My name is John Zimmerer and I'm the ColorSync Product Manager for Apple.

I'm here to start a constructive dialog with customers to help shape my perspective, focus, and direction, and maybe the product, too.

I'm here to help -- and learn from -- those struggling to implement color management on the Mac. We do listen to our customers. As product manager, that's part of my job description.

Now I have to make the obligatory statement about what I can and cannot say. I'm here as me, not as the "Voice of Apple." I am not the PR contact for Apple Computer and do not represent Apple here in any offical capacity. Please do not quote me beyond the normal thread replys. I'll be glad to share an insider's perspective as long as it doesn't involve talking about unreleased products or sensitive materials and topics. I'm here to help and learn.

Lastly, please keep in mind that I am focused on ColorSync and, to some degree, display/Quartz and printing. I may not be a good resource for all other topics. If I say "I don't know", I really don't.

Thanks for your continued support of Apple.

[druber]

All right, I've got a query for you. I do a lot of typesetting work, so I end up doing a lot of fine-tuning kerning to get words to fit right. Using Pagemaker 6.5 and os8.6, I have reasonable success with printed copies looking like what's on screen, but nothing to get too excited about. It's always been frustrating to have my screen lie to me. I take it personally sometimes, I admit. I'm wondering if Quartz will change this, or if this is a software issue instead of an OS issue.

Thanx

Originally posted by druber:

I'm wondering if Quartz will change this, or if this is a software issue instead of an OS issue.

Yes. Both. Because Quartz works with ColorSync and understands what an ICC profiles is, if you use profiles with the supported image types (TIFF, EPS, JPEG, etc.) then your color will look correct in applications that use Quartz to draw to the screes (i.e., most native/Cocoa applications).

Under OS 8.6-9.0.4, the applications need to call to ColorSync directly, AND you need to use the supported image types. Some applications have more robust support than others for ColorSync. PageMaker 6.5 has pretty good support, although the interface is challenging for some. There is a section of the PageMaker 6.5 manual/help file that discusses color management. If it's important to you, I'd read the guide. Also, GATF (and others) have practical guides to color management in PageMaker, you might want to check them out. BTW, InDesign 1.5 has very good support for ICC color management, in case you were thinking of upgrading.

[druber]

Yeah, we're looking at InDesign, but mostly with fear and trepidation. It's rough shifting an entire operation over to a new software pack and start relearning how to get around. It also runs bugger-slow on a BW300, so right now we're sticking with PM6.5. Maybe we'll wait until osX and see what our options are when that leap becomes necessary.

Also wondering if you can tell me anything about character display. My scattered memory is recalling that osX uses postscript for screen display, is that right? Will postscript fonts display precisely on screen what they'll print? That would be dreamy..

Originally posted by druber:

Also wondering if you can tell me anything about character display. My scattered memory is recalling that osX uses postscript for screen display, is that right? Will postscript fonts display precisely on screen what they'll print? That would be dreamy..

I understand not wanting to change your workflow.

As for your question, OS X actually uses a PDF-based technology for display. Quartz, the imaging model, has excellent drawing of every font format that OS X supports -- TrueType, Open Type, and PostScript. I'm not just saying this because I work for Apple, the type drawing under Quartz (so what native, or Cocoa, applications) is beautiful. The type is clean and crisp since it's anti-aliased. If you haven't checked out the Public Beta, find someone who has it installed and check it out.