Color Management on Android

[Fabrizio Giudici]

So far it seems that Android is still lacking a Color Management Module
which allows to have an accurate color rendering. In contrast, iPad seems
to have one
(http://graphicssoft.about.com/b/2011/07/06/ipad-color-management-is-here.htm).

The only information I've been able to find is this suggestion:

http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.comp.graphics.argyllcms/8541

about Firefox for Android being able to do its own color management. But
of course this would exclude any other application rendering images. Is it
still like that, am I missing something, is something announced for the
future? Without CMM Android can't be used by professional photographers or
graphic designers (not counting that as a committed photographer I'm
particularly committed in spreading the color management culture even to
casual users and Android seems to kill this intention).

--
Fabrizio Giudici - Java Architect, Project Manager
Tidalwave s.a.s. - "We make Java work. Everywhere."
fabrizio...@tidalwave.it
http://tidalwave.it - http://fabriziogiudici.it

[Casper Bang]

Wouldn't that be rather hard to achieve, given Android consists of 100+ unique and different devices with STN, TFT, IPS, eIPS, OLED, OLED Plus etc. panels? iPad/iPhone has the advantage that it's one manufacturer and one kind of screen (IPS).

[Fabrizio Giudici]

On Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:25:54 +0100, Casper Bang <caspe...@gmail.com>
wrote:

It's very easy to achieve that on multiple devices, just like you achieve
that on regular monitors, that vary a lot. There's software around that
allows to create a specific profile for each monitor, and a CMM module
(Color Management) would property translate an incoming image properly.
It's what I've been doing to my laptop and external monitor for a decade.
What Android seems to lack is the capability of loading a LUT into the
video card (I bet the hardware allows that, it's just missing a o.s. call)
and the CMM module. It's a software thing.

[Casper Bang]

I get that we have been doing this with tradition RGB panels (CRT, TFT etc.) but OLED (Nexus One, Samsung Galaxy SII, Nexus Prime to name a few) does not offer any settings beyond brightness, through software. And given the surprisingly cold color temperature of recent devices (Nexus S and n800 are particular bad) I doubt if that can be adjusted through software with our current generation of the technology.

[Fabrizio Giudici]

On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:54:22 +0100, Casper Bang <caspe...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> I get that we have been doing this with tradition RGB panels (CRT, TFT

Even my MacBook Pro display only offers brightness adjustment, but the
graphic card offers three independent LUTs for each channel. This has been
enough for calibration and setting the white point. In any case, if
devices don't allow it, it's really a shame. Since Android also mandates
requirements for the hardware, it would mean that Google is not paying
attention to this feature.

[Casper Bang]

On Tuesday, January 31, 2012 8:47:36 AM UTC+1, fabrizio.giudici wrote:

Since Android also mandates  
requirements for the hardware, it would mean that Google is not paying  
attention to this feature.

There's a limit to how much Google should mandate and color management is really a niche demand I think. If Google truly cared about this, their recent Google Experience phones would surely not ship with over-saturated and super-cold colors which makes white look blue!? 

However, there are plenty of room for a handset manufacturer to then pursue this niche if they see a marked. It's then up to you, as a critical consumer, to buy that product! :)

[Casper Bang]

Calibration of OLED *is* apparently possible, but it involves you going deep down into the driver yourself:

"Colors calibration for Super AMOLED design has almost no common points with current methods applicable to LCD only.
Calibrating a AMOLED screen requires to setup 255 different hardware correction profiles, one per brightness level.
Instead of that, math calculations, based on a reference gamma table are used to setup responses applied by the screen hardware, that control each single led accordingly."

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=971987

[Fabrizio Giudici]

On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:49:25 +0100, Casper Bang <caspe...@gmail.com>
wrote:

Apart from the fact that "niche" in this case means media professionals,
it's also a cultural thing. People will be seeing visual stuff more and
more through mobile devices, and will see more and more with the wrong
colors. Now I don't care for YouTube (which I don't use anyway), but if
you are looking at a movie or a picture exhibit this makes a big
difference. It's also happening with monitors and TV equipments, of
course, since color management is not a common practice, but with Google's
lack of care in this area things will go worse. It's the typical case in
which technology for the masses damages culture and frankly it's quite
delusional that Google doesn't care.

[Casper Bang]

 

Now I don't care for YouTube (which I don't use anyway), but if  
you are looking at a movie or a picture exhibit this makes a big  
difference.

