Melissa,
We've recently upgraded our systems and are working tirelessly to be a color safe environment. We have purchased a number of high-quality NEC monitors and are using an Xrite ColorMunki Spectrophotometer to accurately calibrate on a weekly basis. We're working in a color neutral and nearly cave like editing room. As we begin to assess back-clients for how off our color may have been in the past, we're noticing a lot of color shifting, and we certainly don't want to be here as we move forward. Currently we embed sRGB color to all of our delivered JPGs.
PM ver. 4.6.3 : MacOSX - 10.6.2 (MacPro, MBPro {4}, iMac {2} - all latest models Intel Inside)
Can anyone please explain in depth the Color Matching Icon in PM?
When it's bright, what color am I seeing?
Color managed images, matched to your main monitor's ICC profile using the profile's rendering intent.
When it's dull, what color am I seeing?
Non-color managed images, no color matching performed at all.
What will my clients see?
It depends entirely on what process your images go through on their systems to their display.
Is it better to use some other color space?
It depends on the result you're trying to achieve. sRGB is the lowest common denominator profile. AdobeRGB provides a larger gamut of colors but most monitors cannot display the entire AdobeRGB color space.
What should we be editing in?
It depends on what you're trying to achieve. Most people edit in a larger gamut color space like AdobeRGB or ProPhoto RGB and later convert to a smaller gamut like sRGB for delivery.
Why does the manual reference this subject as color management (and no where does it state Color Matching), but PhotoMechanic.app references this as Color Matching?
The two terms could be better synchronized between the manual and the application.
Is there any hope of adding a hover text on the icon giving a brief hint as to what that Gamma Icon is doing for me? now it's just labeled as "Perform Color Matching (C)" and goes either bright or dim - this isn't helpful. neither is the manual, which also just tells me that it toggle color matching on and off.
The bright or dim feedback lets you know if color management is turned on or off. It is not a 'Gamma Icon'. It is the image of a color space's chromaticity diagram which is a common view used to display the gamut of a color space.
color matching needs a much better definition.
Do you mean in our documentation or just in general? There are lots of sources including WikiPedia that explain color profiles and color management in great detail. It is not a simple topic. "Real World Color Management" by Bruce Fraser, Chris Murphy, and Fred Bunting is an excellent source of information and is over 500 pages long.
HTH,
-Kirk
