[css3-color] gamma correction

Section 3.1.1 on gamma correction

Is this really needed? No web browser on Mac OS is doing this, and I'm  
not aware of any browser on SGI doing it either.

This section is so old it even references CRTs, which aren't even  
manufactured anymore. In the epoch that this section was originally  
written in, what was true about the stability of CRT primaries is not  
at all true about LCD primaries. What was considered to be the bigger  
problem: tone reproduction, is no longer the only major problem.

I think it's a rather large gaffe for the W3C to keep this section in,  
while simultaneously yanking previous plans for ICC implementation.  
While I'm not a fan of the details of that implementation (the non- 
default behavior for color profile which ignores embedded profiles is  
a 3rd order heretical event; and the default for honoring the ICC  
profile intent flag), that is absolutely the more appropriate  
direction to go in than the obsolete section 3.1.1 as proposed.

I suggest the W3C remove the antiquated, irrelevant and in practice  
entirely ignored section 3.1.1, and replace it with an expected and  
assumed source color space for all untagged content, of sRGB  
IEC61966-2.1. This would apply to CSS content, untagged JPEG, GIF and  
PNG. As for options for overriding, I find that interesting but not as  
big of a problem as Section 3.1.1 which by the way can easily be read  
to mean that any embedded profile in an image must be ignored in favor  
of the encoding stipulated in this section. Not OK.

Chris Murphy
Color Remedies (TM)
New York, NY
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Co-author "Real World Color Management, 2nd Ed"

Received on Thursday, 10 July 2008 05:15:12 UTC