Is color management an endangered species? Or merely a vulnerable species ready to adapt?
It’s easy to look backwards at technology extinctions— The real knack is to spot a trend ahead of the pack. I was recently at a Printing Tradeshow. After several days of standing and doing demonstrations I began to question whether the entire color management industry would survive much longer. The idea began innocently enough after I was running thousands of photo books on a Xerox digital press at the show. A polite couple from Texas asked me an alarmingly simple question. “We want to buy this digital press but do we really need all the color management from all these vendors? Do we need all these tools?” I must be trustworthy looking. I gave the couple a balanced answer about cost vs. benefits of color tools. It was my best answer, at the time. Later, I came to question my own answer. Quite frankly, it feels like we are nearly past the need for many of the color tools & techniques. Truth be told, I make many photo books on digital presses— I’m usually in a crazed rush for holiday gif
