A COLOR MANAGEMENT SYSTEM THAT SUPPORTS LEGACY AND ADVANCED COLOR MANAGEMENT APPLICATIONS

• US 20060119609A1
• Filed: 02/20/2006
• Published: 06/08/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Stokes, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 7,593,959 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/589
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/02 characterised by the way in which colour is displayed details of colour display specific for CRTs G09G1/28; specific for flat matrix panels other than liquid crystal displays G09G3/2003; specific for liquid crystal displays G09G3/3607

Abstract

The present invention provides method and apparatus for supporting a legacy application programming interface (API) set between a component and a color management system. The legacy API set supports both the new capabilities as well as the legacy capabilities. The color management system determines the format type for an object that is referenced by an API call. If the object is associated with a legacy format, the API call is processed by a legacy processing module. If the object is associated with an advanced format, the API call is processed by an advanced processing module. If a plurality of objects is associated with an API call with mixed formats, the color management system converts some of the objects so that the objects have a consistent format. A common structure supports an object that may have either a legacy format or an advanced format.

Claims

1. A method for supporting a request from a component, the method comprising:

(a) receiving the request, wherein the request is associated with a color management operation and is compliant with a legacy version of the request, the request identifying a set of objects;

(b) if the set of objects is characterized by mixed formats, converting at least one object of the set of objects in accordance with a format override indicator, wherein all objects are associated with a same format, and wherein the format override indicator corresponds to one of a plurality of mode selections that are supported by a policy;

(c) if the same format corresponds to a legacy format, invoking a legacy processing module to process the request;

(d) if the same format corresponds to an advanced format, invoking an advanced processing module to process the request; and

(e) returning a result to the component, the result being associated with the color management operation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the set of objects corresponds to a profile.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the legacy format complies with an International Color Consortium (ICC) format.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the advanced format complies with a virtual device model profile.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the request comprises an application program interface (API) call.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein a category of the API call is selected from the group consisting of an open profile category, a close profile category, a get profile element category, a set profile element category, a create transform category, and a transform colors category.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the API call complies with Image Color Management (ICM).

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the component is a requesting component that initiates the request.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the component is an intermediate component that relays the request to a color management system.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein an object of the set of objects corresponds to a profile and the request instructs that an element of the profile be accessed, and wherein (e) comprises:

(i) if the element is compatible with a format of the profile, returning information about the element; and

(ii) if the element is not compatible with the format of the profile, returning an error indication.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein an object of the set of objects corresponds to a profile and the request instructs that a requested element of the profile be accessed, and wherein (e) comprises:

(i) if the requested element is compatible with a format of the profile, returning information about the requested element; and

(ii) if the requested element is not compatible with the format of the profile, returning corresponding information about a corresponding element.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein (ii) comprises:

(1) determining that the corresponding element corresponds to the requested element, the corresponding element being compatible with the format of the profile; and

(2) returning the corresponding information about the corresponding element.