Digital Color Management: Encoding Solutions, 2nd Edition

15

Myths and Misconceptons

The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie—deliberate, contrived and dishonest—but the myth—persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.

John F. Kennedy

In the preceding chapters, a number of misconceptions regarding color in general and color encoding in particular have been mentioned. These misconceptions are frequently repeated and widely circulated within the industry. Many have become so widespread that they now can be considered “modern myths.”

While a few of these myths are relatively harmless, most have had very detrimental effects on the color-imaging industry. In particular, the persistent myths regarding “device-independent” color have seriously interfered with real progress in the areas of color management and color interchange.

It is important that these myths be examined and dispelled before we conclude this part and proceed to Part IV, where the pieces of the digital color-encoding puzzle will be sorted and assembled to form a total picture. For that to be done successfully, there must be no spurious pieces—no leftover myths—still lying around.

In this chapter, then, a number of the more persistent and persuasive-sounding myths related to color encoding will be examined. Some have been mentioned in earlier chapters, others have not. We will attempt to dispel them all by contrasting each with reality (as we see it, of course!).

Myths of device-independent color

Myths usually are created in an attempt to explain what seems otherwise ...