color accuracy on the net?????

The colors found in illustrations of fly patterns in the fishing mags
are not to be believed. One author told me the pictures of his flies
in one of the mags was quite different from the actual fly.

So how accurate are the illustrations of flies on web sites on the
net? And I guess more important, how accurate are they wne printed
out?

I suppose the answer is, "it depends." But I thought I'd ask anyway.

vince

In article , wrote:

The colors found in illustrations of fly patterns in the fishing mags
are not to be believed. One author told me the pictures of his flies
in one of the mags was quite different from the actual fly.

So how accurate are the illustrations of flies on web sites on the
net? And I guess more important, how accurate are they wne printed
out?

I suppose the answer is, "it depends." But I thought I'd ask anyway.

vince

Can you say "not even close"? grin

You are completely at the mercy of the other guy's digital camera/scanner.
If it was standard to include a color wheel in each shot (remember the
shots from the early lunar exploration craft that had the color wheel in
the corner?) then you could adjust them yourself... assumming you had the
slightest idea how to do it and had appropriate software.

THEN you have to worry about how good your printer is, and if it can even
print colors accurately. Most can't. The software for that can get REAL
expensive.

--

Joe Ellis

If you want to go overboard, you would need to purchase a tool to check your
screen for colour definition. Essentially this is a camera and related
software that tests standardised colours against those produced by your
screen. Then you would need to store this screen profile on your computer.

After this in the viewing/editing software you would need to load the ICC
profile of the device used to take the image. Often 'average' profiles for
digital cameras can be found searching th Internet.

After a bit of this style of fiddling, you can begin to feel relatively
confident that you are seeing 'true' colour on pics you have taken in known
conditions.

Trouble is often you don't know how the image was produced in the first
place when it is not yours.

This lack of confidence in colour reproduction may help explain why many of
us have overstuffed fly boxes and countless variations of olive etc in our
fly tying kits.

If you want to go overboard, you would need to purchase a tool to check your
screen for colour definition. Essentially this is a camera and related
software that tests standardised colours against those produced by your
screen. Then you would need to store this screen profile on your computer.

After this in the viewing/editing software you would need to load the ICC
profile of the device used to take the image. Often 'average' profiles for
digital cameras can be found searching th Internet.

After a bit of this style of fiddling, you can begin to feel relatively
confident that you are seeing 'true' colour on pics you have taken in known
conditions.

Trouble is often you don't know how the image was produced in the first
place when it is not yours.

This lack of confidence in colour reproduction may help explain why many of
us have overstuffed fly boxes and countless variations of olive etc in our
fly tying kits.

So how accurate are the illustrations of flies on web sites on the
net? And I guess more important, how accurate are they wne printed
out?

I suppose the answer is, "it depends." But I thought I'd ask anyway.

it depends =)

This is a pretty big issue for me in what I do at work... I'm involved
in long term digital preservation of images and records.

There is a PDF post-press standard for color resolution that is used by
the digital print media to ensure when they depict colors of trademarked
and copyrighted items (cars, hair color, lipsticks, etc.) the colors are
accurately represented, as accurate as what the makes intended them to be.

Unfortunately, as described by others, the devices capturing the colors
(cameras, scanners, etc.) the devices portraying the colors (monitors)
and the devices between the two (video cards, etc.) are not equally
created and basically, you get what you get.

Short of having a Pantone wheel up on the screen and in your hand to
tune the colors of your screen to the wheel, there's no way to determine
how accurate the color representation is.

Larry

Thanks, guys.

vince

So how accurate are the illustrations of flies on web sites on the
net? And I guess more important, how accurate are they wne printed
out?

I suppose the answer is, "it depends." But I thought I'd ask anyway.

it depends =)

This is a pretty big issue for me in what I do at work... I'm involved
in long term digital preservation of images and records.

There is a PDF post-press standard for color resolution that is used by
the digital print media to ensure when they depict colors of trademarked
and copyrighted items (cars, hair color, lipsticks, etc.) the colors are
accurately represented, as accurate as what the makes intended them to be.

Unfortunately, as described by others, the devices capturing the colors
(cameras, scanners, etc.) the devices portraying the colors (monitors)
and the devices between the two (video cards, etc.) are not equally
created and basically, you get what you get.

Short of having a Pantone wheel up on the screen and in your hand to
tune the colors of your screen to the wheel, there's no way to determine
how accurate the color representation is.

Larry