Legacy Document

Inside Macintosh: Advanced Color Imaging on the Mac OS /

Chapter 2 - Color Picker Manager / About the Color Picker Manager

ColorSync Colors and the Color Picker Manager

When returning a color selected by the user, the Color Picker Manager uses the ColorSync definition of a color, which contains both a color and a color-matching profile. The color-matching profile defines the color space of the color (which includes the type of color -- CMYK, HSL, RGB, and so on). Your application can also specify a destination profile, which describes the color space of the device for which the color is being chosen (for example, a color printer that will eventually print the document). When given the destination profile, color pickers that are ColorSync aware can help the user choose a color that's within the gamut of the destination device.

This version of the Color Picker Manager uses ColorSync 1.0 profiles only. The ColorSync 1.0 profile is a handle-based profile. The profile format is defined by Apple Computer. You cannot use version 2.x profiles, which are identified by profile references, with this version of the Color Picker Manager. ColorSync 1.0 profiles typically reside in the ColorSync\x89 Profiles folder (within the Preferences folder of the System Folder). They may also be embedded with the images to which they pertain in graphics files. The appendix "ColorSync Manager Backward Compatibility" provides information about the relationship between the ColorSync Manager version 2.x and ColorSync 1.0 profiles, which you may find useful.

For compatibility with the Color Picker Package, the GetColor function still uses RGB colors. To convert RGB colors to and from those of the CMYK, HSL, and HSV models, you can use the functions described in "Converting Colors Among Color Models" (page 2-52) in Advanced Color Imaging Reference. See "Introduction to Color and Color Management Systems" (page 3-4) for an explanation of these color models.