[filmscanners] RE: Digital Darkroom Computer Builders?

["Laurie Solomon" <laurie@advancenet.net>]

>Also, the 10-bit "Giga-color" display is something that can only be used by
>launching an applet or Photoshop plug-in.

What I was actually refrring to was something else and not "Giga-color."
Snippets from the Matrox web site and the Coloreal web site:

Coloreal® Visual by WayTech Development adds powerful color management
features to Matrox Parhelia cards. Functionality includes visual monitor
calibration, ICC profiling, accurate Internet color and sophisticated color
management features for one or more CRT / LCD monitors attached to a PC
system.

Irvine, CA June 25, 2002 – Matrox Graphics Inc., the leading professional
graphics company, announced today that its Parhelia™ graphics cards,
delivering the highest fidelity graphics, will ship with Coloreal Visual,
which enables monitors to be color matched with ICC profiles. Created and
marketed by WayTech Development, Inc., Coloreal Visual provides accurate
color across multiple monitors attached to the same system, specifically
allowing for accurate and consistent color in production environments.
Matrox Parhelia graphics cards mark the next phase in the industry’s
adoption of the Coloreal platform as the standard for controlling color on,
and across, computer peripherals.

>However, even in 8-bit mode, having a
>10-bit DAC is useful because it keeps the color lookup table curves from
>introducing posterization through round-off errors.

Here, I agree with Austin that it makes no difference when one uses 8 bit
data with a 10 bit DAC in terms of rounding off errors - if I understood his
comments correctly.

-----Original Message-----
From: filmscanners_owner@halftone.co.uk
[mailto:filmscanners_owner@halftone.co.uk]On Behalf Of Paul D. DeRocco
Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2002 2:12 AM
To: laurie@advancenet.net
Subject: [filmscanners] RE: Digital Darkroom Computer Builders?


>From what I can gather from the Matrox Parhelia marketing info, you can't
_really_ color manage three different monitors. Their three-head display is
intended for three identical monitors. What's more, in that mode, you can
only get three 1280x1024 displays, which is pretty measly. Fortunately, it
can do a pair of 2048x1536 displays, which is pretty cool.

Also, the 10-bit "Giga-color" display is something that can only be used by
launching an applet or Photoshop plug-in. It doesn't just make the entire
display automatically ten bits deep. However, even in 8-bit mode, having a
10-bit DAC is useful because it keeps the color lookup table curves from
introducing posterization through round-off errors.

What the world _really_ needs is a video card with an ICM engine built into
the hardware for each output. That would make possible identical color on
dissimilar displays.

--

Ciao,               Paul D. DeRocco
Paul                mailto:pderocco@ix.netcom.com

> From: Laurie Solomon
>
> Nowhere that I could see on the Matrox web
> site does it say that each of the three monitors are independently color
> managable from the card.  It says that you can set the color depth and
> grayscale gamma for the three heads and produce the same accurrate color
> across the three monitors (implied but not stated is that one is using the
> same size, make, model, and age monitors for all three displays); however,
> it does not say that they are independently changable or
> profileable so that
> one can color manage different size, makes, models, and age
> monitors on the
> different heads in a whay so as to match them to each other as well as to
> other components in the system.  The implication is that you can set the
> settings so as to establish a characterization that will control all the
> heads and the attached displays the same even if the monitors are
> different.

>
> I did see on their web page something about a software bundle
> that includes
> software that will enable color management of each monitor separately ( or
> at least that is how I read it) but it is unclear if (a) this bundle is
> included with the card or an optional purchase, (b) if the software in the
> bundle is dedicated to their three head card or will also work on
> their dual
> head cards, and (c) how it differs from other monitor calibration packages
> like the Spyder and its software.

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