Friday, July 31, 2009

Much to do, but color is on the march

"Real life" has again been conspiring to keep me distracted. Of course that really is the norm rather than the exception; we need to be able to complete despite distrations, not wait until distractions are done. However that is a topic for another time.

The main thing I wanted to address was in relation to color. Especially at and since the last LGM there has been a lot going on in regards to color and open source. As a last-minute fill-in I did a shorted presentation of my talk on why color management is needed. Ginger Coons made a presentation that included an artists'/designer's approach to needing better color standards, and GIMP and Scribus were among the others to touch on color, standards, etc.

Since then the collaboration with software developers and designers has made some significant progress. The most important is in establishing working relationships with various vendors in many countries. Things are not quite ready for formal announcements, but many companies involved in color, printing, inks, paints, etc. have been talking with open source developers and advocates. Now we haven't gotten say the 500 pound gorilla on board (yet), but those leading the charge have been making some very solid contacts and commitments.

Of the companies out there, I do want to make note of New-Zealand-based color vendor Resene. They've been extremely committed and helpful. For a bit more, you can check out the note in this rant by Christoph Schäfer. And, of course, if anyone would like to help in this area, or knows someone or something, feel free to track down Christoph and talk.

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