International Color Consortium

Making color seamless between devices and documents

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Working Groups

The ICC is actively working to make the ICC specification more useful to the various constituencies that have adopted ICC workflows.

Steering Committee (SC)

The ICC Steering Committee consists of one delegate from each Founding Member, together with delegates elected from among the Regular Members. Current Steering Committee members include:

  • Adobe
  • Agfa
  • Apple
  • Barbieri electronics
  • BenQ Corporation
  • Dolby Laboratories, Inc
  • Eastman Kodak
  • ECO3 BV
  • EIZO Corporation
  • HP Inc
  • Konica Minolta
  • Microsoft
  • Onyx Graphics
  • Seiko EPSON
  • Sun Chemical
  • X-Rite Inc

Architecture Working Group (AWG)

Charter: The Architecture Working Group will address issues relating to ICC architecture.

Specifically the group will:

  1. Document the current architecture, including its functionality for the purpose of defining the baseline for further work and internal usage
  2. Investigate and propose improvements and alternatives to the current architecture to address identified issues

Chair: Dr. Max Derhak (Onyx Graphics)

Displays Working Group (DWG)

Charter: When the ICC Profile Specification was developed, display technology was primarily CRT-based. As a result, the transform tags for the monitor support a simple additive model that is appropriate for that technology. Nowadays, there are numerous new technologies, including LCD, Led, and OLED with various types of backlighting. The simple model described by the ICC Monitor tags is inadequate to completely and adequately describe color displayed by these technologies. The predominance of the sRGB color encoding, which was developed during the CRT era, has been used for a large amount of content. New displays, especially those on mobile devices, often do not model that color encoding completing. In addition, new technologies that provide wider color gamut than sRGB are available. Unfortunately, these devices, because they do not provide a direct means to display sRGB content adequately, often yield inferior results.

The Display Working Group is created to address the aforementioned issues with the following goals:

  1. Work with other groups in the ICC as well as outside organizations to fully define the problems associated with color management of display output;
  2. Identify and categorize display technologies and the appropriate corresponding transform methodologies for supporting them in ICC workflows;
  3. Where the current ICC specification is inadequate to the needs of display color managements, draft profile proposals to implement the algorithms and data structures developed in #2 and bring them through to acceptance by the ICC; and
  4. Develop algorithms and data structures to implement the methodologies identified in #2 and #3.

Chair: Dr. Chris Bai (BenQ Corporation)

GRAPHIC ARTS SPECIAL INTEREST WORKING GROUP (GASIG)

Charter: The primary focus of this working group is to address issues raised when using ICC Profiles for printing presses or related printing systems, for example digital proofers.

Objectives:

  1. Promote the use of ICC Profiles in 'high end' graphic arts applications.
  2. Identify areas where the existing ICC Profile format is unable to provide the functionality required by these printing systems.
  3. Propose changes in working practice and if necessary in the ICC Profile format to address current limitations.

Chairs:  Mr. Marc Mahy (ECO3 BV), Ms. Aileen Chiu (SunChemical)

Vice Chair: Dr. Andreas Kraushaar (Fogra Research Institute for Media Technologies)

HDR Working Group (HDR)

Charter: To promote the use of ICC color management in High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging.

Specifically the group will:

  1. Identify issues and limitations with the current specifications, implementations and use of color management in HDR imaging.
  2. Work with implementers of HDR color management, other international standard bodies, and working groups in the adoption of ICC HDR in their own specifications.
  3. Develop proposals for how to include HDR in ICC workflows.
  4. Prepare white papers and other educational materials to aid developers and users in the appropriate application of color management to HDR.
  5. Propose revisions to ICC specifications where needed to address the needs of HDR workflows. At the current stage, the focus of the group will be on extending ICC.1 with emphasis on backward compatibility.

Chairs: Dr. Luke Wallis (Apple), Dr. Nicolas Bonnier (Apple)

ICC Profile Assessment Working Group (PAWG)

Charter: The mission of this group is to seek methods for assessing quality of ICC profiles.

Objectives:

  1. Define a set of quality attributes for ICC profiles
  2. Identify analytical methods for defining and investigating performance capabilities of valid ICC profiles. (A valid profile is one that conforms to the ICC specification.)
  3. Investigate metrics that might quantify or qualify said performance characteristics
  4. Recommend promising solutions to the ICC body for their consideration
  5. Short term goal is to develop evaluation methods for use within the ICC
  6. Longer term goal is to offer suggestions to users for evaluation

Chair: Mr. Michael Dupre (Agfa)

Specification Editing Working Group (SEWG)

Charter: The Specification Editing Working Group is responsible for dealing with issues related to published ICC specifications.

Objectives:

  1. Ensure that balloted changes to published ICC specifications, including both ICC-published and directly-derived versions are published in minor or major revisions in a timely fashion, including performing the mechanics of ensuring that the specifications are published.
  2. Discuss, review, and make recommendations on non-material changes to the specifications which help clarify the intent of the specification, as well as ensure that these changes are made to the appropriate published specifications.
  3. Be responsible for the publication and maintenance of new ICC specification documents as they are developed by the body of the ICC.

Chair: Dr. Max Derhak (Onyx Graphics)

Medical Imaging Working Group (MIWG) Inactive

Charter: Enable and promote the correct and effective use of ICC color management for medical imaging.

Specifically the group will:

  1. Identify issues with the implementation and use of color management for medical imaging.
  2. Establish and maintain liaison relationships with the appropriate medical imaging standards development organizations, e.g. DICOM, AAPM, ACR, IEC and ISO.
  3. Prepare white papers and other educational materials, and promotion activities to guide developers and users in the appropriate application of color management to medical imaging.
  4. When necessary, propose new ICC specifications or revisions to existing ICC (and other) specifications to address the needs of the medical imaging community.
  5. Promote the use of ICC color management in medical imaging.

Chair: Mr. Craig Revie (Fujifilm)