58cv网址导航A Standard Default Color Space for the Internet - sRGB
Note: This document is obsolete, and is retained here for historical purposes only. It was published on 5 November 1996, as a proposal specification for sRGB as a standard default color space. sRGB has since been standardized within the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) as IEC . During standardization, a small numerical error caused by rounding error was corrected. The viewing conditions were also clarified.
specifically references "Multimedia systems and equipment - Colour measurement and management - Part 2-1: Colour management - Default RGB colour space - sRGB". IEC
(1999-10) ISBN: 2- - ICS codes: 33.160.60, 37.080 - TC 100 - 51 pp. as amended by Amendment A1:2003.
The latest official sRGB specification may also be purchased from the .
A Standard Default Color Space for
the Internet - sRGB
Michael Stokes (Hewlett-Packard), Matthew
Anderson (Microsoft),
Srinivasan Chandrasekar (Microsoft), Ricardo
Motta (Hewlett-Packard)
Version 1.10, November 5, 1996
Introduction
Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft propose the addition
of support for a standard color space, sRGB, within the Microsoft
operating systems, HP products,
the Internet, and all other interested
vendors. The aim of this color space is to complement the current
color management strategies by enabling a third method of handling
color in the operating systems, device drivers and the Internet
that utilizes a simple and robust device independent color definition.
This will provide good quality and backward compatibility with
minimum transmission and system overhead. Based on a calibrated
colorimetric RGB color space well suited to Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)
monitors, television, scanners, digital cameras, and printing
systems, such a space can be supported with minimum cost to software
and hardware vendors. Our intent here is to promote its adoption
by showing the benefits of supporting a standard color space,
and the suitability of
the standard color space, sRGB, we are
proposing.
We will describe some of the system issues and propose
a methodology for to implement support for sRGB and color management
on the World Wide Web.
A Perceived Need
Recently the
has proposed breakthrough solutions to problems in
communicating color in open systems. Yet the ICC profile format does
not provide a complete solution for all situations.
Currently, the ICC has one means of tracking and
ensuring that a color is correctly mapped from the input to the
output color space. This is done by attaching a profile for the
input color space to the image in question. This is appropriate
for high end users. However, there are a broad range of users
that do not require this level of flexibility and control. Additionally,
most existing file formats do not, and may never support color
profile embedding, and finally, there are a broad range of uses
actually discourage people from appending any extra data to their
files. A common standard RGB color space addresses these issues
and is useful and necessary.
We expect application developers and users that do
not want the overhead of embedding profiles with documents or
images to convert them to a common color space and store them
in that format. Currently there is a plethora of RGB monitor color
spaces attempting to fill this void with little guidance or attempts
at standards. There is a need to merge the many standard and non-standard
RGB monitor spaces into a single standard RGB color space. Such
a standard could dramatically improve the color fidelity in the
desktop environment. For example, if operating system vendors
provide support for a standard RGB color space, the input and
output device vendors that support this standard color space could
easily and confidently communicate color without further color
management overhead in the most common situations. The three major
factors of this RGB space are the colorimetric RGB definition,
the equivalent gamma value of 2.2 and the well-defined viewing
conditions, along with a number of secondary details necessary
to enable the clear and unambiguous communication of color.
Colorimetric RGB
The dichotomy between the device dependent (e.g.
amounts of ink expressed in CMYK or digitized video voltages expressed
in RGB) and device independent color spaces (such as CIELAB or
CIEXYZ) has created a performance burden on applications that
have attempted to avoid device color spaces. This is primarily
due to the complexity of the color transforms they need to perform
to return the colors to device dependent color spaces. This situation
is worsened by a reliability gap between the complexity and variety
of the transforms, making it hard to ensure that the system is
properly configured.
To address these concerns and serve the needs of
PC and Web based color imaging systems, we propose a colorimetric
RGB specification that is based on the average performance of
personal computer displays. This solution is supported by the
following observations:
Most computer monitors are similar in their key
color characteristics - the phosphor chromaticities (primaries)
and transfer function
RGB spaces are native to displays, scanners and
digital cameras, which are the devices with the highest performance
constraints
RGB spaces can be made device independent in
a straightforward way. They can also describe color gamuts that
are large enough for all but a small number of applications.
