METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR EFFICIENT PROCESSING OF COLOR CONVERSION

The management of color presented at end point devices such as a display or printer is based on the implementation of a Color Management Resource (herein also CMR). A CMR is an architected resource stored accessibly to a print server or other processor that is used to carry all of the color management information required to render a print file, document, page, or data object. The invention here described is particularly focused on a color conversion type of CMR and defines a new type here called a Link Color Conversion CMR. In particular, a unique descriptor is tied to each input and output color conversion rule. A linked color conversion rule, created by combining the input and output color conversion, is created. The linked color conversion structure contains three parts—the descriptor of the input color conversion rule, the descriptor of the output color conversion rule, and the combined color conversion rule. By comparing the descriptors, it is possible to very rapidly identify a previously-existing linked color conversion that combines the input and output conversions.