Topic: iPad (Read 10479 times)

stefohl · « **on:** February 05, 2011, 12:05:43 pm »

As more and more photographers use their iPads to present their images I get questions how to handle the colors. Is it possible to create a profile for the iPad screen, so that you could softproof the image on my normal monitor and then convert the image to that profile? I've tried to construct a profile by measuring a maximum red, green and blue colour and then using these values in Photoshop custom RGB work space. The results were't that bad, but I'd like to know if there is a better way or a downloadable RGB colourspace.

Stefan

JRSmit · « **Reply #1 on:** February 05, 2011, 12:25:59 pm »

I just started to use the ipad to show images, i develop images using Lightroom and then export to jpg with sRGB. It looks quite good on a ipad, also its viewing angle is much better than a regular laptop. T prevent any moire like issues or other when using fuull res images (in my case 400x2800 or thereabouts), downrezzing to the 1024x768 of the ipad screen in LR also gives good results.

Tim Lookingbill · « **Reply #2 on:** February 05, 2011, 01:06:12 pm »

About a week ago I checked out my sRGB image gallery in color managed Safari on an iPad in Best Buy and was amazed at how good the images looked compared to my calibrated display I edited them on. They didn't perfectly match but they still looked good including skin tones.

Viewed the images in the same Best Buy on a nice HP system in Explorer with the latest greatest glossy HP display with all the high tech bells and whistle specs and was horrified. Skin tones were overly bright, washed out with an overly yellow ochre (brownish yellow=baby poop) hue. I don't even recall cheap CRT's ten years ago giving that bad of a non color managed preview. What the heck is happening to LCD's these days?

And just FYI for some reason it took nearly a full minute to download my gallery on the HP compared to about ten seconds on the iPad both using Best Buy's wifi network.

I wouldn't worry about calibrating the iPad, but if it can be done it'ld be interesting just to know how.

sandymc · « **Reply #3 on:** February 05, 2011, 02:33:07 pm »

Quote from: tlooknbill on February 05, 2011, 01:06:12 pm

I wouldn't worry about calibrating the iPad, but if it can be done it'ld be interesting just to know how.

Currently, it can't, at least not across all apps. You could write a specific app, and then color manage that, but as iOS is implemented at the moment, OS level color management is essentially non-existent. For practical purposes, what you get is a display that is fairly close to sRGB in terms of gamma and primaries.

Sandy

Pat Herold · « **Reply #4 on:** February 10, 2011, 02:14:38 pm »

While you can't calibrate an iPad, it is possible to profile one. We have quite recently been creating profiles for personal display devices like phones for some clients. No iPad profile yet. It's not easy and involves several different hardware and software combinations as well as custom web pages we've put together ourselves. But once you have a profile, you can convert your images to that profile and put the image into "iphone space" or "iPad space" so that your image looks correct on that display.

Keep in mind that the color of the backlight of an iPad is not adjustable as are other monitors. My guess is it would be somewhere around 7100 K - a bit blue. And the rest of the image is scaled toward the white point. The whites on the iPad are not likely to match the whites of your printer paper for example. General viewing, by itself in isolation, the iPad will probably look just fine. But then if you really want an accurate reproduction on an iPad, a profile would help. We just.... umm - well, we haven't gotten around to it yet.

stefohl · « **Reply #5 on:** February 10, 2011, 02:25:25 pm »

Quote from: pherold on February 10, 2011, 02:14:38 pm

While you can't calibrate an iPad, it is possible to profile one. We have quite recently been creating profiles for personal display devices like phones for some clients. No iPad profile yet. It's not easy and involves several different hardware and software combinations as well as custom web pages we've put together ourselves. But once you have a profile, you can convert your images to that profile and put the image into "iphone space" or "iPad space" so that your image looks correct on that display.

This is exactly what I'm looking for. I've been asked by a publishing house here in Sweden if there is a way to do that, so that the magazines that they will publish on the iPad will look the same as their printed version. Did you find that these devices are stable, so if I create a profile for one iPad it will look the same on another?

Best

Stefan

Tim Lookingbill · « **Reply #6 on:** February 11, 2011, 03:12:48 pm »

Went back to Best Buy to do a test on whether Safari on the iPad is honoring the sRGB profile embedded in my gallery images. It is not.

