames, I can make three software frames that
> size, adjust the dimensions of the pictures so I get the part I want to see
> in the real frame, printed, and rotating the frames if necessary, fit 3 onto
> an A4 sheet of photo paper. I don't need professional colour accuracy, I
> just want it to be pleasing to my eye.
> 
> So maybe what I really want is that, alongside the use of icc profiles etc.,
> there is also a "quick and dirty" method. I get the impression that John
> Beardmore wants something similar.

It's certainly true that 'pleasing to the eye' is the main thing for 
most of our work.

If I take a picture of a bit of equipment to put in a report, I want its 
technical details to be clearly visible. If it's not quite the right 
shade of pinky russet that's not too critical, but if the images that 
look OK on screen and in PDF viewers print too dark when I make paper 
copies, that is a problem.

I'm not really interested given the number of machines I work on, and 
the varying light levels in those rooms, in calibrating my world, never 
mind in having a different profile for each of the many kinds of paper I 
might use.

But it would be dead handy when printing without colour management, to 
be able to use something like the Gimp Tools->Colour Tools->Curves 
control to adjust the output when printing from Scribus.

I appreciate that for many of you in a professional printing these
thoughts are perhaps close to blasphemy, but I wouldn't be at all 
surprised if the majority of Scribus users never use colour management 
at all, and it would be nice for those of us that fall into that 
category to have some quick and dirty control that gets the job done 
adequately.

I suspect that outside the publishing and printing industries, colour 
management is just more trouble than it's worth, and I'm sure a lot of 
people are making fantastic use of Scribus outside of printing and 
publishing, and the work flows generally associated with those industries.


Cheers, J/.
-- 
John Beardmore, MSc EDM (Open), B.A. Chem (Oxon), CMIOSH, AIEMA, MEI
Managing Director, T4 Sustainability Limited. http://www.T4sLtd.co.uk/
Energy Audit, Carbon Management, Design Advice, Sustainable Energy
Consultancy and Installation, Carbon Trust Standard Registered Assessor
Phone: 0845 4561332   Mobile: 07785 563116   Skype: t4sustainability