PS colors never match other apps

"Keith Wiley" wrote in message

It has been my experience for quite a long time now that the colors of an image will often match in a wide variety of programs (Netscape, Preview, GraphicConverter, etc.), but in PS and PS alone, the colors will be radically different, usually much much lighter in PS than in Netscape and other apps). It may not actually be a "color" issue, so much as a gamma issue, I’m not sure. This makes it next to impossible to edit an image so that it will look good when viewed in other apps (my primary goal being to produce images for the web).

Now, I am aware that there is a big gamma discrepancy between Macs and PCs, so I’m not even trying to think about that right now (since I don’t have a Windows machine to test the appearance on anyway), but that certainly isn’t what’s going on here since I’m experiencing this color-variation in different apps all on a Mac.

I have twiddled with the Color settings in PS quite a bit. With the Preview boxed checked, I have tried selecting numerous color profiles and have otherwise tried changing all the color settings as much as I can. If there is any apparant color variation at all as these controls are varied it is very very slight, certainly never enough to account for the vast discrepancy observed in other programs.

If anyone has any thoughts on this I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

All th other apps you’ve mentioned share one thing in common: they are *not* colormanaged, whereas PS is. In a nutshell, two things are causing this problem. First, those other apps all use the underlying OS color space of sRGB, and they will NOT use any other profile or tag. Second, your monitor profile is ONLY used in PS, not in the other apps.

One way to do what you want is to make a copy of the file(s), convert it to Monitor RGB, and do your work there. Save it, and it *will* look the same in your other apps. The problem, however, with that is it won’t look the same on anyone else’s monitor. It will result in fairly washed out images when viewed in a PC browser, none of which are color managed.

The best way to do it is to convert it to sRGB, work on it, and save it. It’ll look close to what others will see on most of their machines (which are, of course, Win boxes), but it will look "dark" in your other apps. You’re quite used to that, I’m sure. That discrepancy is a simple fact of life, due to the gamma difference between the "standard" Mac and the native gamma of both PC’s and the sRGB working color space.

Frankly, though, I have no idea why Apple still recommends a gamma of 1.8. Most of the service bureaus I work with have ALL their boxes (Mac and PC) calibrated to a gamma of 2.2. Ditto with the 2 web designers I’ve worked with, both of whom use Macs. As has been explained to me, this is not only the native gamma of sRGB, but also AdobeRGB98, every CRT monitor made today, as well as the videocards used in both platforms.

It’s puzzling. Does anyone know the answer? Is it just another out-of-date legacy issue?

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It has been my experience for quite a long time now that the colors of an image will often match in a wide variety of programs (Netscape, Preview, GraphicConverter, etc.), but in PS and PS alone, the colors will be radically different, usually much much lighter in PS than in Netscape and other apps).

Correct. Photoshop does color management. Other programs do not.

This makes it next to impossible to edit an image so
that it will look good when viewed in other apps (my primary goal being to produce images for the web).

You must instruct Photoshop to show you the image with no color management. Use View->Proof Setup->Monitor RGB.

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I’m running windows 2000 with Photoshop CS on a DELL p990 monitor. How can I check to make sure my gamma settings are correct?

"Tacit" wrote in message

It has been my experience for quite a long time now that the colors of an image will often match in a wide variety of programs (Netscape, Preview, GraphicConverter, etc.), but in PS and PS alone, the colors will be radically different, usually much much lighter in PS than in Netscape and other apps).

Correct. Photoshop does color management. Other programs do not.

This makes it next to impossible to edit an image so
that it will look good when viewed in other apps (my primary goal being to produce images for the web).

You must instruct Photoshop to show you the image with no color

management. Use

View->Proof Setup->Monitor RGB.

—
Rude T-shirts for a rude age: http://www.villaintees.com Art, literature, shareware, polyamory, kink, and more:
http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html

I’m running windows 2000 with Photoshop CS on a DELL p990 monitor. How can I check to make sure my gamma settings are correct?

Run Adobe Gamma.

But that’s not your problem; if you want to see your images in Photoshop just like they look in another program, use Monitor RGB as your proof setup.

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Rude T-shirts for a rude age: http://www.villaintees.com Art, literature, shareware, polyamory, kink, and more:
http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html