New Color Management Control Panel Applet

Thank you, Michael. Looks useful AND cool, a rare combination.

Warning: that Microsoft page offers the Microsoft RAW Image Thumbnailer under "Related Downloads". That application has caused problems for several people on this forum.

I downloaded from direct link, installed, double clicked new "Color" icon in Control Panel and… nothing.
Hmmmmm…. What’s wrong?

I installed it and so far …WOW!

– a system wide colour profile can be set

– profiles can be compared graphically in the same way that Mac’s can. Very useful when comparing colorspaces to see what’s clipped or what’s not.

– Their download site also states: "using this tool a photographer can easily switch between two different display color profiles (one for the internal LCD, and a second for the external projector) when delivering a presentation using a Windows XP notebook computer. Windows will apply the correct color profile so that images look best on the intended display.

It will be interesting to see how this behaves with multiple monitors on the desktop. Perhaps the end of having to install 2 vid cards?

To read more see: <http://tinyurl.com/ajg7t>

Russell

It will be interesting to see how this behaves with multiple monitors on the desktop. Perhaps the end of having to install 2 vid cards?

A ‘Microsoft’ post on the Rob Galbraith forum suggests that 2 vid cards or one of the "newer video card with twin video DACS (also called a dual-head or twin-head card)" are needed for multiple monitors with independent profiles.

Russell

How does this relate to the Adobe Gamma Loader or Gamma Loaders from the profiling companies? Question to Adobe – Should we disable the Adobe Gamma Loader when using this new Applet from Microsoft.

What about printing?
Should we be using this for color management, the printer driver, or CS print preview. I have been disabling in the printer driver and using the CS print preview for my color management. Does using this applett change that as well??

Robin

The MS tool can be used to load profiles in lieu of Adobe Gamma Loader or the equivalent, but MS recommends staying with your existing loader. This applet can (and probably should) be used principally for reviewing what you have and installing or removing profiles, rather than for setting profiles for use with Photoshop.

Michael,

I have downloaded it, but not yet installed it. I’m curious however, what you see as the main benefit of installing this applet.

Peace,
Tony

<looking over Tony’s shoulder>

I dunno. It lets you see pretty graphics of the gamut of your profiles, sort of like the ones in Gernot’s pdf documents. I don’t use it for anything.

<nodding> Cool. Seems innocuous enough. I’ll give it a go. Thanks.

Peace,
Tony

I had the same results as Pip in post #2. <shrug>

May be the one from the direct link is not good. I went through the "genuine Windows" rigmarole using (look away!) Internet Explorer.

It works and it does what it says on the tin.

It also includes the caveat which, according to some, seems to have the property of unearthing bugs in Adobe software, namely:

Note: We’ve taken care to ensure that this tool operates as it should, but it is not part of Windows and is not supported by Microsoft. For this reason, Microsoft Technical Support is unable to answer questions about the Microsoft Color Control Panel Applet for Windows XP.

I’m waiting 😉

Hello, !
You wrote on Sat, 29 Oct 2005 14:15:54 -0700:

Like a couple of others here, I d/l’ed and installed and got the app in CP but nothing happens when I click on it. Reinstall didn’t help.

Thanks,

Colonel Blip.
E-mail:

MD> Microsoft has released a new color management control panel applet that MD> allows you to install, uninstall, view, and compare ICC color profiles. MD> It is available from this download page
MD> < http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1e3 3dca0-7721 MD> -43ca-9174-7f8d429fbb9e&DisplayLang=en>, which provides instructions MD> and also checks for "genuine windows" before allowing a download, or MD> you can get the file directly from here
MD> < http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/b/a/3bac80b2-24a9-4 a92-b87d-9 MD> 77b540b2e9c/WinColorSetup.exe>.

MD> The readme file claims that several MS programs use profiles, including MD> IE and MS Picture and Fax Viewer, which seems contrary to my MD> experience.

MD> The profile viewer is very nice, by the way.

—-== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com – Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==—- http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups —-= East and West-Coast Server Farms – Total Privacy via Encryption =—-

I can’t get it to run on one XPpro, but it runs fine on another. I completely uninstalled .NET 1.0 and 1.1 then let the Wincolorsetup.exe reinstall .NET 1.1, etc … same problem, won’t run. I posted over on some MS ng’s for more ideas, will post back when I figure it out.

I went through the "genuine Windows" rigmarole using (look away!) Internet Explorer.

Me too.

It had to install .NET framewhatever (which I never bothered to read about), and then reboot. <shrug> Another day.

I think the new applet is great and offers similar CM features to those that are part of Mac’s OSX. It’s very similar to Colorsync.

Being able to compare colour gamuts of various colour spaces is very educational. For example it graphically demonstrates what colours in the sRGB colorspace cannot be reproduced on an Epson 2200 – for those who like to ridicule sRGB as being sooo small. It’s good to be able to see that, yes, there are blues and greens missing but *OUCH*.. look at all those reds and oranges that can only be reproduced on real photo paper. Helps you predict what cannot possibly work so you don’t waste your time trying.

It also appears to implement a ‘system wide colorspace’ so that sRGB images viewed in Web browsers will be presented properly.

Having system wide CM is an advantage that Mac’s have enjoyed for a long time and is another step in eliminating those differences.

Russell

Yes, it certainly looks good for those reasons alone.

