Color management problem between programs

[Sparrow]

... I'm retired now but colour management is something I don't miss.

How are you calibrating your monitor ... I use a colour-spider, so I set all the applications to use my custom space as the default working space

 

[Avotius]

As I have done a lot of image printing before I think ultimately this may be a problem where email and windows is using some sort of simplified color space that is screwing with the images.

Previous work I have done for this client printed well. I think it may just be that other programs are not as sophisticated in color representation and are overriding the color space for whatever reason, maybe performance related.

Of course trying to explain to him that this is why the images look wrong and if he looked at them in photoshop they would look right is asking for trouble.

 

[Sparrow]

Yeah I've had my fair share of PS color issues too. It's just that the OP's statement about the colors being fine using ACDSee and bad only when he's using Windows programs that makes me doubt it's a PS issue. IDK I could be wrong

I'm a mac user, and it's a few years since I set it up last ... and despite running a design dept at the time I'm really no expert

 

[Avotius]

... I'm retired now but colour management is something I don't miss.

How are you calibrating your monitor ... I use a colour-spider, so I set all the applications to use my custom space as the default working space

I used a Spyder 3 pro. My screen is a Dell Ultrasharp that is about a year and a half old so it should not be so far gone yet.

When I reset all my color spaces to sRGB it still showed the same problem. I think the viewing program in windows and the email are too simple to show right. I just uploaded one of the pictures to flickr to see what it looked like and it still shows the wrong way, even though as I understand it the internet is sRGB. Honestly I dont know what to say anymore.


Blarg :bang:

 

[cpc]

When I right click and go to properties in Explorer it says "Color Representation sRGB"

In ACDSee it says the color space is sRGB

In Photoshop with Color proofing off it says RGB/8 with proofing on it says RGB/8/sRGB IEC61966-2.1 there is no different in turning it on and off.

In windows viewer it shows that image wrong and the same as it would be in an email. When you hit full screen in the viewer it shows the image the same as it would in PS or ACDSee.


I remember once seeing something on Luminous Landscape I think about a guy who worked in color management for 20 years and learned that its a huge impossible pain in the ass. :angel:

So it isn't a file profile issue then 🙂
Strangely enough, I am pretty sure it is the other way around with my Win 7 PC (can't check at the moment): correct color in Photo Viewer only shows in windowed mode, and not in fullscreen mode. This is a known issue with this application, as far as I know. You can probably google more about it.
But this doesn't explain the color differences when you set the system profile to default to sRGB. These are more puzzling.

 

[stompyq]

Did you try viewing the images on a different computer using the windows programs (not PS)?

 

[cpc]

I just uploaded one of the pictures to flickr to see what it looked like and it still shows the wrong way, even though as I understand it the internet is sRGB.

Which browser? Chrome and Firefox should be using your system profile.

 

[Sparrow]

I used a Spyder 3 pro. My screen is a Dell Ultrasharp that is about a year and a half old so it should not be so far gone yet.

When I reset all my color spaces to sRGB it still showed the same problem. I think the viewing program in windows and the email are too simple to show right. I just uploaded one of the pictures to flickr to see what it looked like and it still shows the wrong way, even though as I understand it the internet is sRGB. Honestly I dont know what to say anymore.


Blarg :bang:

... my spider is the first version, and I use a really old monitor ... it shouldn't matter about the monitor as long as everything is using the same custom-profile

I wouldn't judge anything by how Flicker handles colour ... their uploader buggers up the contrast and sharpening for some reason

 

[Shac]

Could be non-sRGB color space on export from PS which the more basic apps are misinterpreting? If you are exporting sRGB the images should be ok on Mac, unless the Mac itself is using a calibrated screen and is color managed, but the app used is not (FWIW, Safari is color managed).
IE 8 is not color managed as far as I remember. Not sure about the newer versions.

Agree - I found that with ACDC (old version) if the colour space wasn't sRGB - the colour of the image was way off.

 

[Avotius]

Did you try viewing the images on a different computer using the windows programs (not PS)?

Not yet, but that is my next think I want to try. Unfortunately its 12:16 am here so I will have to wait a bit to do that.

Which browser? Chrome and Firefox should be using your system profile.

I used Chrome.

... my spider is the first version, and I use a really old monitor ... it shouldn't matter about the monitor as long as everything is using the same custom-profile

I wouldn't judge anything by how Flicker handles colour ... their uploader buggers up the contrast and sharpening for some reason

I too have noticed that Flickr screws with the file a lot. Still that makes me wonder why the file looks the same on the site as it would in my email.



Tomorrow I am going to try and mess with this some more. I will view images on another computer and see what it looks like and I will try to post some comparisons of what I am seeing here.

 

[Sparrow]

If it helps, I did it one bit at a time, calibrated the screen and photoshop first, then added my labs printer profiles, then the local printer

I don't bother about emails of the interweb, I'm only concerned about prints really ... I've never bothered calibrating the input side, I just take what the camera-raw or scanner-tiff gives me and work from there

 

[cpc]

You can make sure Chrome is using the color profile by running it with the "--enable-monitor-profile" option. Also, it only works with ICC v2 profiles, IIRC, and not v4, so if you happen to use the latter this may be a problem. Firefox has much more sophisticated support for color management, so it may be worth comparing the colors with it.