This combination of factors makes a colorimetric
RGB space well suited for wide adoption since it can both describe
the colors in an unambiguous way and be the native space for actual
hardware devices. This, many readers will recognize, describes
in a roundabout way what has been the practice in color television
for some 45 years. This proven methodology provides excellent
performance where it is needed the most, the fast display of images
in CRT monitors.
Gamma and the desired CRT gamma of 2.2
For computer software and hardware designers the
most significant aspect of the proposed space is the 2.2 CRT gamma.
Because gamma correction tends to be a topic surrounded by confusion,
it is worthwhile spending a few paragraphs discussing it.
Definitions of gamma
We start this discussion by defining four separate
aspects of gamma.
viewing gamma - the
overall system gamma that we want to obtain and is typically computed
by multiplying the camera gamma by the display gamma as shown
camera gamma - the characteristic of the image sensor or
video camera standard transfer
CRT gamma -
of the physical CRT.
LUT gamma -
of the frame buffer lookup table
display gamma -
&display system& gamma downstream of the frame buffer
which is typically computed by multiplying the CRT gamma by the
LUT gamma as shown below.
These definitions have been kindly provided by the
included in the PNG file format specification available at
These definitions do not describe the individual gamma
parameter in equation 0.4 below. Instead, they describe the resulting
power parameter of the appropriate transfer function when fit
by a power function. It is extremely important to keep this distinction
clear or else one implicitly assumes equations 0.4 and 0.5 are
equivalent and the system black level is truly 0.0 and the system
gain is 1.0.
Viewing Gamma
The reason that a viewing gamma of 1.125 is used
instead of 1.0 is to compensate for the viewing environment conditions,
including ambient illumination and flare. Historically, viewing
gammas of 1.5 have been used for viewing projected slides in a
dark room and viewing gammas of 1.25 have been used for viewing
monitors in a very dim room. This very dim room value of 1.25
has been used extensively in television systems and assumes a
ambient luminance level of approximately 15 lux. The current proposal
assumes an encoding ambient luminance level of 64 lux which is
more representative of a dim room in viewing computer generated
imagery. Such a system assumes a viewing gamma of 1.125 and is
thus consistent with the 709 standard described below. While we
believe that the typical office or home viewing environment actually
has an ambient luminance level around 200 lux, we found it impractical
to attempt to account for the resulting large levels of flare
that resulted. In addition, recent work by the ISO JTAG2 standards
committee supports the ambient luminance level of 64 lux.
If the viewing condition is different from the standard,
then the decoding process must compensate. This can be done by
modifying the gamma values in equation 1.2 below by the appropriate
factor. If one does modify the gamma values in equation 1.2 below,
extreme care must be taken to avoid quantization errors when working
with 24 bit images and high viewing flare levels.
The ITU-R BT.709 transfer function in combination
with its target monitor is attempting to achieve a viewing gamma
of 1.125 by incorrectly assuming a CRT gamma of 2.5 and an LUT
gamma of 1.0/2.222 as shown in the equation below. The justification
of a viewing gamma value of 1.125 is described below in the section
on viewing environment compensation.
Using the actual power function fit value for the
709 transfer function of 1.0/1.956 and maintaining the display
gamma of 1.125, we can solve for the ideal target monitor gamma
of 2.2. This is consistent with the CRT gamma value proposed in
this paper.
Camera Gamma
The camera gamma 1.0/2.2 was the standard for television
camera encoding before the advent of color TVs and was formalized
in 1953 with the NTSC broadcast television standards. More recently
ITU-R BT.709 has been adopted internationally and contains camera
gamma of 1.0/1.956. The actual exponent factor in the 709 transfer
function is 1.0/2.222. Despite the fact that the exponent of the
709 function is 1.0/2.222, the actual 709 encoding transfer function
is closer to a CRT gamma of 1.0/1.956 than 1.0/2.222. This is
due to the large offset of 0.099 in the transfer function equation.
This is well matched to the eye's own non-linearity and it helps
minimize transmission noise in the dark areas.
Broadcast television camera gamma standards and the
ITU-R BT.709 standard in particular defines the transformation
of real world CIEXYZ tristimulus values into a target RGB monitor
space. This is essentially a composite of
one from real world CIEXYZ tristimulus values into standard monitor
CIEXYZ tristimulus values and one from these standard monitor
CIEXYZ tristimulus values into standard monitor rgb values. The
resulting image is not an exact appearance match of the original
scene, but instead is a preferred reproduction of the original
scene that is consistent with the limitations of a monitor.