Hi Russell – don’t I recall that name from Windows NT forums way back?

Well, since I couldn’t get it to install, and the main benefit seems to be reasonably benign, I’ll do try it again one afternoon when my wife wants me to clean the garage.

One use that occurs to me is to easily compare the gamuts of different printer profiles. How does Epson 2200 Premium Glossy stack up against Enhanced Matte? Or against Canon’s or HP’s glossy paper?

Since you can download and install device profiles without owning the devices, might this be a quick way to see whether one has a noticeable gamut advantage over another before you buy?

How do you suppose my Eizo CRT’s profile gamut compares with the company’s latest LCD?

Obviously printers and monitors have to be judged more directly, carefully and subjectively, but I think this little tool can contribute to the process.

Hi Russell – don’t I recall that name from Windows NT forums way back?

Might be from the good old Adobe Forum days on Compuserve. Ahh, those where the days when Photoshop 4 wouldn’t work with 1G RAM (@$75,000USD) , a dual P90 was considered ‘very hot’, and Bruce Fraser and Dan Margulis would call each other names in public 🙂

Russell

Another advantage (to be confirmed)is that XP can now use 2 different monitor profiles for 2 monitors. It seems that this was only possible previously with Windows 2000 and did not work with WinXP.

Russell

Just for topic. Gurus will appreciate:
LabMeter uses Photoshop’s soft preview feature to generate a precise, real time modifiable view of the color space associated with any of your installed profiles.

The uses for LabMeter are almost unlimited. Use LabMeter to precisely compare gamuts with one another, or see whether a particular color or set of colors fits into sRGB, or can be printed on your printer. You may quickly see whether a profile contains obvious errors, such as disjoint patches of color in the middle of the gamut, or ragged edges.

<http://www.curvemeister.com/tutorials/LabMeter/index.htm>

It’s free!

Pipkin wrote:

Just for topic. Gurus will appreciate:
LabMeter uses Photoshop’s soft preview feature to generate a precise, real time modifiable view of the color space associated with any of your installed profiles.

The uses for LabMeter are almost unlimited. Use LabMeter to precisely compare gamuts with one another, or see whether a particular color or set of colors fits into sRGB, or can be printed on your printer. You may quickly see whether a profile contains obvious errors, such as disjoint patches of color in the middle of the gamut, or ragged edges.

<http://www.curvemeister.com/tutorials/LabMeter/index.htm>
It’s free!

I had forgotten that I had that.

Thanks,
Clyde

P90? I remember aspiring to a P75

<shuffle>

How do you keep Adobe Gamma Loader and the Windows XP Color CPL from conflicting???

Jeremy: you only use one of the two in your startup folder. MS advises using the loader that is provided by the profile creator (such as Adobe Gamma Loader or the profile loader from another profiling app). Just running the applet from Control Panel doesn’t install it as a profile loader; the readme file explains how to do that if you want, though.

How do you keep Adobe Gamma Loader and the Windows XP Color CPL from conflicting???

What makes you think they are conflicting?

Quote from Windows Color Readme file:

"Applying color profile adjustments to your display dynamically Some color profiles generated by display calibration software may contain color gamut information (in the form of an ICC ‘VCGT’ tag) that can be used to dynamically update the color gamut of your display. These color profiles are displayed with an ‘ * ‘ in the Color Control Panel Applet. When you choose one of these profiles as the default profile for your display and click Apply, Windows applies the color gamut adjustments to the display dynamically. (Note that this is not supported using the built-in Windows Display Properties user interface; you must use the Color Control Panel Applet to update the default profile to see this adjustment.) A professional photographer might use this feature, for example, to change the display profile on the fly when giving a presentation using an external projector and a notebook computer. The display profile can be quickly reverted to that for the built-in display when the presentation is finished.

IMPORTANT: Use of this feature may depend on having the latest drivers for your video card installed. It is a good idea to make sure your display drivers are up to date before installing the Microsoft Color Control Panel Applet.

Applying color profile adjustments automatically when Windows starts up By default, display gamut adjustments are applied only for the current user session. You can, however, cause the Microsoft Color Control Panel Applet to "silently" apply these adjustments to all attached displays by launching the application using the /L command line switch. Using this feature, you can place a shortcut in your Windows Startup folder to cause these adjustments to be applied every time Windows starts up.

To do this, locate the WinColor.exe application in your Program Files folder. Typically, it is found in the following location: "C:\Program Files\Pro Imaging Powertoys\Microsoft Color Control Panel Applet for Windows XP" Right click on WinColor.exe and choose Create Shortcut. Right click on the shortcut and choose Properties, then append " /L" to the Target pathname. You can then move this shortcut into your Windows Startup Folder to be run automatically when you log into Windows.

Alternatively, it is also possible to Scheduled Tasks to run WinColor.exe with the /L switch whenever you log into Windows. See the Windows XP Help and Support Center for more information about using Scheduled Tasks.

IMPORTANT: If you have installed 3rd-party color calibration software, it may already be applying color profile adjustments to your display when your system starts up. Microsoft recommends that you continue to use your 3rd party software, if any, for this purpose. You should only follow the above procedure if you are sure there will be no conflicts with your existing software."

That said I’m not sure what MS Color Control is doing…. if anything. My "Apply" button is always grayed out even after disabling GretagMacbeth profile loader at sturtup.