Porting a calibrated color image across corporate boundaries

Abstract

In 1989, IBM began a project devoted to designing and building a small computer system to serve the needs of the staff of the painter Andrew Wyeth. Over the three-year duration of this project, many of the system's requirements were refined. However, a fundamental requirement from the onset was that the system be able to capture and produce digital images suitable for publication. In 1992, an experiment was performed by Wyeth's staff, IBM, and R.R. Donnelley and Sons Company. The objective of this experiment was demonstrate that one could indeed capture images with the IBM system installed at the Wyeth's offices and transfer them as digital images to a printer (R.R. Donnelley) where they could be successfully printed. This paper will describe that experiment. It will describe the methodology IBM used for capturing, preserving and communicating the color content and the methodology Donnelley used for interpreting the color content and proofing the images. Finally, it will discuss the practical problems encountered in communicating the images' color content - the things that worked well and the problems encountered.