Summary of New Features in ColorSync 2.5

New Profile Folder Location

Earlier versions of ColorSync placed the ColorSync Profiles folder inside the Preferences folder. Version 2.5 places that folder at the first level inside the System folder. For backward compatibility, ColorSync may put an alias to the original folder inside the new profiles folder.

For more information, see Location of the ColorSync Profiles Folder .

Subfolders and Aliases

You can now organize profiles by storing them in one level of subfolders within the profiles folder. You can also store aliases to other profiles and profile folders. Profile searching includes all profiles in any of these locations.

For more information, see Profile Search Locations .

Optimized Profile Searching

ColorSync 2.5 uses a cache file to keep track of currently-installed profiles. A flexible new routine, CMIterateColorSyncFolder , takes advantage of the profile cache to perform fast profile searches and provide profile information quickly.

For more information, see Optimized Profile Searching .

Monitor Calibration Framework and Per/Monitor Profiles

ColorSync 2.5 uses the Monitors & Sound control panel to provide a monitor calibration framework and per/monitor profiles. Among the features:

• You can select a separate profile for each available monitor.
• You can calibrate monitors and, for each monitor, create one or more color profiles (based on variations in gamma, white point, and so on).
• Apple provides a default calibration plug-in, but you can create your own calibration plug-in or use third-party versions. You can choose from any available calibrator to create a monitor profile.

For more information, see Monitor Calibration and Profiles .

Scripting Support

ColorSync 2.5 provides an extensible AppleScript framework that allows users to script many common tasks. Among the features:

• Scriptable operations include setting the system profile, matching an image, and embedding a profile in an image.
• Several sample scripts demonstrate how to automate repetitive tasks.
• The scripting framework uses a plug-in architecture that is fully accessible to third-party scripting plug-ins.

For more information, see Scripting Support .

Multiprocessor Support

ColorSync's default Color Matching Module, or CMM, is supplied by Apple Computer and Linotype-Hell. The default CMM now supports multiple processors for some color matching functions:

• Multiprocessor support is transparent to your code--it is invoked automatically when the required conditions are met.
• Matching algorithms take advantage of multiple processors with up to 95% efficiency. As a result, an operation can be performed nearly twice as fast when two processors are available. Performance is scalable.

For more information, see Multiprocessor Support .

Sixteen-bit Channel Support

ColorSync Manager 2.5 and the default CMM supplied by Apple Computer and Linotype-Hell now support 16-bits-per-channel color spaces. The new formats supported are:

• RBG stored in 48 bits per pixel
• CMYK stored in 64 bits per pixel
• Lab stored in 48 bits per pixel

To make use of these new spaces, you specify one of the following constants in the color space field (space ) of the CMBitmap structure:

cmRGB48Space
cmCMYK64Space
cmLAB48Space

Flexibility in Choosing CMMs and Default Profiles

The ColorSync control panel, which replaces the ColorSync^TM System Profile control panel, now lets you choose a preferred CMM from any CMMs that are present.

Other changes include the following:

• ColorSync previously supported only one default profile--the RGB "System" profile. Users can now use the ColorSync control panel to set default profiles for RGB and CMYK color spaces as well.
• ColorSync provides functions your code can call to get and set default color space profiles for RGB, CMYK, Lab, and XYZ color spaces.

For more detail, see Setting Default Color Space Profiles and the Preferred CMM .

Additional Features

Version 2.5 of the ColorSync Manager ships with the following additional features:

• The Kodak Color Matching Module (available as an install option). Some cross-platform applications use the Kodak Color Management System on the Windows platform. Users working with Macintosh versions of those applications can use the Kodak CMM to ensure consistent output.
• New versions of the ColorSync Photoshop plug-ins that take advantage of ColorSync 2.5. The Filter plug-in is accessible from the Photoshop "Filters" menu, while the Export and Import filters are accessible from the "File" menu.
• Commonly-requested profiles, including SWOP (standard web offset press) and sRGB (standardized RGB monitor).
• Support for an optional video card gamma tag in profiles. For more information, see Video Card Gamma .
• A ColorPicker Manager extension that works with ColorSync 2.x.