Apple patent application: CMYK tech that could revolutionize commercial graphics

[*LTD*]

http://industry.bnet.com/technology...hnology-could-change-all-commercial-graphics/

http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph...D&d=PG01&s1=apple.AS.&OS=AN/apple&RS=AN/apple

Apple patent application details new CMYK technology that could revolutionize commercial graphics

"Ask any publishing or graphics professional the challenges they face trying to reproduce colors in print as they appear on a screen and you’ll see eyes roll," Erik Sherman reports for BNET.

"It’s a difficult trick, and one that costs businesses in many industries more money and time for commercial printing, because inherent technical problems make it time-consuming to precisely match color on a monitor and on a page," Sherman reports. "But a patent application filed last September suggests that Apple may have a new approach that would make the process more easier [sic] and more accurate, saving publishers, retailers, advertisers, and marketers of all stripes plenty of time, money, and aggravation."

Sherman reports, "Apple’s patent application 20100090930 details a smart solution: a monitor that uses adjustable filters to literally display subtractive CMYK color instead of additive RGB. That would eliminate virtually all the conversion companies otherwise need to do... To do this, you’d need a computer and software that could work with such a display — which means more Mac sales for Apple as well. The concept could reestablish the company’s preeminent position in print production and, by extension, all other publishing and graphics work that uses print as a component."

 

[design-is]

Great find! Thanks for posting

I've thought for ages "Why doesn't someone develop an RGB print process?" but this way round seems just as good if it works out... Though RGB has a wider gamut... who's really going to notice.

Very excited to see how this plays out (if anything comes of it).

/Doug

 

[Jim Campbell]

Err, because it's physically impossible to simulate an additive process that uses light by means of a subtractive process that uses ink ...?

Cheers!

Jim

 

[decksnap]

I'm not sure I understand what this does that color profiles and calibration do not.

 

[Nostromo]

This sounds like a completely new monitor technology, not just software.

 

[design-is]

Err, because it's physically impossible to simulate an additive process that uses light by means of a subtractive process that uses ink ...?

Cheers!

Jim

... Well, yeh. That's why I haven't done it. But who knows what someone clever might one day come up with to solve 'physical impossibility'

 

[usclaneyj]

Uh, can I go ahead and pre-order whatever is gonna have this technology? "Like" x1000. (Where's that new global facebook "like" button when you need it?)

 

[ColorLuvvr]

...Light is RGB, Ink is CMYK

okay, this is what I think, and I could be wrong—but—as a prepress specialist I gotta say I'm pretty sure Apple is just creating a nuisance product in order to make more cash. Don't sell the monitor you already have.

I believe what their new-fangled monitor will be doing is restricting the color gamut in one of two ways: filtration or software that simulates filtration.

Good news for the consumer though, if you're big on color management, you probably already use the 'soft proof' feature in your software. Soft proofing uses color profiles that you create which simulate the color space that you will be printing or publishing your final product in. Given this, you already know that you don't need to buy a new monitor that will have a smaller color range, you can create it yourself by making a color profile.

And as to their claims that it will be a "subtractive" method of combining colors, I don't think so.

Light added to light makes for more light. Pigment added to pigment makes for a darker printout. You can't have a light-emitting monitor that is subtractive—unless Apple has invented a "negative-light ligthbulb" and even then... the monitor wouldn't glow. so... ya.. I think the whole thing is essentially you give Apple money, they sell you the same monitor you already owned, except this time, it won't have as much capability because it can only produce 40% of the colors you used to be able to make.

 

[ColorLuvvr]

re: RGB print process

one more thing, yes, you can print using RGB, the technology is there.
it's a photographic process, using photo paper and a printer that prints with light, then you process it. voila! you get a photograph. Many different sizes, it's probably more expensive than a cmyk print, but if it's for a large format print, it's a good way to go.
nope, it doesn't have the gamut that your monitor has, but overall it does have a larger gamut than CMYK printing. The trouble comes in if you want to create a spot color like ultra-fluorescent-flamingo-pink. then you have to be creative about applying that in a different manner, maybe vinyl sticker it or something.

 

[Jim Campbell]

one more thing, yes, you can print using RGB, the technology is there.

Link?

Cheers

Jim

 

[dmz]

it's a photographic process, using photo paper and a printer that prints with light

Photo paper is a subtractive, hence CMY-based process. Printing with light? Do youou mean imaging with light? Light is used to project the image as part of the additive RGB process, so the light is indeed, "RGB", but the photo paper is still using a CMY-RGB subtractive process. Unless you can back this up with some facts, I call it pure fantasy.

And, I agree with the above poster - colour profiles and a working colour management system, like ColorSync, already accomplish the holy grail of soft proofing - why would you want a monitor that cannot display the larger gamut of RGB that most digital photography and all videography use?

I guess only time will tell if this so-called CMYK-based display system ever surfaces as a product.

Cheers,

dmz

 

[neutrino23]

A CRT is always going to be RGB as it operates by supplying light. The electron beam contacts phosphor and light is generated.

An LCD, in principle, could be CMYK. It starts with a CFL generating white light and colors are subtracted from that. The way they currently operate mimics a CRT. Individual dots of RGB are created. If you could somehow find liquid crystal materials that were color sensitive you could stack them up and create a CMYK display. As the light passed through each layer some amount of that color band would be subtracted. Or with clever light switches you could optionally pass the light through different color filters. That is way too complex for a real device, but demonstrates the physics. I have no idea how Apple did it or whether there invention is really good or not.

 

[ColorLuvvr]

re: rgb print process

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LightJet is a link to the wikipedia article on the lightjet brand printers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_C_print is a link to wikipedia's article on c-prints (which is what lightjets produce, in cooperation with a photo developing machine)

http://www.shutterbug.net/techniques/film_processing/0902sb_ever/ is a little overview of photo color printing process.

dmz said: "Photo paper is a subtractive, hence CMY-based process. Printing with light? Do youou mean imaging with light? Light is used to project the image as part of the additive RGB process, so the light is indeed, "RGB", but the photo paper is still using a CMY-RGB subtractive process. Unless you can back this up with some facts, I call it pure fantasy."

you're correct, RA-4 processing does create cyan magenta and yellow dye in photo paper during it's reversal process. First the paper is exposed with light (RGB, of course) which is what I was referring to when I wrote "prints with light". (but there was really no need to get snippy, hon.)