Because all television sets have to display content
generated with this encoding, it was very important for all CRT
gamma designs to conform to it. Only recently has the computer
monitor market become as large as the TV market. As a result,
most computer monitors still perform optimally with imagery using
with a camera gamma value of approximately 1.0/1.956
The non-linearity of the electro-optical radiation
transfer function of CRTs is often expressed by a mathematical
power function exponent parameter called gamma. This transfer
function describes how much visible radiant energy (cd/m2)
results from voltages applied to the CRT electron-gun. Because
most of the other characteristics of CRT based computer monitors
are linear (including DACs and video amplifiers) the resulting
transfer function has the same gamma value determining its non-linearity.
Where k1 and k2 are the system
gain and offset, D is the normalized pixel value, A is the maximum
luminance of the CRT and I is the resulting luminance. This equation
and a thorough analysis of the CRT characteristics and history
are well described in &An Analytical Model for the Colorimetric
Characterization of Color CRTs& by Ricardo Motta, Rochester
Institute of Technology, 1991.
The key point that we wish to convey here is that
gamma component of the CRT gamma is dependent only on the electron
gun design, and the vast majority of monitors and TV sets in use
today are based on designs that result, on average, in the value
2.2 for gamma component of the CRT gamma and a 2.2 overall CRT
gamma value when typical system gain and offsets are optimally
set. Most of the variation between computer monitors and between
TV sets are due to the differences in system gain and offsets
(k1 and k2), which are partially under control
of the user in the form of contrast and brightness knobs. Unfortunately,
the actual set-up is often not known, but the best CRT performance
happens when the system offset puts the dark parts of the images
at the CRT cut-off, i.e. the black (pixel value 0) parts of the
CRT image are just about to emit light. Under these conditions
equation 0.4 above becomes
and the monitor has the widest-dynamic range. Unfortunately,
this is not the common condition. Unfortunately the simplified
form in equation 0.5 is what is usually found in the computer
literature.
There are significant variations, with widest variations
being in the set-up and screen reflectivity (older and less expensive
display can reflect up to 20% of the ambient light). These factors
typically can not be characterized a priori since they might change
in the course of the day (ambient light) and at the whim of the
user (by modifying contrast and brightness). Yet, in practice,
the process tends to be self-regulatory, with users looking for
darker places to set their monitors and modifying the controls
to re-establish the expected display appearance. Exhaustive testing
carried on at Hewlett-Packard on VGA computer monitors from many
brands has shown the average CRT gamma to be indeed 2.2, with
a standard deviation of about 0.2.
Two special circumstances will lead computer systems
to systematically deviate from the 2.2 CRT gamma and the 1.0 LUT
gamma that we propose - color dithering for 16 color systems
and system imposed gamma correction via look-up-tables (LUT).
The first of course was very common until a few years
ago. Until about 1993 most Windows PCs were well described by
a display gamma of 1.8 because despite having 2.2 CRT gamma systems,
the colors were dithered into the 4 bit frame buffers, resulting
in a flattening of the system transfer function. This happens
because screen dithering mixes colors linearly in the eye, making
it less dependent on the CRT non-linearity. Since currently most
Windows PC support 16 or 24 bit color modes, 2.2 CRT gamma
is now the average.
The second systematic deviation happens
when the graphics system in the computer hardware or software
imposes its own gamma correction. This is done for a variety of
reasons, but is usually an attempt to compromise between image
display and graphics/image processing performance (most computer
graphic rendering assumes linear radiation space, e.g. transparency
operations, and so does image processing, e.g. scaling and filtering).
The gamma correcting of image data can be described by applying
an exponent to the image data. For the Macintosh the display gamma
is around 1.571 using a LUT gamma of 1.4 (2.2/1.4 = 1.571) and
for SGI workstations the display gamma is around 1.294 using a
LUT gamma of 1.7 (2.2/1.7 = 1.294).
