Color spaces and color profiles in SDI. Color management techniques for the correct distribution of raster and vector geographic information over the web

Abstract

Nowadays it is common for the publication of geographic information to be carried out almost directly by the departments or people generating such information, who usually know superficially, in the best of cases, the techniques of color management. One might think that, by using monitors and computers both for editing and publishing data and for its “consumption”, color management is no longer necessary. Unfortunately, this is not the case: editing and publishing are carried out using a huge variety of monitors (of different types -IPS, TN, OLED- brands, models, drivers ..., devices (desktop, mobile, virtual machines ...), operating systems and specific programs (desktop GIS, Thin clients, ETL tools ...) that use different libraries (GDAL ...). The “consumption” of information is done with the same variety of hardware and software. This article makes a brief review of the color management techniques that are applicable for the publication on the web and explains the factors to consider in the design of a workflow that avoids “surprises” in the colors that really reach the end user.