Sure, some of us who care about image quality may buy good panels (i.e. I care greatly about black-levels so I still watch movies on Plasma) and take the time to calibrate. Your average Joe however, will just leave the over-saturated color and contrast which the manufacturers and stores use, in order to draw attention. So you can argue that users should be able to calibrate their smartphone/tablet screens as they see fit, but I still maintain that the majority of users have no clue about this. The same goes for sound btw. where enthusiasts like George Lucas came up with the THX certification, yet most people are contend with their crappy Sony system made from cheap IC's and resistors.

 

It's also happening with monitors and TV equipments, of  
course, since color management is not a common practice, but with Google's  
lack of care in this area things will go worse. It's the typical case in  
which technology for the masses damages culture and frankly it's quite  
delusional that Google doesn't care.

I think "damages culture" is put a little extreme, for a number of reasons. First of all, colors are not perceived equally by everyone so that makes it rather hard to say "this is right". Secondly, nothing stops you from pursuing high fidelity products yourself, as is the case with so many other things i.e. sound. Third, new technologies (OLED) are subject to tremendous pressure to deliver and evolve. For the record, the brand new Nokia Lumia 800 running Windows Mobile 7.5, exhibits the same odd color temperature issue which the user is not able to calibrate. There can be little doubt, that as technologies get better and better, so will the mass marked products using these.

You could always open a bug with AOSP and request a calibration API be made available, but I am not convinced this can be solved with software given the plethora of technologies and drivers in use today.

[Josh Berry]

On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 4:14 AM, Fabrizio Giudici
<Fabrizio...@tidalwave.it> wrote:
> Apart from the fact that "niche" in this case means media professionals,
> it's also a cultural thing. People will be seeing visual stuff more and more
> through mobile devices, and will see more and more with the wrong colors.
> Now I don't care for YouTube (which I don't use anyway), but if you are
> looking at a movie or a picture exhibit this makes a big difference. It's
> also happening with monitors and TV equipments, of course, since color
> management is not a common practice, but with Google's lack of care in this
> area things will go worse. It's the typical case in which technology for the
> masses damages culture and frankly it's quite delusional that Google doesn't
> care.

As you said, this is a statement that is just as true for televisions
in general. The vast majority of them are not color calibrated that
well. I think the truth is that the majority of folks just don't care
about color calibration. Worse, many get upset if you try and
convince them that they should.

[Fabrizio Giudici]

On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:52:41 +0100, Josh Berry <tae...@gmail.com> wrote:

>
> As you said, this is a statement that is just as true for televisions
> in general. The vast majority of them are not color calibrated that
> well. I think the truth is that the majority of folks just don't care
> about color calibration. Worse, many get upset if you try and
> convince them that they should.

The point is that that portion of users that is concerned about color
management can't do anything with his Android tablet. And if you'd like to
campaign pro color management, you're stuck with the fact that more and
more devices don't support it. Keep also in mind that color management was
expensive in the past and is getting less and less expensive now, so in
theory it could become more popular.

[Josh Berry]

On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 8:00 AM, Fabrizio Giudici
<Fabrizio...@tidalwave.it> wrote:
> On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:52:41 +0100, Josh Berry <tae...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>>
>> As you said, this is a statement that is just as true for televisions
>> in general.  The vast majority of them are not color calibrated that
>> well.  I think the truth is that the majority of folks just don't care
>> about color calibration.  Worse, many get upset if you try and
>> convince them that they should.
>
>
> The point is that that portion of users that is concerned about color
> management can't do anything with his Android tablet. And if you'd like to
> campaign pro color management, you're stuck with the fact that more and more
> devices don't support it. Keep also in mind that color management was
> expensive in the past and is getting less and less expensive now, so in
> theory it could become more popular.

Fair points. Anything I can do to help out, I'll be willing. (Vote
on issues will likely be the best help I can give, but I'm game to try
other things. Don't have an Android yet, but if I get one I can
volunteer it to try out stuff.)

[Kevin Wright]

On 31 January 2012 10:31, Casper Bang <caspe...@gmail.com> wrote:

 

Now I don't care for YouTube (which I don't use anyway), but if  
you are looking at a movie or a picture exhibit this makes a big  
difference.

Sure, some of us who care about image quality may buy good panels (i.e. I care greatly about black-levels so I still watch movies on Plasma) and take the time to calibrate. Your average Joe however, will just leave the over-saturated color and contrast which the manufacturers and stores use, in order to draw attention. So you can argue that users should be able to calibrate their smartphone/tablet screens as they see fit, but I still maintain that the majority of users have no clue about this. The same goes for sound btw. where enthusiasts like George Lucas came up with the THX certification, yet most people are contend with their crappy Sony system made from cheap IC's and resistors.