There has been significant confusion derived from
assuming the CRT gamma value is identical to the exponent in equation
0.4. This has led to many claims of CRT gamma values of 2.5 for
video, 1.8 for the Apple Macintosh and 1.4 for SGI monitors. Unfortunately,
it has been our experience that this misconception is not well
founded in the actual physics of the displays and solid measurements.
sRGB and ITU-R BT.709 Compatibility
There has been some confusion in previous versions
of this proposal with respect to compatibility with the ITU-R
BT.709 standard. Many readers have also expressed concern for
compatibility with the 709 recommendation in general. After review,
the authors have confirmed the compatibility between this proposal
and the 709 recommendation. Unfortunately, the ITU-R BT.709 standard
can be somewhat confusing for many readers. Below is an attempt
to clarify and reduce this confusion.
For a single color space to achieve acceptance, it
must be objective, that is, have a tightly-defined relationship
with the CIE standards. We are fortunate to have obtained in April
1990 unanimous worldwide agreement on a calibrated nonlinear RGB
space for HDTV production and program exchange: Rec. ITU-R BT.709.
This recommendation specifies the encoding of real world scene
tristimulus values into a standard monitor RGB color space assuming
a dark viewing condition. HP and Microsoft suggest using these
parameters as the basis for the sRGB color space but with a dim
viewing condition which is closer to most typical viewing environments
for computer displayed imagery. Unfortunately the ITU specification
is rather vague on defining the target monitor. This paper attempts
to provide a clear and well defined target monitor for the Rec.
ITU-R BT.709 camera encoding standard for a dim viewing environment.
The ITU-R BT.709 standard specifically describes
the encoding transfer function for a video camera that when viewed
on a &standard& monitor will produce excellent image
quality. The implicit target of this encoding is a standard video
monitor whose transfer function or CRT gamma is not explicitly
delineated. Instead a typical monitor setup is assumed. This paper
attempts to explicitly describe a standard monitor setup that
is compatible with the 709-encoding standard.
This is illustrated in Figures 1-3 below. Figure
one is directly derived from the ITU-R BT.709 standard. This standard
provides mathematical methods to transform from tristimulus values
of the scene using a video camera into a reference monitor device
Figure two expands the implicit step of these methods
and shows the transformation between the original scene tristimulus
values into the target monitor tristimulus values. Since these
two viewing conditions are different, an implicit compensation
is made to account for these differences (i.e. flare and ambient
luminance). In order to provide an independent monitor reference
color space, the monitor compensation methods must be extracted
from this confounded compensation. This is precisely the goal
of the sRGB color space.
Figure three illustrates both the sRGB color space
and the extraction of the monitor only specifications implicit
within the ITU-R BT.709 standard. By producing such a monitor
space, one can then transfer the ITU-R BT.709 encoded signals
to other devices. By building on this system, the sRGB color space
provides a monitor definition that can be used independently from
the ITU-R BT.709 standard while maintain compatibility. This allows
for the well-defined transfer of color information across the
World Wide Web as described in the other section of this paper.
This sRGB recommendation essentially defines the
second part of this transformation between the target RGB monitor
space and the monitor CIEXYZ tristimulus values in a dim viewing
environment. This is required to maintain a consistent monitor
centric color reproduction process that is typical of the web
and is consistent with recommendations of the International Color
Consortium. This is also consistent with maintaining the preferred
reproduction encoding of the ITU standard.
In summary, there has been some concern with the
choice of a 2.2 CRT gamma with a 1.0 LUT gamma as opposed to a
1.571 (2.2/1.4) or a 1.294 (2.2/1.7) display gamma. We feel that
there are many reasons to support a 2.2 CRT,
compatibility with a large legacy of images
many Unix workstations,
PC's with 256+ colors and their desktop color
schemes and icons,
several ultra-large image collections,
analog television,
Apple Macintosh video imagery,
CCIR 601 images,
a better fit with Weber's fraction,
compatibility with numerous standards,
digital TV,
analog video,
it is closer to native CRTs gamma,
and consistency with a larger market of displays.
Alpha Channel Masking and Computer Graphics Compatibility
Another concern that has been expressed about encoding
using a gamma of 2.2 is the use of alpha masking. Typically computer
graphics effects, including alpha masking, operate in an optical
intensity environment as opposed to a visually uniform one. This
mandates using a linear gamma of 1.0 in most computer graphic
operations which is obviously incompatible with the visually uniform
encoding using a gamma of 2.2. In a 24 bit encoding scheme, encoding
a mid-level gray using a gamma of 1.0 would result in a digital
count of 46. Such an encoding scheme would create visually objectionable
artifacts such as contours. Therefore we recommend that effects
such as alpha masking be performed either prior to encoding or
by decoding to a color resolution greater than 24 bits and then
converting into linear intensity space.
