How do I dump embedded ICC profile information in PDF? (command line or GUI tools)

Question

It there a command line or GUI tools to dump information about ICC Profile/color conversion, which are set "Color management and PDF/X options for PDF" option of Illustrator's PDF export dialog? "Color management and PDF/X options for PDF" option of Illustrator [image] http://blogs.adobe.com/vikrant/files/2012/05/grayscale_export.png [manual] http://help.adobe.com/en_US/illustrator/cs/using/WS714a382cdf7d304e7e07d0100196cbc5f-6547a.html#WS714a382cdf7d304e7e07d0100196cbc5f-6540a

Accepted Answer

Here is a command line based method to extract ICC color profiles from a PDF. It uses the Python script pdf-parser.py written by security researcher Didier Stevens which you can download here. However, this tool is not a specialized tool for ICC extraction. (I do not know such a tool.) It is a generic command line tool to investigate PDF files. Therefor you need to go through various steps in order to achieve the extraction. Step 1: Determine the PDF object ID of the ICC profile You have to use `-s` to search for the string `ICCBased`. (PDF files without an embedded ICC profile will not have this keyword [with the exception of possibly using it in their text contents...].) ``` pdf-parser -s ICCBased my.pdf ``` My test PDF returned this: ``` obj 18 0 Type: Referencing: 21 0 R ``` It seems that an ICC profile is to be found in PDF object 21. Step 2: Look at the PDF object found in step 1 You have to use `-o 21` to see what PDF object 21 is: ``` pdf-parser.py -o 21 my.pdf ``` My test PDF returns this: ``` obj 21 0 Type: Referencing: Contains stream << /Alternate /DeviceRGB /Filter /FlateDecode /Length 2574 /N 3 >> ``` Ok, this looks like we are getting close... Step 3: Dump the stream contained in the PDF object containing the profile In step 2 we acquired two important infos: - The PDF object 21 contains a stream (the contents of which are not shown by using the `-o 21` parameter of `pdf-parser.py`). - The object stream has to be de-compressed with the `/FlateDecode` in order to get to its content. Hence we have to run `pdf-parser.py` now with two additional arguments: - `-d filename` in order to dump the stream of PDF object 21 to a file. - `-f` in order to filter/un-compress the object stream when dumping it to a file. - Command to run: `pdf-parser.py -o 21 -f -d 21.stream my.pdf` Step 4: Verify what was extracted We now have dumped the stream of PDF object 21 to a file named `21.stream`. Let's see what it contains: ``` file 21.stream 21.stream: Microsoft ICM Color Profile ``` Looks like we succeeded. :-) Step 5: Open the color profile I'll see if my Mac OSX system does accept this profile: ``` mv 21.stream 21.icm open 21.icm ``` OSX uses the 'Color Sync Utility' to open the file and display a window. Clicking on the list entries opens different information panes at the bottom of the window: Step 6: Use Argyll's `iccdump` to dump the contents of the ICC profile as text Note, that Graeme Gill's ArgyllCMS, the open source color management software, available for Linux, Mac OSX and Windows, ships with a whole suite of command line tools. One of these is `iccdump`. We can use it to look at the properties of the newly won `21.icm` file: ``` iccdump 21.icm icc: Header: size = 3144 bytes CMM = 'Lino' Version = 2.1.0 Device Class = Display Color Space = RGB Conn. Space = XYZ Date, Time = 9 Feb 1998, 6:49:00 Platform = Microsoft Flags = Not Embedded Profile, Use anywhere Dev. Mnfctr. = 'IEC ' Dev. Model = 'sRGB' Dev. Attrbts = Reflective, Glossy Rndrng Intnt = Perceptual Illuminant = 0.964203, 1.000000, 0.824905 [Lab 100.000000, 0.000498, -0.000436] Creator = 'HP ' tag 0: sig 'cprt' type 'text' offset 336 size 51 Text: No. chars = 43 0x0000: Copyright (c) 1998 Hewlett-Packard Company tag 1: sig 'desc' type 'desc' offset 388 size 108 TextDescription: ASCII data, length 18 chars: 0x0000: sRGB IEC61966-2.1 No Unicode data ScriptCode Data, Code 0x0, length 18 chars 0x0000: 73 52 47 42 20 49 45 43 36 31 39 36 36 2d 32 2e 31 00 tag 2: sig 'wtpt' type 'XYZ ' offset 496 size 20 XYZArray: No. elements = 1 tag 3: sig 'bkpt' type 'XYZ ' offset 516 size 20 XYZArray: No. elements = 1 tag 4: sig 'rXYZ' type 'XYZ ' offset 536 size 20 XYZArray: No. elements = 1 tag 5: sig 'gXYZ' type 'XYZ ' offset 556 size 20 XYZArray: No. elements = 1 tag 6: sig 'bXYZ' type 'XYZ ' offset 576 size 20 XYZArray: No. elements = 1 tag 7: sig 'dmnd' type 'desc' offset 596 size 112 TextDescription: ASCII data, length 22 chars: 0x0000: IEC http://www.iec.ch No Unicode data ScriptCode Data, Code 0x0, length 22 chars 0x0000: 49 45 43 20 68 74 74 70 3a 2f 2f 77 77 77 2e 69 65 63 2e 63 68 00 tag 8: sig 'dmdd' type 'desc' offset 708 size 136 TextDescription: ASCII data, length 46 chars: 0x0000: IEC 61966-2.1 Default RGB colour space - sRGB No Unicode data ScriptCode Data, Code 0x0, length 46 chars 0x0000: 49 45 43 20 36 31 39 36 36 2d 32 2e 31 20 44 65 66 61 75 6c 74 20 ... tag 9: sig 'vued' type 'desc' offset 844 size 134 TextDescription: ASCII data, length 44 chars: 0x0000: Reference Viewing Condition in IEC61966-2…

How do I dump embedded ICC profile information in PDF? (command line or GUI tools)

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