 

Too true, just take support for lossless codecs as an example.  Prior to V3.1, you had to root your mobile and install cyanogenMod to get built-in FLAC support (although PowerAmp was a handy workaround).  Even then, you won't find a bluetooth solution that supports lossless audio, especially damning when you consider that bluetooth is the only route for digital audio output on the vast majority of devices, and the line out/headphone out are most definitely not going to be using the best DACS and amplifiers known to mankind.

So long as we're talking phones and not tablets, can we please get the sound right first, because listening to music is a very common use-case.  Being able to enjoy a bit of high-fidelity jazz while commuting is much more important than the exact shades of red, blue and white I see when playing angry birds.

On those occasions where I am concerned about image quality, then I'll attend to the screen size and resolution before colour balance.  So fix the audio first, then give me 2048x1536, and *then* we can sit down and discuss white balance.

[Casper Bang]

The point is that that portion of users that is concerned about color  
management can't do anything with his Android tablet.

Well you can do your homework and research these things before putting down the €. I assume you do the same thing when looking for a TV, camera etc?

 

And if you'd like to  
campaign pro color management, you're stuck with the fact that more and  
more devices don't support it.

If there is a need, some manufacturers will make it, and it seems obvious then for HP/Canon/Nikon/Eizo to do something here. Btw. you make it sound like your previous cell phones had advanced color management and somehow I doubt that.

 

Keep also in mind that color management was  
expensive in the past and is getting less and less expensive now, so in  
theory it could become more popular.

It probably will. Why would it be any different for handheld devices? 

I'm much more concerned about getting true RGB subpixeling rather than the current pentile trend, but I'm also fairly convinced we'll get there with later generations of screens, it's just a matter of time.

[Fabrizio Giudici]

On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:12:03 +0100, Casper Bang <caspe...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> then for HP/Canon/Nikon/Eizo to do something here. Btw. you make it sound
> like your previous cell phones had advanced color management and somehow
> I
> doubt that.

No, I'm making it sound as Apple's stuff has got it. At least from this
respect, they have an advantage. What I'm really puzzled about is that
most hardware supports this and Google just needs to add a simple API call
to populate a LUT. Is this really so hard?

[Geoffrey Faraghan]

This isn't just an Android issue, its a Google problem.
Guess which browser is the only one to NOT support Color Management:

Apple Safari

Mozilla Firefox

Microsoft Internet Explorer

Google Chrome, even developer beta 19.0.1084.15 

So I am not surprised that Android lacks Color Management if Chrome lacks it on the desktop

So colorspace tagged photos will have sick colors on the beautiful Samsung Galaxy Tab and Note HD displays, JUST like they do on my desktop monitor.

Very Sad

[Fabrizio Giudici]

BTW, I've just tried Adobe Reader on my Asus Transformer, with a PDF
photobook I've prepared (so I can visually compare with the original
photos). In spite of being pre-converted to sRGB, they aren't rendered
with the proper colors. So it seems Adobe isn't paying attention to colors
too.

[Paul Jandali]

  Especially on Tablets you have a focus on the visual experience when watching movies, which is another very important thing next to listening music.

  Color adjustment is very easy to realize. Take a look at the actual Samsung stock Video player. It offers three different color tones: normal, warm and cold. What      else is this than color correction on the lowest level ? On our desktops color correction is absolutely natural and it´s interesting and nice to use it even if you are not a pro. These guys at Google and anywhere else developing stuff are simply too stupid to see that people would really love it and that it would make our smartphones and tablets more enjoyable. It´s a shame. We will have to wait at least 5 years until that "feature" will be standard on our mobile units - at least 5 years.  

[Shi-Wan Lin]

with the arrival of android tablets especcially the high resolution nexus 10, color management in android makes strong sense. i agree that people won't pay too much attention to color management in small screen and low resolution display found in small devices such as smart phones. however the top line displays such as the one in nexus 10 (2560x1600) cry  for color management. it is true that most android users do not care for it but the same goes for windows and mac users. however we have comprehensive color management features and products in those environments. the reason for that is there are enough users who care about color management in those environments to justify the support. i don't see how would that be different in the case of android tablets, some with even a much higher resolution than any pc laptop display.

Shi-Wan Lin

[Maria]

I am very interested in this area. Actually, my whole PhD research project is related with colour management in mobile devices. The information available are very limited but there is room for a lot of improvement.

Best regards,

Maria Georgoula