Again, it is fundamental to realize that there are
two common operational s 1) the linear intensity
space in which most optical and synthetic visualization operations
work within and 2) a nearly visually perceptibly uniform space
in which visual based operations, compression and many devices
work within. This difference is vitally important to remember
since both types of operations are required and thus interaction
between these two types of spaces occur frequently.
A Single RGB Standard Color Space
There are two parts to the proposed standard described
the viewing environment parameters with its dependencies
on the human visual system and the standard device space colorimetric
definitions and transformations. The viewing environment descriptions
contain all the necessary information, when combined with most
color appearance models, to provide conversions between the standard
and target viewing environments. The colorimetric definitions
provide the transforms necessary to convert between the sRGB color
space and the CIEXYZ two degree observer color space.
sRGB reference viewing environment
Reference viewing environments are defined for standard
RGB in Table 0.1.
sRGB viewing environment Parameters
Luminance level
Illuminant White
x = 0.3127, y = 0.3291 (D65)
Image surround
20% reflectance
Encoding Ambient Illuminance Level
Encoding Ambient White Point
x = 0.3457, y = 0.3585 (D50)
Encoding Viewing Flare
Typical Ambient Illuminance Level
Typical Ambient White Point
x = 0.3457, y = 0.3585 (D50)
Typical Viewing Flare
The sRGB reference viewing environment corresponds to conditions
typical of monitor display viewing conditions.
The luminance level is representative of typical CRT display
The chromaticities of the illuminant white are those of
The image surround is defined as &20%& of the
maximum white luminance. This is close to a CIELAB L* value of
50, while maintaining computational simplicity. The areas surrounding
the image being viewed are similar in luminance and chrominance
to the image itself. This surround condition would correspond,
for example, to a reflection print displayed on a spectrally non-selective
gray background of about twenty percent reflectance, where the
print and the background are uniformly illuminated by the same
light source.
This specification defines the concepts of an encoding viewing
environment and a typical viewing environment. The encoding viewing
environment is consistent with recent discussions within the ISO
JTAG2 committee for graphic arts and photographic viewing conditions
for photographic images on monitors. If possible to achieve, this
is the recommended viewing environment for viewing photographic
images on monitors. The typical viewing environment is representative
of a typical office or home office viewing environment for personal
computers.
For optimal results, we recommend using the encoding viewing environment
when viewing sRGB encoded images. We also recognize that this
is quite different from typical viewing environment.
While one would theoretically use the viewing conditions which
represent the actual or typical viewing environment, if this is
done with 24 bit images a significant loss in the quality of shadow
detail results.
This is due to encoding the typical viewing flare
of approximately 5.0 percent into a 24 bit image as opposed to
the encoding viewing flare of 1 percent. Therefore we recommend
using the encoding viewing environment for most situations including
when one's viewing environment is consistent with the typical
viewing environment and not the encoding viewing environment.
The encoding ambient illuminance level is intended to be
representative of a dim viewing environment.
Note that the illuminance
is at least an order of magnitude lower than average outdoor levels
and approximately one-third of the typical ambient illuminance
The chromaticities of the encoding ambient white are those
of CIE D50.
Encoding viewing flare is specified to be 1.0% of the maximum
white-luminance level.
The typical ambient illuminance level is intended to be
representative of a typical office viewing environment.
that the illuminance is at least an order of magnitude lower than
average outdoor levels.
The chromaticities of the typical ambient white are those
of CIE D50.
Typical Viewing flare is specified to be 5.0% of the maximum
white-luminance level.
Colorimetric definitions and digital encodings
sRGB in combination with the reference viewing environments
can be defined from standard CIE colorimetric values through simple
mathematical transformations.
CIE colorimetry provides the basis for sRGB encoding
of the color. For the calculation of CIE colorimetric values,
it is necessary to specify a viewing environment and a set of
spectral sensitivities for a specific capture device. The definitions
for RGB given in equations 1.1 to 1.3 are based on the colorspace's
respective viewing environment.
