19th Century Technology? Obviously you're not familiar with advances in print technology over the past... 200 years. You do realize printing color on newsprint equates to doing calligraphy on toilet paper, correct? To print like this every day consistently at hundreds of feet per minute and get the paper on your doorstep by 4am is nothing short of impressive.
Not to say that it's the most effective way to distribute news, but it's still impressive.
Still, sRGB is not device independent and neither is any CMYK space. Did you actually read what I wrote?
All RGB space and CMYK are device dependent because their color gamuts are limited. Even ProPhoto RGB, which claims to have the largest color gamut, is still device dependent. If you want to print anything, it's going to have to get converted to some form of CMYK profile in the end, and to do that, it goes through the CIELAB space, which is device independent. CIELAB and CIEXYZ are mathematically calculated.
In terms of the web, the only browser that even recognizes all profiles correctly is Safari. Firefox can't do it, IE can't do it, all the others can't and don't do it. Therefore, color management on the web, at least at this point, is somewhat of a joke.
Ink jet print CAN last a long time, depending on what you use. Obviously if you're using a home desktop solution to print out your prints, they won't last very long, especially if you want to display them in any light. Supposedly Kodak came out with a solution not too long ago for the personal inkjet printer set, but I really don't think that those prints will last up to 100 years.
Epson Ultrachrome K3 pigmented inks will last up to 100 years, depending on what stock you use. Papers with optical brightening agents (OBAs) will not last as long as virgin papers. For example, an Epson Premium Luster contains OBAs in order to make the paper "brighter" (i.e. it reflects more light off of its surface, it's not necessarily "whiter"). OBAs have a tendency to turn yellow over time, and that stock is only rated at about 70 years using the K3 inks. However, Epson's Ultra Smooth Fine Art paper, which has no OBAs, is rated to last 100 or more years using the K3 inks. The truth about it is, as long as you're using the manufacturer's ink (not a refill, because in my opinion, refills are worthless) and a manufacturer's paper, you'll get the desired results. That may not jive with a lot of people, they may not want to believe it, but it's definitely true. At least in this case, Epson has developed an extremely stable product, in the printer, the ink, and the paper.
Here at RIT, there's something within my school called the Image Permanence Institute where they deal with this stuff day in and day out. I've actually never visited where they're at, but from what I hear, they can simulate putting around 100 years of light on any print to see the effects and rate a paper's or ink's permanence.
Woah woah woah back up a second. CMYK and RGB color spaces are both device-dependent. You confirmed this yourself through the use of "sRGB," which is the so-called "standard," of RGB profiles. However, the sRGB color space has a much smaller color gamut than many other RGB profiles, specifically Adobe 1998 RGB. These profiles can still be converted properly to CMYK using the right rendering intent (usually "Perceptual," if you're converting from RGB to CMYK) and still have a fairly accurate result.
CIELAB and CIEXYZ are true device-independent spaces. They're what's used to actually convert from RGB to CMYK or RGB to RGB or anything to anything, basically (at least in an ICC-based workflow). They're renderings of how the human visual system perceives color.
Obviously if GIMP doesn't support ICC-based color management, well then good luck with any of this. Adobe's got the most complete system using ICC color profiles. However, they still have problems because different programming teams develop the different applications, and each application handles color management in slightly different ways (at least in CS2, it's probably still a problem in CS3). Still, it's the best solution out there, especially if you know how to handle it.
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19th Century Technology? Obviously you're not familiar with advances in print technology over the past... 200 years. You do realize printing color on newsprint equates to doing calligraphy on toilet paper, correct? To print like this every day consistently at hundreds of feet per minute and get the paper on your doorstep by 4am is nothing short of impressive. Not to say that it's the most effective way to distribute news, but it's still impressive.
Still, sRGB is not device independent and neither is any CMYK space. Did you actually read what I wrote? All RGB space and CMYK are device dependent because their color gamuts are limited. Even ProPhoto RGB, which claims to have the largest color gamut, is still device dependent. If you want to print anything, it's going to have to get converted to some form of CMYK profile in the end, and to do that, it goes through the CIELAB space, which is device independent. CIELAB and CIEXYZ are mathematically calculated. In terms of the web, the only browser that even recognizes all profiles correctly is Safari. Firefox can't do it, IE can't do it, all the others can't and don't do it. Therefore, color management on the web, at least at this point, is somewhat of a joke.
Ink jet print CAN last a long time, depending on what you use. Obviously if you're using a home desktop solution to print out your prints, they won't last very long, especially if you want to display them in any light. Supposedly Kodak came out with a solution not too long ago for the personal inkjet printer set, but I really don't think that those prints will last up to 100 years. Epson Ultrachrome K3 pigmented inks will last up to 100 years, depending on what stock you use. Papers with optical brightening agents (OBAs) will not last as long as virgin papers. For example, an Epson Premium Luster contains OBAs in order to make the paper "brighter" (i.e. it reflects more light off of its surface, it's not necessarily "whiter"). OBAs have a tendency to turn yellow over time, and that stock is only rated at about 70 years using the K3 inks. However, Epson's Ultra Smooth Fine Art paper, which has no OBAs, is rated to last 100 or more years using the K3 inks. The truth about it is, as long as you're using the manufacturer's ink (not a refill, because in my opinion, refills are worthless) and a manufacturer's paper, you'll get the desired results. That may not jive with a lot of people, they may not want to believe it, but it's definitely true. At least in this case, Epson has developed an extremely stable product, in the printer, the ink, and the paper. Here at RIT, there's something within my school called the Image Permanence Institute where they deal with this stuff day in and day out. I've actually never visited where they're at, but from what I hear, they can simulate putting around 100 years of light on any print to see the effects and rate a paper's or ink's permanence.
Woah woah woah back up a second. CMYK and RGB color spaces are both device-dependent. You confirmed this yourself through the use of "sRGB," which is the so-called "standard," of RGB profiles. However, the sRGB color space has a much smaller color gamut than many other RGB profiles, specifically Adobe 1998 RGB. These profiles can still be converted properly to CMYK using the right rendering intent (usually "Perceptual," if you're converting from RGB to CMYK) and still have a fairly accurate result.
CIELAB and CIEXYZ are true device-independent spaces. They're what's used to actually convert from RGB to CMYK or RGB to RGB or anything to anything, basically (at least in an ICC-based workflow). They're renderings of how the human visual system perceives color.
Obviously if GIMP doesn't support ICC-based color management, well then good luck with any of this. Adobe's got the most complete system using ICC color profiles. However, they still have problems because different programming teams develop the different applications, and each application handles color management in slightly different ways (at least in CS2, it's probably still a problem in CS3). Still, it's the best solution out there, especially if you know how to handle it.