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

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:

Mac OSX 'Color Sync Utility' showing various infos about the extracted ICM profile.

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 IEC61966-2.1
  No Unicode data
  ScriptCode Data, Code 0x0, length 44 chars
    0x0000: 52 65 66 65 72 65 6e 63 65 20 56 69 65 77 69 6e 67 20 43 6f 6e 64 
...

tag 10:
  sig      'view'
  type     'view'
  offset   980
  size     36
Viewing Conditions:
  XYZ value of illuminant in cd/m^2 = 19.644501, 20.371796, 16.808899
  XYZ value of surround in cd/m^2   = 3.928894, 4.074387, 3.361786
  Illuminant type = D50

tag 11:
  sig      'lumi'
  type     'XYZ '
  offset   1016
  size     20
XYZArray:
  No. elements = 1

tag 12:
  sig      'meas'
  type     'meas'
  offset   1036
  size     36
Measurement:
  Standard Observer = 1931 Two Degrees
  XYZ for Measurement Backing = 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000    [Lab 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000]
  Measurement Geometry = Unknown
  Measurement Flare =   1.0%
  Standard Illuminant = D65

tag 13:
  sig      'tech'
  type     'sig '
  offset   1072
  size     12
Signature
  Technology = Cathode Ray Tube Display

tag 14:
  sig      'rTRC'
  type     'curv'
  offset   1084
  size     2060
Curve:
  No. elements = 1024

tag 15:
  sig      'gTRC'
  type     'curv'
  offset   1084
  size     2060
Curve:
  No. elements = 1024

tag 16:
  sig      'bTRC'
  type     'curv'
  offset   1084
  size     2060
Curve:
  No. elements = 1024

P.S.:
ArgyllCMS contains a command line tool, extracticc, which can extract an embedded ICC profile from a TIFF file. It does not have a tool to extract a profile from a PDF file.

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