Warp schrieb:
> 
>   But the problem remains that if all programs followed that "guess a
> gamma for a gammaless png" rule, pngs would become completely unusable
> in web pages where matching some png color with a css (or whatever other)
> color is necessary.

The problem here is that programs apply different 'guessed' gamma 
correction to the css colors and png colors.  It would only make sense 
to guess a gamma correction for none specified when this guess is 
equally used for images and other colors.

>   I think that an image telling "I want you to use this gamma correction
> with me" is the wrong approach. It causes all kinds of problems with
> things which do not have that kind of gamma information.
> 
>   I think that the gamma problem has been approached from the wrong end.
> They try to solve gamma problems by wanting the *images* to have some
> gamma correctio info.
> 
>   IMO the problem should be solved in the exact opposite way: All pixel
> information should be universally the same (ie. for example a value of
> 128 (in a 8 bits per channel image) means exactly half the brightness,
> not more, not less) [...]

The problem about this is that people are so used to specify colors in a 
non-linear color space that a change in this would be very difficult to 
introduce.

It gets even more funny for LCD monitors that do not have the typical 
gamma characteristic of CRTs.  This means colors are sent to the monitor 
in a nonlinear form but then linearized again to be displayed.

Leaving the gamma correction all to the monitor and having the rest run 
with normal linear colors would be technically feasible and would 
simplify all this.  Sadly this will most likely never happen (at least 
not in my lifetime).

-- Christoph

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