Re: [Gimp-user] [Gimp-developer] GIMP-2.10 and GIMP2.99 are still sRGB-only image editors



Hi!

On Fri, Feb 5, 2021 at 1:00 AM Elle Stone <ellestone ninedegreesbelow com>
wrote:

A misconception I keep seeing on various forums needs to be corrected:

GIMP-2.10 does *NOT* produce correct editing results in color spaces
other than sRGB. Neither does GIMP-2.99.

Editing in AdobeRGB, ProPhotoRGB, Rec2020, etc WILL produce *wrong*
results for many operations, and unless you are thoroughly conversant
with the underlying code, or else have a way to compare results with a
properly color-managed editing application, you don't have any way to
know what's right and what's wrong. It's best to stick with editing only
in GIMP's built-in sRGB color spaces.

The same is true if you are using GIMP-2.99: Some things that don't work
in GIMP-2.10, do work in GIMP-2.99. Other things that actually do work
in GIMP-2.10, don't work in GIMP-2.99.

About two years ago major changes were made in babl and additional
changes were made in GIMP-2.99, messing up stuff that still works in
GIMP-2.10. For awhile progress was being made in GIMP-2.99 on extending
the arena of "what actually works", some of which progress is from bug
reports I filed and in some cases helped to fix - it seems nobody else
was testing the new code to see what actually did work.

I was able to write code that fixed some of the bugs I reported for
GIMP-2.99 color management. But once I reached the point where further
coding requirements exceeded my coding ability, progress simply stopped,
with everyone else saying "some day" proper color management for GIMP
would be a priority. I began to feel like the best way to make sure a
bug would never get fixed, was to have the dreaded "Concepts: Color
Science" tag attached to it.

Since autumm of 2013 I've been participating in GIMP development, mostly
in the area of color management (editing in color spaces other than
sRGB) and color science (making sure GIMP code produces correct results
for things like layer blend modes, Curves and Levels, AutoStretch,
Luminance, and so on; and adding code for things like LCh color pickers
and blend modes).

Participating in GIMP development used to be challenging and enjoyable.
But over the last couple of years my interest in and patience with the
slow pace of progress regarding GIMP color management have dwindled to
the point of disappearing altogether.

If someone else feels like helping with GIMP color management and color
science, here's a list of still-open bug reports that I reported after
the migration to gitlab, most of which have to do with color
management/color science:


https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/issues?scope=all&utf8=%E2%9C%93&state=opened&author_username=ellestone

Here are bugs that I opened before the migration to gitlab:

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/issues?scope=all&utf8=%E2%9C%93&state=opened&author_username=bugzilla-migration&search=ellestone

The most important color management bugs still open from before the
migration to gitlab are these:

* Replace hard-coded sRGB parameters to allow editing in other RGB
working spaces (opened 6 years ago):
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/issues/594 - in some ways this bug
is obsolete as current GIMP color management issues are less about
actual hard-coded values and more about a lack of any way to convey the
required "not sRGB" color space information to various sections of code
that need this information.

* Decomposed to LAB images have the wrong ICC profile assigned (opened 4
years ago): https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/issues/883

* Address various limitations of LCMS soft proofing (opened 4 years
ago): https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/issues/976
the
and hoping very much that GIMP will find new developers that them a lot
of energy and some interest and expertise in color management and color
science.
* Support for high bit depth RGB (and LCH?) color palettes for painting
(opened 2 years ago): https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/issues/1328

Similar searchs in https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gegl/ and
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/babl/ will turn up a few additional color
management issues.

Best of luck to all,


So it feels like you are saying goodbye.
If so I hope it's only a temporary one and you'd be back if we get more
active on the color management side. We will, we definitely will, because
it's a major part of what GIMP 3 is supposed to be about anyway.

I personally have a high theoretical interest on this topic, but not a
practical one unfortunately (because we work in sRGB), which is why it is
both high in priority for me (because we need it for GIMP 3) and low
(compared to what we actually do day to day with GIMP). I have always been
hoping that Mitch and Ell would be back soon as they are much better suited
than me to decide on these topics anyway IMO. These are actually very
intimidating topics. I do understand them (or so I believe), when
scratching the head very hard, but I feel much better when I am not alone
to validate your patches. Adding to this the existence of my main
priorities, it's just easy to put these patches on the side temporarily
"for later". 😕

It's been stated over and over again by a particular GIMP dev that GIMP
development works best if people do what they are interested in doing.
The question is which current GIMP devs other than myself have an
*interest* in dealing bugs tagged with "Concept: Color Science"?

I am guessing I might be this dev. I hope this doesn't mean I am part of
why you lose interest in contributing. I do believe dev work best when
everybody does what they like best. But I am also aware it can become
frustrating when you are alone doing it, when it feels it's not priority to
others and when you have unreviewed patches waiting forever. Sorry for
this! It's really not my intent, it's just hard for me too. 😢

Anyway yes it's a real problem when we lack developers. 2020 has been a
particularly dreadful year. Well we got some nice new developers, but 2 of
the other main many-year-long developers got on a pause (one with no news
at all, so we fear it might be more than a pause, though hope remains!). So
yeah very bad year. 😱

Anyway whatever you decide, I wish you the best continuation in anything. I
do hope you will still stay around, at least just a bit (like do not
hesitate to comment if you need, even if just once in a while). And I would
name your gitlab nickname if I need, so do not feel forced to answer, but
we would be thrilled if you continue doing so from time to time.
In any case you will always be considered part of GIMP. 🤗

Jehan

Elle Stone

--
https://ninedegreesbelow.com
Color management and free/libre photography
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