Color management on Linux
In Living Color
Get a grasp of color management basics and put your knowledge to practical use.
The purpose of color management is to produce consistent color output across different devices. This definition might sound simple enough, but understanding the mechanics of color management and implementing a color-managed workflow can be a rather complex and confusing affair at times. This article can help you to get an understanding of color management fundamentals and set up a color-managed environment using open source Linux tools.
Color Management Distilled
The need for color management arises from the fundamental problem of color reproduction: a formal representation of a given color (e.g., numeric value of the color in a specific color model) doesn't necessarily produce the same color on different devices for a wide variety of factors. Thus, the primary goal of color management is to achieve a consistent color reproduction across devices. So, for example, a photo taken by a color-managed camera should look the same on a color-managed computer screen.
In a color-managed workflow, each device (e.g., a digital camera and LCD display) has its own color profile that characterizes the color response of that particular device. Each color profile describes these colors relative to a standardized set of reference colors. Color-managed software then uses these standardized profiles to translate color from one device to another. This is usually performed by a color management module [1].
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Ubuntu 25.04 Coming Soon
Ubuntu 25.04 (Plucky Puffin) has been given an April release date with many notable updates.
-
Gnome Developers Consider Dropping RPM Support
In a move that might shock a lot of users, the Gnome development team has proposed the idea of going straight up Flatpak.
-
openSUSE Tumbleweed Ditches AppArmor for SELinux
If you're an openSUSE Tumbleweed user, you can expect a major change to the distribution.
-
Plasma 6.3 Now Available
Plasma desktop v6.3 has a couple of pretty nifty tricks up its sleeve.
-
LibreOffice 25.2 Has Arrived
If you've been hoping for a release that offers more UI customizations, you're in for a treat.
-
TuxCare Has a Big AlmaLinux 9 Announcement in Store
TuxCare announced it has successfully completed a Security Technical Implementation Guide for AlmaLinux OS 9.
-
First Release Candidate for Linux Kernel 6.14 Now Available
Linus Torvalds has officially released the first release candidate for kernel 6.14 and it includes over 500,000 lines of modified code, making for a small release.
-
System76 Refreshes Meerkat Mini PC
If you're looking for a small form factor PC powered by Linux, System76 has exactly what you need in the Meerkat mini PC.
-
Gnome 48 Alpha Ready for Testing
The latest Gnome desktop alpha is now available with plenty of new features and improvements.
-
Wine 10 Includes Plenty to Excite Users
With its latest release, Wine has the usual crop of bug fixes and improvements, along with some exciting new features.