How to Test a Colour Management System

One of the problems preventing a widespread adoption of colour management systems (CMS) is the fact that the user is unable to judge a system and to know which system fits best the purpose. To overcome this problem, two assessment tools have been developed: The first is a checklist allowing the user to identify the basic requirements for a given application environment. The second tool enables an assessment of the quality of a CMS for a given rendering intent. For this purpose, a method has been developed to objectively compare the colour values of the output with aimpoint values calculated by a special program. Results obtained with this method are shown for an example of a commercially available CMS.