Re: Windows %&$#@*+$ colour management (I'll never learn)

["Dov Isaacs" <isaacs@xxxxxxxxx>]

Mr. Finger,

(1) The simplest way to get a new preview header for a previewless
EPS file without otherwise changing the contents of the file, assuming 
that the EPS file was originally from Illustrator, is to open that
headless .EPS file in Illustrator and then resave it!

(2) If you indeed had a CMYK-based EPS file and you tried to
distill it, the colors will not be modified if the proper job options
are set. No "ifs", "ands" or "buts" about this! This is the "leave
color unchanged" option. That option, in all versions of Acrobat, is
effectively the "don't f*ck with the color" option! We have never
known it not to work. Thus, if you got either RGB or some other
colors in a PDF out of an EPS that was indeed CMYK to start with,
your job options must have been set wrong. Note that CMYK is not
the same as "color-managed CMYK" that can be exported in EPS out of
Illustrator 9.

(3) Considerate Mac users generate "Windows-compatible" 8-bit TIFF
preview EPS files with the .EPS suffix when creating artwork with
Illustrator on the Macintosh. I and many others have been giving
that advise for years to anyone willing to listen. The result is
fully cross-platform compatible EPS files. (We also advise them
to embed the fonts in the EPS file!)

(4) The only thing that Acrobat uses bloody GDI for is for printing to
non-PostScript printers. Distiller never uses bloody GDI at all.

(5) No, the programs you mention won't do what Acrobat and Distiller
are incapable of doing. The problems you cited were NOT caused by
Acrobat and Distiller.

(6) Microsoft only provide "image" color management facilities in
some of the versions of Windows, not full color management of all
object types. Given the lack of CMYK in GDI, you really don't want
them defining a full color management system. The reason that Adobe
can implement color management in our other applications is because
they use a common graphics system that includes integrated font, 
graphics display, and output (including PostScript generation) as
well as color management. And even then, color management is still
not "easy." That is why most graphic artists still live in a
CMYK world based on SWOP color space and Pantone definitions.

(7) Changing FrameMaker to take advantage of the common Adobe 
graphics system mentioned above would require a drastic rewrite of
major sections of FrameMaker and isn't in the short to medium term
plans. (I am not claiming that this is a feature!)

Hedley, I know you must have had a bloody, disgusting time with this
EPS problem and are probably quite upset about the wasted time and effort.
Hopefully the above will help with future incidents.

        - Dov

At 4/4/2001 04:49 PM, hedley_finger@myob.com.au wrote:
>Framesters:
>
>A colleague some thousands of kilmetres away produces EPSF graphics on a
>Macintosh and emails them to me.
>
>(For is it not written in the scriptures that the Lord Dov commands us to
>always use EPS graphics so the CMYK colour information will get through the
>Windows GDI unchanged and not be converted to RGB?)
>
>Lotus Notes and Windows thoughtfully throw away the resource fork when I
>detach the files from the email messages (Macintosh "files" are actually
>two files: the resource fork and the data fork).
>
>FrameMaker displays these resourceless EPS files as grey boxes because the
>preview bitmap was in the resource fork.
>
>Aha, methinks!  I will Distill the resourceless EPS files into PDF, then
>export them from Acrobat as EPSI files with a pixmap preview header.
>
>Blithe in my ignorance I use these now visible graphics in FrameMaker files
>(mostly flat geometrical shapes).  Then, lo, one day I discover that the
>colours are incorrect when someone shows me the CMYK colour samples in the
>Corporate Image Manual.
>
>So either Distiller or Acrobat uses the bloody GDI to create EPS!  (Note: I
>used the AdobePS universal installer to create a number of different
>Acrobat Distiller "printer" instances, and set the Acrobat printer to one
>of these.)
>
>Quickly opening the original resourceless EPS files in Ghostview I discover
>the true colours.  Fortunately, Ghostview can create pixmap previews that
>preserve the CMYK colour information.
>
>So, a few questions (since the Billgatron has had plenty of time to
>implement proper colour management of HSV, LAB, CMYK, etc. colour spaces
>but chooses not to):
>
>@    When will Adobe include Ghostscript and Ghostview on their
>distribution CDs to do the jobs of which Distiller and Acrobat are
>incapable?
>
>@    When will FrameMaker have the option to generate its OWN PostScript as
>it does on UNIX, giving users the chance to bypass the Windows GDI?
>
>@    When will Adobe, Microsoft, and Auld Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and all
>implement proper colour management on Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP?  (Ha!)
>
>[Windows 2000, FrameMaker 6.0p405, FrameScript 1.27C01, Enhance 2.03,
>Acrobat 4.05.2, mif2go 31r25, IXgen 5.5.h]
>
>Regards,
>Hedley


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