Seeing different colors

[James R]

I've recently changed to a Mac Book Pro and do all my image processing in LR on the MBP.  I shot surfing a few weeks ago and posted some pics on Fred Miranda's Sports Corner forum.  The surfer was wearing a dark red wetsuit.  When posted on the website the color looks fine viewed on the MBP, using Safari.  However, when I move Safari to a second monitor (NEC 1980 SXi) the wetsuit looks orange.  When viewed on my Dell XPS it looks orange.  

It there an issue with Leopard and LR color management on an MBP? If not, what is the problem?

[Rick_Allen]

My guess would be that the images aren't sRGB.

[feppe]

Is Safari profiling-aware? Adobe RGB images look way off in IE or FF.

But since you have problems with different monitors on the same computer, it sounds like a profiling issue. Have you profiled both monitors you're using with the Mac?

[Rick_Allen]

Safari is CM aware but I dont think it is when running across multiple monitors

[feppe]

Safari is CM aware but I dont think it is when running across multiple monitors
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=179984\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

That would explain the issue the poster has.

[DavidB]

Safari uses the profile for the primary monitor (the one with the menu bar across the top).  It picks up that profile when it starts, so if you change your primary monitor (e.g. by plugging an external display into your laptop) if you don't restart Safari it will keep using the old profile.

It uses that profile across all displays, which means you can only get correct colours on one display.  If the calibration of each monitor is similar you probably won't notice the issue, but with a laptop display and a good external monitor they can be quite different.
The same issue exists with most of the standard Apple programs (including Mail).  I think their software's still using the basic "get me THE display's profile" ColorSync interface, which worked fine in the days of single displays...  There are other ColorSync calls to get profiles for secondary displays, but the software needs to keep checking which display each window is on, and recalculate all the pixel values when necessary.  The old model of getting the profile on startup and then using that for everything requires a bit of code re-structure to work "properly" across multiple displays.    I suspect part of the problem may be that Apple engineers with multiple displays probably have similar displays (e.g. ACDs) so the problem doesn't annoy them...

Photoshop's smart enough to recalculate the pixel values as you move a window across displays (including straddling the edge of two) but Apple hasn't yet bothered to get this right.  I think software like Keynote which has explicit functionality to display on multiple screens does try to get it right though.

[James R]

When I use my PC running XP and IE, the colors when posted to a website like Fred Miranda look wrong.  I'm attaching an example.  It should look red, but tends to look organge(ish).

Edit: Go figure, the colors look closer here than on FM's Sports Corner forum.

[James R]

Safari uses the profile for the primary monitor (the one with the menu bar across the top).  It picks up that profile when it starts, so if you change your primary monitor (e.g. by plugging an external display into your laptop) if you don't restart Safari it will keep using the old profile.

It uses that profile across all displays, which means you can only get correct colours on one display.  If the calibration of each monitor is similar you probably won't notice the issue, but with a laptop display and a good external monitor they can be quite different.
The same issue exists with most of the standard Apple programs (including Mail).  I think their software's still using the basic "get me THE display's profile" ColorSync interface, which worked fine in the days of single displays...  There are other ColorSync calls to get profiles for secondary displays, but the software needs to keep checking which display each window is on, and recalculate all the pixel values when necessary.  The old model of getting the profile on startup and then using that for everything requires a bit of code re-structure to work "properly" across multiple displays.    I suspect part of the problem may be that Apple engineers with multiple displays probably have similar displays (e.g. ACDs) so the problem doesn't annoy them...

Photoshop's smart enough to recalculate the pixel values as you move a window across displays (including straddling the edge of two) but Apple hasn't yet bothered to get this right.  I think software like Keynote which has explicit functionality to display on multiple screens does try to get it right though.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=180093\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I will calibrate the MBP with Eye-one Pro.  Will the MBP allow me to calibrate the second monitor?

[DavidB]

I will calibrate the MBP with Eye-one Pro.  Will the MBP allow me to calibrate the second monitor?[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=180105\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Yes.  You can calibrate and profile multiple monitors on the MBP, and the system will install the calibrations properly.
Photoshop, Lightroom, etc will use the appropriate profile for each monitor, but Safari/Mail/etc will unfortunately use the profile for your primary monitor on both monitors.  At least OS X will have installed the correct calibration for each monitor (the video card's "LUTs") though.

In a way this is an inverse problem to that encountered on WinXP systems that use dual-head graphics cards that present themselves to XP as a single card with two monitors.  In that case XP ends up using the same calibration (LUT) for both monitors, and even though Photoshop uses the "correct" profile for each monitor, the calibration will be correct for only one.
At least on the Mac Photoshop/etc will get it right, and as long as your Safari/Mail windows are on your primary display they will show correct colours also.

[James R]

Yes.  You can calibrate and profile multiple monitors on the MBP, and the system will install the calibrations properly.
Photoshop, Lightroom, etc will use the appropriate profile for each monitor, but Safari/Mail/etc will unfortunately use the profile for your primary monitor on both monitors.  At least OS X will have installed the correct calibration for each monitor (the video card's "LUTs") though.

In a way this is an inverse problem to that encountered on WinXP systems that use dual-head graphics cards that present themselves to XP as a single card with two monitors.  In that case XP ends up using the same calibration (LUT) for both monitors, and even though Photoshop uses the "correct" profile for each monitor, the calibration will be correct for only one.
At least on the Mac Photoshop/etc will get it right, and as long as your Safari/Mail windows are on your primary display they will show correct colours also.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=180109\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Thanks.  Had no idea how Mac handled profiles.