ICC Profiles

The intent of the International Color Consortium ® profile format is to provide a cross-platform device profile format. Device profiles can be used to translate colour data created on one device into another device's native colour space. The acceptance of this format by operating system vendors allows end users to transparently move profiles and images with embedded profiles between different operating systems. This permits tremendous flexibility to both users and vendors. For example, it allows users to be sure that their image will retain its colour fidelity when moved between systems and applications. Furthermore, it allows a printer manufacturer to create a single profile for multiple operating systems.

The ICC specification is now widely used and has been specified in many international and other de-facto standards. It has itself recently been published as an International Standard, ISO 15076-1:2005. The specification continues to evolve and the current version represents a major improvement over the older versions. Profiles conforming to the new specification are called version 4 (v4) profiles. There are many advantages of v4 profiles, and all vendors of colour management products are strongly urged to upgrade their products to be v4 compatible.

Most vendors of profiling software have now released versions that produce profiles that conform to v4, and applications are available that will utilize them.