The CIE chromaticities for the red, green, and blueITU-R
BT.709 reference primaries, and for CIE Standard Illuminant D65,
are given in Table 0.2.
TABLE 0.2 CIE chromaticities for ITU-R BT.709 reference primaries and CIE standard illuminant
0.30000.1500
0.60000.0600
0.10000.7900
sRGB tristimulus values for the illuminated objects of the scene
are simply linear combinations of the 1931 CIE XYZ values and
these RGB tristimulus values can be computed using the
following derived relationship:
In the RGB encoding process, negative sRGB tristimulus
values, and sRGB tristimulus values greater than 1.00 are not
typically retained. When encoding software cannot support this
extended range, the luminance dynamic range and color gamut of
RGB is limited to the tristimulus values between 0.0 and 1.0 by
simple clipping. This gamut, however, is large enough to encompass
most colors that can be displayed on CRT monitors.
The sRGB tristimulus values are next transformed
to nonlinear sR'G'B' values as follows:
The effect of the above equations is to closely fit
a straightforward gamma 2.2 curve with an slight offset to allow
for invertability in integer math. Therefore, we are maintaining
consistency with the gamma 2.2 legacy images and the video industry
as described previously.
Finally, the nonlinear sR'G'B' values are converted
to digital code values.
This conversion scales the above sR'G'B'
values by using the equation below where WDC represents the white
digital count and KDC represents the black digital count.
This current specification proposes using a black
digital count of 0 and a white digital count of 255 for 24-bit
(8-bits/channel) encoding. The resulting RGB values are formed
according to the following equations:
This obviously can be simplified as shown below.
The reverse relationship i
Digital broadcast television uses a black digital
count of 16 and a white digital count of 235 in order to provide
a larger encoded color gamut.
We do not propose using this encoding
at this time, due to the large legacy of images and applications
using the previous black and white digital coding counts. However,
it is vital to allow for a future revision to provide this capability.
Color Spaces
Definition:
A color space is a model for representing color
numerically in terms of three or more coordinates. e.g. The RGB
color space represents colors in terms of the Red, Green and Blue
coordinates.
For color to be reproduced in a predictable manner
across different devices and materials, it has to be described
in a way that is independent of the specific behavior of the mechanisms
and materials used to produce it. For instance, color CRTs and
color printers use very different mechanisms for producing color.
To address this issue, current methods require that color be described
using device independent color coordinates, which are translated
into device dependent color coordinates for each device.
Color Management
Definition:
Color management is a term that describes a technology
that translates the colors of an object (images, graphics or text)
from their current color space to the color space of the output
devices like monitors, printers, ...
Traditionally, operating systems have supported color
by declaring support for a particular color space, RGB in most
However, since RGB varies between devices, color was not
reliably reproduced across different devices.
The high-end publishing market could not meet its
needs with the traditional means of color support, so the various
OS's added support for using International Color Consortium (ICC)
profiles to characterize device dependent colors in a device independent
They use the profiles of the input device that created an
image and the output device that displayed the image and create
a transform that moves the image from the input device's color
space to the output device's color space.
This resulted in very
accurate color.
However, it also involved the overhead of transporting
the input device's profile with the image and running the image
through the transform.
HP and Microsoft propose an additional
managing color that is optimized to meet the needs of most users
without the overhead of carrying an ICC profile with the image:
the addition to the OS and the Internet of support for a Standard
Color Space.
Since the image is in a known color space and the
profile for that color space would ship with the OS and browser,
this enables the end users to enjoy the benefits of color management
without the overhead of larger files.
While it may be argued
that profiles could buy slightly higher color accuracy, we believe
that the benefits of using a standard color space far out-weigh
the drawbacks for a wide range of users.
The migration of devices
to natively support the standard color space will further enhance
the speed and quality of the user experience.
We are proposing the use of the color space, sRGB, that is
consistent with but is a more tightly defined
derivative
of Rec. ITU-R BT.709 as the standard color space for the OS's
and the Internet.
In April of 1990 this space obtained unanimous
worldwide agreement as the calibrated nonlinear RGB space for
HDTV production and program exchange.
