Microsoft adds Canon colour to Windows Vista
Microsoft has chosen
Canon’s Kyuanos’ colour management technology for its new Windows
‘Vista’ operating system due out next year. The companies claim that
Kyuanos will provide the Windows Colour System with better
screen-to-print matching, better overall colour appearance, and support
for higher fidelity printing.
The boom in digital cameras, camera phones and the increasing use of
the Web to publish galleries of photographs through online services
like Picasa and Flickr, as well as the increasing use of photo quality
printers, mean that picture editing and colour fidelity are
increasingly in demand. Microsoft intends to provide users with new
tools to take advantage of the capabilities of modern colour devices
such as digital cameras and colour printers.
As part of Windows Vista, the Windows Color System will supply
the new colour infrastructure and translation engine that compensates
for the differences in colours that happens between input and output
devices and provide a uniform color reproduction. Microsoft says that
the system will support higher-fidelity colour with greater bit depths,
multiple colour channels and alternative colour spaces. Windows Vista
will also provide a central colour control panel and a monitor
calibration wizard.
Microsoft says that the Colour System will be configurable to allow
hardware and software developers to add extensions for their own
products.
The two companies say they are also working on a number of additional
technologies for the digital photographer, including the previously
announced support for RAW images. Other developments in progress
include connectivity options based on XML (Extensible Markup Language)
Web services, and offerings using the XML Paper Specification formerly
known by its code name ‘Metro’.
Microsoft and Canon say these technologies are on course to be included in Vista when it appears next year.