iccMAX draft specification
iccMAX is not intended as a replacement for ICC.1, the existing architecture, but as an extension or alternative where requirements cannot be fully met by ICC.1. Currently the areas covered by ICC Labs include:
- Multi-spectral
- Medical Imaging
- Image Capture/Digital Photography
- Package Printing
- Color Management on Internet
- Fine Art
- Color Information Archiving
ICC welcomes input from vendors and users on areas that are not covered well by the current ICC architecture.
What is iccMAX?
iccMAX is a new color management system developed in ICC Labs, primarily by members of the Architecture Working Group, that goes beyond D50 colorimetry. The new specification will be known as iccMAX, and is being released as a preliminary document for public testing, before being published as a new ICC standard and proposed as a new part of ISO 15076.
iccMAX profiles will show v5 in the header to distinguish them from v4 and v2. iccMAX profiles will also have class, sub-class, versioning and header information that differs from v4.
Users and developers are encouraged to make comments on the preliminary specification.
Backwards compatibility
iccMAX will provide a significant enhancement to the functionality of the current v4 specification. It is recognised that in many industries, v4 (and even v2) meets existing color management needs and in these industries there will be no drive to move to adopt the new specification.
An iccMAX CMM will be completely backward-compatible and will recognise and correctly process v2 and v4 profiles. However, iccMAX profiles are not expected to be compatible with v4 CMMs. ICC will provide a reference implementation to help with iccMAX adoption.
How will iccMAX profiles be different?
The main changes you will see are:
Profile Connection Space
ICC v4 has fixed D50 colorimetry, considered necessary until now to ensure interoperability and prevent ambiguity in colour transforms. iccMAX allows flexibility in the selection of illuminant (currently D50) and color matching functions (currently the CIE 1931 Standard Colorimetric Observer). It will support spectral communication of colour information through an optional spectral PCS, and will support the use of color appearance processing in the PCS, with the facility to store appearance attributes in a v5 profile.
Support for extended CMM functionality
A variety of new types of information can be stored in an iccMAX profile to support run-time transform creation of a smart or dynamic CMM. Examples include:
- a new gamut boundary description (GBD)
- support for spectral data
- measurement data using the CxF format
- a new encoding of Named colors to support tints
Programmable transforms (e.g. direct encoding of device models) will be supported, with functional operators, conditional evaluation, persistent variables and vectorized operations for improved performance.
Future extendability will be provided through support for hierarchical data encoding, allowing optional data to be added later without requiring changes to the tag parser.
Abbreviated profiles
CMMs will be able to select or define a suitable transform by referencing the color encoding standard (such as those listed in the ICC Three-component Registry) which can be specified in a v5 profile in place of a complete transform.
Download
The following items are available to download:
- The draft iccMAX specification
- The iccMAX reference implementation
including example profiles, source code, header and VC++ project files, CMM implementation, IccXML and SampleICC components, and comprehensive test batch file - Test suite
Includes v5 profiles, xml files and command line executables - Interoperability Conformance Specifications
v1 ICS documents 24-01-2014
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Comment on iccMAX.
If you wish to comment on iccMAX, please email the ICC Technical Secretary.
Participate in iccMAX.
If you are interested in developing or testing features being developed as part of v5, please contact the ICC Secretary to find out about individual membership of the Architecture Working Group.