Proposed Style Sheet Syntax for specifying sRGB on the Internet
We propose that all page elements defined in the
style sheets be assumed to be in the sRGB color space unless embedded
ICC profiles indicate otherwise.
We further propose a new CSS-1 property, rendering-intent,
with the following syntax to specify the user rendering intents of
page elements.
These rendering intent values are defined to be
consistent with the
rendering intent values (http://www.color.org) of
saturation, perceptual, absolute colorimetric and relative
colorimetric.
Value: saturation | perceptual | absolute
| relative
Initial: perceptual
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentage values: N/A
BODY { rendering-intent: saturation }
IMG.perceptualintent { rendering-intent: perceptual }
#mypic001 { rendering-intent: A }
&IMG ID=mypic001 SRC=&/layout.mypic001.png&&
&IMG CLASS=&perceptualintent& SRC=&/layout.mypic002.gif&&
Standard Color Space in Practice
Once page elements are converted to sRGB, the browser
needs to interpret the color space correctly and use the OS color
management to image the page. The following table summarizes how
the browser handles color management in each of the possible scenarios.
Style Sheet Colors(sRGB)
HTML Page with no Color Space information
Re-purpose Data outside of Browser/
HTML environment
Embedded Profile in ImageColor Space for Image determined by embedded profile.
Color Space for Image determined by embedded profile.
Color Space for Image determined by embedded profile.
Image file
specifies sRGBColor Space for Image is sRGB
Color Space for Image is sRGBColor Space for Image is sRGB
Image has no Color space information.
Color Space for Image is sRGBColor Space for image is sRGB.
Color Space for image is sRGB.
Text Color Space for text is sRGB
Color Space for text is sRGB.Color Space for text is sRGB.
GraphicsColor Space for Graphics is sRGB
Color Space for graphics is sRGB.Color Space for graphics is sRGB.
Browsing Scenarios
The following cases describe what an end-user sees
in the various scenarios:
Image not in sRGB, does not have an embedded
ICC profile, and no monitor/output device ICC profile
This is the behavior before color management systems
were added.
Even though
the image is assumed to be in sRGB color
space, it is imaged (displayed, printed etc.) without translation
to the device color space since the output profile is not available.
The quality varies tremendously since output device characteristics
differ greatly.
Image not in sRGB, does not have an embedded
ICC profile, and system has a monitor/output device ICC profile
Since the image has no ICC profile, it is assumed
to be in the sRGB color space. In this scenario, the resulting
image will be consi however it could be different
from the original image.
Image in sRGB, and no monitor/output device
ICC profile
In this scenario, the image has been run through
a transform that consists of the input device ICC profile, and
the sRGB ICC profile, or it was created using devices that conform
to sRGB. However, since the system has no
ICC profile for the
output device, it will simply assume the image is in the device's
color space.
If all the images rendered on the output device
are in sRGB, then they will at least be consistent with respect
to each other on a given monitor/output device.
Image in sRGB, and system has a monitor/output
device ICC profile
In this scenario, the image has been run through
a transform that consists of the input device ICC profile, and
the sRGB ICC profile, or it was created using devices that conform
to sRGB. Because the system has an ICC profile for the output
device, the image can be converted to the output device's color
space and imaged. The resulting image will be consistent across
devices, and will be very close to the original in appearance.
Image in sRGB, and monitor/output device is
sRGB compliant
In this scenario, the image has been run through
a transform that consists of the input device ICC profile, and
the sRGB ICC profile, or it was created using devices that conform
to sRGB. As the output device has been designed to conform with
sRGB, and is associated with that ICC profile, a transform is
not necessary for this case. The OS realizes that no transformation
is required and simply images
the image directly
on the output
device. This case is ideal since there is no color transformation
at output time, and the image is more compact since there is no
ICC profile embedded in it. The resulting image will be consistent
across devices, and will be very close to the original in appearance.
Image not in sRGB, has an embedded ICC profile,
and no monitor/output device ICC profile
This would be treated the same as the &Image
not in sRGB, does not have an embedded ICC profile, and no monitor/output
device ICC profile& scenario.
Image not in sRGB, has an embedded ICC profile,
and system has a monitor/output device ICC profile
This is the standard color management scenario. The
two ICC profiles are combined to produce a transform that will
map the colors of the image into the
output device's color space.
