On Apr 5, 2008, at 3:26 PM, Mark Roberts wrote: >>> Because cameras don't embed an ICC profile in JPEG files (for >>> whatever reason), the convention of having a filename change to >>> indicate the Adobe RGB colorspace was accepted some years ago. Once >>> these conventions come into being, it's a very slow process to >>> change >>> them. >> >> That's interesting. Is there a reason why cameras don't embed a >> colour >> space? Originally, I had assumed that if you selected Abobe RGB (for >> example) as the in-camera colour space that the camera would embed >> it in >> the image. I can't think of a reason why this doesn't happen, but >> I may >> be showing my ignorance here (again...) > > Because Raw files aren't *in* sRGB or Adobe RGB colorspace, they're in > the hardware-defined colorspace of the camera's sensor, which is much > broader than either Adobe or sRGB.
That's part of the answer, but the question as to why cameras don't embed an ICC into in-camera rendered JPEG files is probably more to do with a legacy of limited available computing resources and "now wouldn't that be a good idea!" than anything else. The practice of tagging files with embedded ICC profiles as a norm is only a recent development in digital imaging as popularity and use of digital images becomes more widespread. There is still only one browser (Apple's Safari) in full production release that honors ICC profiles, for instance. Others are working on it but this portion of digital image management with concerns for the fidelity of rendering is still in its infancy. Godfrey -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
