I don't normally provide tips that involve content from the Apple Developer Connection. Not because it's top secret, but because in most cases, it's geared directly toward software developers. While the information may be interesting, it usually isn't directly beneficial to end users.

There's an exception to every rule, of course. Over the years, I've gleaned many useful nuggets of information from the Developer Connection, including this simple and effective way to determine whether a graphics application is handling embedded color spaces properly.

Image Color Management Test

Apple’s Technical Note TN2115 is designed for developers to test their application's support for handling embedded color profiles, something that all professional-grade applications should be able to do. But while graphics professionals expect applications like Photoshop and Illustrator to easily make use of embedded color spaces, they also need to ensure that target applications, such as web browsers, can handle the color space correctly. Otherwise, all their efforts are for naught.

At the bottom of TN2115 is a link to a collection of images, each of which has an unusual color profile. Download these images and view them in your favorite applications. If an application supports embedded profiles, you will see a text image that says, "The embedded test profile is used." If the application doesn't know what to do with the color profile information, you will see a text image that says, "The embedded test profile is not used."

Here's what I found:

• Safari – Yes
   
• Firefox – No
   

• Microsoft Word 2004 – No
   
• iPhoto – Yes
   
• Aperture – Yes
   
• Adobe Lightroom – Yes
   
• Adobe Photoshop – Yes