The resulting image will be consistent across devices, and will
be very close to the original in appearance.
Authoring Scenarios
The following scenarios describe how to get an image
into the sRGB color space when creating it.
Image created on a device that has no ICC
profiles and is not sRGB compliant
Display the image on a monitor that is sRGB compliant
or that has an ICC profile. Edit the image until it looks good
on the monitor. For monitors that are not sRGB compliant but have
ICC profiles, depending on the capabilities of the application,
either use the application to save the image as sRGB or embed
the monitor's profile into the image, and use a tool to create
a transform with the monitor's profile and the sRGB profile and
run the image through the transform. If the image file format
supports it, specify the image is in sRGB.
Image created on a device that has ICC profiles
not sRGB compliant
Use a tool to create a transform with device's profile
and the sRGB profile. Then run the image through the transform,
specify the image is in sRGB if the image file format supports
Image created on a device that is sRGB compliant
Specify the image is in sRGB if the image file format
supports this.
Suggestions to benefit from sRGB
CRT manufacturers who
build monitors in compliance
with the sRGB specification will get faster display times for
objects in this color space. (No transformation needs to occur.)
Scanner and digital camera manufacturers who
optimize the color transforms and gamma correction for compatibility
with sRGB will benefit for the same reason.
Palette Issues
There are several different scenarios to consider
when dealing with palettized images and displays.
Image does not have a color table (& 8bpp),
and client monitor is not palettized
The image is run through a color matching transform
as described in the previous section, and the resulting 24bpp
image is displayed on the monitor.
Image has a color table (8bpp) and client
monitor is not palettized
The color table accompanying the image is run through
a color matching, and the resulting color table is used with the
image for display. The displayed image is very close to original
Image does not have a color table (&8bpp)
and client monitor is palettized.
The software displaying the image (eg. browser) should
use the default palette that is defined in sRGB space, convert
it into device color space by running it through a color matching
transform, and use this palette to display the image. The resulting
image gets dithered into the closest possible colors on the display.
The assumption is that the monitor profile is created with the
default palette selected.
Image has a color table (8bpp) and was created
using the default palette and client monitor is palettized
The software displaying the image should follow the
same steps as above. The resulting image is very close to the
original image and unintentional dithering is eliminated. If the
original image only had colors in the default palette, the final
image doesn't have any dithering.
Image has a color table (8bpp) and was created
using an arbitrary palette and client monitor is palettized
If the client monitor only has a palettized profile and can only
display the image by discarding this profiled palette and replacing it
with an uncalibrated palette, we do not recommend to color
manage this scenario. If the client monitor is able to treat the image
as if it was a truecolor (unpalettized) image, it should proceed as
for case 3 above.
Note that cases 3 and 4 assume an industry standard
default palette defined in sRGB color space that will be used
by authoring and display software to handle 8bpp images. Microsoft
and HP are working on the definition of such a palette.
Conclusion
We believe that the addition of standard color space,
sRGB, support to the Internet, device drivers and operating systems
is a complementary addition to the existing color management support
that utilizes and expands the benefits and availability of color
management to a broader range of users. Furthermore, we believe
that sRGB overcomes many application developer and end-user reservations
to adopting color management. The call for action below presents
a clear path forward to improved color management.
Call for action
OS and authoring tools should utilize CRT calibration
methods to ensure that images created locally on the monitor are
properly translated into sRGB.
Authoring tools should enable the use of the
OS color management tools to transform the incoming images into
sRGB by combining the incoming device ICC profiles with the sRGB
ICC profile. These images will be stored in the original file
(like GIF, PNG and JPEG), but with the correct colors.
Authoring tools should enable the user to view
and edit text and graphics in sRGB.
Web page creators should publish content in sRGB.
Browser vendors should support the style sheet
extensions proposed above and use the OS color management tools
to ensure that colors are properly displayed.
Organizations that create and support file formats
should ensure that the file formats encompass the ability to embed
profiles and declare their color space.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to sincerely thank Ed Giorgianni of Eastman
Kodak Company, Bob Sobol of Hewlett-Packard Company, Charles Poynton,
author of A Technical Introduction to Digital Video (John Wiley
and Sons), Chris Lilley of W3C, Dave Martindale of the University of
British Columbia and many others, for their many insightful comments
and encouragement throughout this process.