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Color madness
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Synotic
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Join Date: Oct 2000
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Aug 23, 2004, 10:51 AM
 
OK, I've often had minor problems like this, but recently it's become a bit more annoying. Before fully explaining, here are two images for some context:




Depending on your monitor, the difference may be lesser or greater, but the first image should be duller and less saturated than the second one. I'm told that the first one actually shows up as near white, which was backed up with a screenshot. On my PowerBook however, it's fairly visible, but still rather faint.

The difference between the two images is that the second includes a profile that matches that of the person who created the Photoshop file which I used to create the JPEG (run on sentence!). I've read about half way through a color management book (stop right before the practical aspect ) so I sort of have an idea how profiles work... it's working to try and show me exactly what he's seeing on his screen. But since most people don't pay much attention to profiles and embedding profiles this just doesn't seem to be working out.

My question is if I can somehow get this image unmodified by programs like Photoshop. I.E., if my display has a yellowish tinge, i don't want the image to be modified to be displayed more correctly. I want #86A1D4 to be #86A1D4 to be #86A1D4... if that makes any sense. When I can specify things like font-colors using hex colors, they seem to display correctly for both me and the other person.

Am I approaching this the wrong way? Are profiles actually the solution I'm looking for? I'm not looking to get the image looking identical on all computers... rather I don't want it modified to look nearly invisible. He's willing to make any changes on his computer or to the Photoshop file if that helps.

Another thing to note is that I changed my color management options to match his own... and the green appeared more saturated and correct... but when saving for web, it appeared dull again... because the profile wasn't applied I believe.

I'm also posting this in the web development forum because it directly relates to the web but perhaps it might be better placed in the art and design forum because people might be more familiar with color management? Either way, I hope I can get this fixed and look forward to any help

P.S. I realize that most of my post is rather convulted and confusing.. mostly because this is something I'm inexperienced with, I'm hoping someone more informed on the subject can understand it though...
     
Millennium
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
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Aug 23, 2004, 11:18 AM
 
They both look the same to me, but then, my monitor's calibrated and I'm on Firefox, which seems to ignore profiles anyway.

In theory, browsers should be using profiles for everything where specified. It's even possible to put the basics of a profile into CSS. The problem is, browser makers have been dragging their feet on this, so the end result is that it's not possible to get a good, unified experience.

If you want "#86A1D4 to be #86A1D4 to be #86A1D4", then there are two things you should do: 1) calibrate your monitor, and 2) disable the embedding of color profiles. Calibrating a monitor -for the basics, anyway- isn't too tough; OSX has basic tools built in, and similar tools exist for Windows. If your display is turning yellowish then you really should do this anyway, as much as can be done for your monitor. By calibrating the monitor, you can be sure that you're actually specifying the colors you want.

You won't ever be able to reach everyone, of course, because very few monitors out there are actually correctly calibrated. But most are at least reasonably close to the mark, and by calibrating your own monitor you should be able to at least get some idea of how things will turn out.
You are in Soviet Russia. It is dark. Grue is likely to be eaten by YOU!
     
larkost
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Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: San Jose, Ca
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Aug 23, 2004, 12:38 PM
 
This is the web we are talking about, and there are a lot of Windows PC's out there. In addition to having a different Gama setting (by default, but not guaranteed... it does vary both by computer and by video card), they also have almost no system level color controls. And this is totally ignoring other systems that might be on the web (Sun, WebTV, Linux, phones, etc...). Most browsers totally ignore color spaces (OmniWeb is one of the few that really pays attention), and most Windows systems are incapable of doing something intelligent with them even if they paid attention.

You cannot count on colors being very accurate on the web, you just can't. It is one of the many differences between print and web, unfortunately the graphics arts schools have not learned that they are different yet...*sigh*

Oh... and as someone who has done a lot with color management... #86A1D4 is not a color, it is an entry in a color table, which could theoretically be any color. In order to describe a true color you would have to define it in LAB space.
     
   
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