Inside Macintosh: Advanced Color Imaging on the Mac OS /

Chapter 6 - Developing ColorSync-Supportive Device Drivers

This chapter describes how you can use the ColorSync Manager to provide ColorSync-supportive device drivers for peripherals. It first describes the three classes of devices--input, display, and output--that the ColorSync Manager supports.

This chapter describes what you must do to provide minimum ColorSync support. Then, using a QuickDraw-based printer device driver as an example, it describes some of the color-matching features that a device driver can provide, focusing on features offered through a user interface.

Although the features described here are commonly provided by printer device drivers, they can also be provided by other applications that support the ColorSync Manager. "Developing ColorSync-Supportive Applications" (page 4-3) provides hints that will benefit your development of a ColorSync-supportive device driver and code samples that illustrate approaches you can take in implementing processes, such as extracting an embedded profile, that you may want your driver to perform.

You need to read this chapter if your device driver for an input, display, or output device will support the ColorSync Manager and allow users of the peripheral supported by the driver to produce images that can be color matched or that are color matched.

Before you read this chapter, you should read "Introduction to the ColorSync Manager." It explains color theory and color management systems (CMSs), provides an overview of the ColorSync Manager CMS, including the use of profiles, and explains many key terms.

For additional ColorSync Manager reference, including enumerations, data structures, functions, and result codes for applications and device drivers, see "ColorSync Manager Reference for Applications and Device Drivers" in Advanced Color Imaging Reference.

If you are creating your own CMM, you should also read "Developing Color Management Modules" (page 5-3) in this book and the "ColorSync Manager Reference for Color Management Modules" (page 4-3) in Advanced Color Imaging Reference.

In addition to one or more profiles for the device, device drivers that support the ColorSync Manager can provide their own color management module (CMM) created to perform the best possible color matching for the device the driver supports. Peripherals manufacturers can obtain CMMs and profiles from vendors who create them, or they can create their own profiles and CMMs. For a list of profile vendors, contact Apple Computer's Developer Technical Support organization.

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Chapter Contents

About ColorSync-Supportive Device Driver Development

The ColorSync Manager Programming Interface

Devices and Their Profiles

The Profile Format and Its Cross-Platform Use

Storing and Handling Device Profiles

How You Use Profiles

Devices and Color Management Modules

Providing ColorSync-Supportive Device Drivers

Providing Minimum Support

Providing More Extensive ColorSync Support

Developing Your ColorSync Supportive Device Driver

Determining if the ColorSync Manager Is Available

Interacting With the User

Searching for Profiles and Displaying Their Names to the User

Defining Search Criteria

Running the Search

Obtaining References to the Qualifying Profiles

Getting the Names of Qualifying Profiles

Setting the Rendering Intent Selected by the User

Setting the Color-Matching Quality Selected by the User

Color Matching an Image to Be Printed