Understanding Color Management

I got it on time, as I've ordered and everything I wanted. So, for me this service worked 10 out of 10. Thank you! :))

Abhay Sharma's book is really excellent. Alot of books in this subject has been written the last years. I have read some of them but I think that Sharma's book is extremely good for photographers and enthusiastic amateurs who want to start with color management but do not know how and where to start. Sharma explains in a very clear and pedgogical way what ICC profiles are good for and how to create them and use them and not only that, he also explains how the measurement instruments work and which types that are offered today. It was a pleasure to read this book and I recommend to all interested in color management. Lars Stenberg

What an excellent book! The author defifitely knows his stuff. This book delves deeply into the nuts and bolts of color management and it is definitely not for beginners (who should buy "Color Management for Dummies"). This book not only teaches the principals of color management, but explains why it is necessary. It is not tied to any specific software or hardware, although an occasional reference is made to Photoshop and reference is also made to the various hardware used to calibrate your equipment. It is very heavy on theory and if you are technically enough inclined, you will be well on the way to becoming expert in color management. This appears to be one of the definitive works of color management and it rightly deserves the great reviews it gets.

Understanding Color Management explains the basics of color, and the methodology of ICC profiles which the ICC (International Color Consortium) has developed to allow colors to be reproduced with fidelity by computing devices. All the basic procedures of calibrating screen and profiling devices are explained. However, this book is written by somebody who understands both physics and computers, and it goes further than any other basic text in showing how the pieces of ICC color management fit together, and what goes on behind the scenes. The word "Understanding" in the title is indeed appropriate. If you are a photographer and you need a hands-on tutorial to ICC Color Management, then Andrew Rodney's howto book may be best for you. If you need a reference for daily use in prepress, then you should own a copy of Bruce Fraser's text. But if what you want is to really undersand the how and the why, then Abhay Sharma's clearly written and concise textbook is the one you want.

The title "Understanding Color Management" is a very appropriate. The list of books and papers on colour management is getting quite long by now, but this is in my view the first one to be really thorough, clear and in depth.Looking at mr Sharmas background you'll understand why. Abhay Sharma is an ex Crosfield man (todayday part of Fujifilm Electronics). The practical "hands on" experience with Fujifilm's colour management R & D team shines through in all chapters of the book.The layout of the book is quite conventional, going from the fundamentals of colour theory to more in depth discussions. What is different is the clarity in each chapter, and the depth in wich mr Sharma explains the issues. While getting and reading "Understanding Color Management" by Abhay Sharma is wholehartedly recommended by me, there are some few areas where I still wish for more clarification or help. One is on the matter of how to correctly calibrate and use the monitor. Abhay concludes, like many other, that using a whitepoint of 5000 K (D50) often results in a "dull image". Yes it does, using a faulty calibration tool like the Apple buildt in monitor color calibration, as well as trying some of the commercial software using measuring devices. The trick is to achieve correct luminance at 5000 K, typhically around 100 cd/m2, as recommended in the ISO 12646 standard (refered to in the book). Many software adjust the whitepoint in the last stage of the calibration process by reducing the power of the blue channel, resulting in a too low luminance (brightness) of the monitor. The ambient lighting condition also effect the appearence of the monitor. A too bright illuminated room prevent the monitor from accurately rendering the colours. Unfortunately the recommended very low ambient light of 32 lux is not mentioned by Sharma.But all in all it's a very, very good book on a quite complex and "difficult" subject./Paul Lindstrom, Malmo University and Digital Dots