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Author Topic: sRGB tagged .jpg looks different in color-aware vs. non-color-aware  (Read 5266 times)

tim.sheets

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I am having a problem with sRGB images on Windows Vista.

After using my eye-one Display 2 to calibrate my Dell 2408WFP monitor (ATI Radeon HD 3870 video card) and setting the resulting monitor profile as my system default, I am seeing a difference between color managed applications (PS CS3, Firefox 3 with color management enabled) and non-color-managed applications such as Windows thumbnails/Windows Photo Gallery and IE.

I could understand this if the image was in a different color space such as aRGB or ProphotoRGB.  But, in this scenario, I have used PS CS3's "convert to profile" to convert to the sRGB color space.  Using tests on the web such as the sRGB tests here: http://www.gballard.net/psd/go_live_page_p...EGprofiles.html I see no shift between the tagged and untagged images.  However, they *do* look different in IE vs. Firefox 3 (IE looks more red).

I thought setting the Windows color management to use the profile created by eye-one Match 3 as the default, would basically tell Windows to use that in case no profile was embedded in an image file, and this would be system wide, regardless of the color-aware status of a particular application.  In addition to what the eye-one software configured, I also tried going to the 'advanced' tab and setting Windows Color System Defaults to the monitor profile and viewing conditions to WCS Profile for ICC viewing conditions.  That didn't seem to make any difference.

I'm sure I could go on and on and still fail to provide some vital information, so, I'll just stop here and ask if you have any ideas why this is happening and if there is any additional information that would be helpful.

Oh, at this point, I've not even ventured into matching prints....

I have attached a screen shot showing the difference I am seeing.  The image in FF3 is the closest to the original.

Thanks for any help!
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tim.sheets

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sRGB tagged .jpg looks different in color-aware vs. non-color-aware
« Reply #1 on: November 12, 2008, 09:36:25 pm »

I contacted x-rite and they said this is normal behavior in Vista.  The guy I spoke to said I need to get away from Windows, things work perfect on his mac.  Wonderful!  Not impressed...

I understand that the entire system is not color managed, which does suck.  But, I still don't understand why there is a difference in sRGB images (tagged or not) between a color managed application and one that isn't.  I thought that it was Window's standard/default color space in the first place, and setting the system's default display profile to the one produced by calibration should ensure consistency for sRGB images. :/
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GerardK

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sRGB tagged .jpg looks different in color-aware vs. non-color-aware
« Reply #2 on: November 14, 2008, 03:50:28 am »

This was discussed the other day in another thread

http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index....showtopic=28649



Gerard Kingma
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JeffKohn

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sRGB tagged .jpg looks different in color-aware vs. non-color-aware
« Reply #3 on: November 14, 2008, 12:33:14 pm »

sRGB images will still look somewhat different in non-CM apps, because those apps ignore your monitor profile.

Setting the display profile in your monitor's color management settings does not force all applications to use it. The OS does not do any color management for non-CM applications (there's really no way it can). It's up to the applications to use CM. For applications where you care about color, you should just make sure you're using a CM-aware application.
« Last Edit: November 14, 2008, 12:33:49 pm by JeffKohn »
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Jeff Kohn
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tim.sheets

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sRGB tagged .jpg looks different in color-aware vs. non-color-aware
« Reply #4 on: November 14, 2008, 06:44:55 pm »

Thanks for the replies!!!

I guess I was under the impression that the system as a whole would at least use the monitor profile, including any LUT data stored in the video card even if an application didn't actually understand color management.  What's the point of a 'system default' if the system doesn't use it??

Thanks again, I appreciate the responses.
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