Color calibration

[citation needed] Color calibration is a requirement for all devices taking an active part in a color-managed workflow and is used by many industries, such as television production, gaming, photography, engineering, chemistry, medicine, and more.

If the color measuring source does not match the display's capabilities, the calibration will be ineffective and give false readings.

The main distorting factors on the input stage stem from the amplitude nonlinearity of the channel responses, and in the case of a multidimensional datastream, the non-ideal wavelength responses of the individual color separation filters, most commonly a color filter array, in combination with the spectral power distribution of the scene illumination.

The aim is that a printed copy of a photograph appears identical in saturation and dynamic range to the original or a source file on a computer display.

This means that three independent calibrations need to be performed: These goals can either be realized via direct value translation from source to target, or by using a common known reference color space as middle ground.

For creating a scanner profile it needs a target source, such as an IT8-target, an original with many small color fields, which was measured by the developer with a photometer.

The ICC profile for a printer is created by comparing a test print result using a photometer with the original reference file.

Another possibility to ICC profile a printer is to use a calibrated scanner as the measuring device for the printed CMYK test chart instead of a photometer.