Mistakes... oh my...

Playing around with the point editor, I suddenly realised I'm overlooking something important.

I have a color profile made by Microsoft, and in that profile the color points are swapped.

However, when I did that in some of my profiles, the colors turned ugly: the colors didn't swap properly in the proofing photo.

So, comparing the two profiles and looking at the raw data, I suddenly realised that editing the 2D representation (xyY) skips over the 3D Y component (the big Y stays the same).

I already knew that (it led to the problems with the black point), but in my somewhat rushed efforts to experience the color changes, I didn't realise the importance of a static Y.

I then included a swap function in the point editor, which simply copies color point red to say color point green, but this time all three values: not just a recalculated xy, but the full XYZ in one go.

That worked perfectly with nicely swapped colors.

My conclusion for now: the 2D should just be a representation and the editing should be done on the full XYZ values.

In 3D?

Well, I don't know... first I will add a slider for the Y, to see what the effect actually is of a changing Y component, because obviously: building a 3D editor is a whole different ballgame! Then we're talking DirectX and such... it's not out of the realm of possibilities I suppose, but it won't be finished tomorrow...

I guess a somewhat limped 2D editor with a third component on a slider will have to do for a while, untill I get a clearer picture of what's necessary exactly for a full intuitive XYZ edit.

It is funny though, how my color quest keeps answering my own questions about the lack of color profile editors and the price of existing ones...