But the colors still retain a good enough match with a pleasant appearance which is the best that can be expected from a device like this used for casual web viewing.

Pat Herold · « **Reply #7 on:** February 11, 2011, 05:23:07 pm »

We have not seen enough of these displays to make a judgment about how consistent they are from device to device. Considering how they are mass produced, I would expect a reasonable consistency. Also, when you think about it, the way they are generally used does not call for the kind of consistency that a professional printer needs for example.

I can confirm that Safari is not going to be color managed on the iPad or iPhone.

We expect to be able to make a profile for an iPad in the future, and make it publicly available as we did with the iPhone. We have a few other things on our plate right now, but when we can, we'll announce it in our newsletter. I'll also try to remember to come back to this thread when it's available.

Tim Lookingbill · « **Reply #8 on:** February 11, 2011, 05:47:39 pm »

A correction I'ld like to add about that HP system that gave the horrible colors. I made a mistake in how I viewed the HP screen.

The display model was an HP 2010i positioned waist high on a shelf tilted vertically downward at an angle to where all images looked overly bright and washed out. I couldn't tilt it up very far so I crouched down and the image corrected itself but not as good as the iPad preview which didn't present such color distortion with the slightest tilt.

I still couldn't believe how off a vertical tilt on such a large seemingly well built display could really screw up sRGB previews. My 2004 G5 iMac doesn't distort color that bad tilting it back and forth.

feppe · « **Reply #9 on:** February 11, 2011, 06:57:17 pm »

Quote from: pherold on February 11, 2011, 05:23:07 pm

We have not seen enough of these displays to make a judgment about how consistent they are from device to device. Considering how they are mass produced, I would expect a reasonable consistency.

Agree fully on the first sentence. But mass production is in no way a guarantee of consistency. The panels used in iPad (or most screen on any kind of device) are generally interchangeable to different formats (TN, IPS, etc.) and/or from different plants or even manufacturers. Different production runs also have variances due to changing components. OEMs source the panels from wherever they get them cheapest/fastest/whatever their priority is on any given day, as long as those panels perform within certain quality tolerances. Those tolerances can be much wider than what we as photographers would call consistent, especially on a consumer device - although not necessarily.

K.C. · « **Reply #10 on:** February 12, 2011, 09:39:59 pm »

I'm a little surprised that anyone here hasn't mentioned there is but one control for the screen on the iPad.

Even more surprised that a magazine publisher wouldn't already know that once you put a brightness control in the hands of a user any consistency for color on any display is impossible.

stefohl · « **Reply #11 on:** February 15, 2011, 02:28:51 am »

Quote from: pherold on February 11, 2011, 05:23:07 pm

We expect to be able to make a profile for an iPad in the future, and make it publicly available as we did with the iPhone. We have a few other things on our plate right now, but when we can, we'll announce it in our newsletter. I'll also try to remember to come back to this thread when it's available.

The profile that you published, is it for a generation 2, 3 or 4 iPhone? There is a huge difference between the screens of different generations, at least between G3 and G4.

DeeJay · « **Reply #12 on:** February 17, 2011, 05:57:41 pm »

So what are your client reactions from folios presented on an ipad?

Ernst Dinkla · « **Reply #13 on:** February 18, 2011, 05:20:20 am »

Quote from: pherold on February 11, 2011, 05:23:07 pm

We have not seen enough of these displays to make a judgment about how consistent they are from device to device. Considering how they are mass produced, I would expect a reasonable consistency. Also, when you think about it, the way they are generally used does not call for the kind of consistency that a professional printer needs for example.

Wonder what they did wrong then

http://www.graphicbrain.com/studies-by-vigc/mypantone-on-iphone/

met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

New: Spectral plots of +250 inkjet papers:
http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm

Czornyj · « **Reply #14 on:** February 18, 2011, 06:16:21 am »

I think the whole idea just didn't have a chance:

(But apart from that - I have the impression, that the above mentioned test is also quite silly...)

Ernst Dinkla · « **Reply #15 on:** February 18, 2011, 08:52:17 am »

Yet it is Pantone who does things like that. The small gamut to work within is just one of the aspects. I doubt there is consistency in the display components even within one model. I would have thought that for image/color capture they would have gone for the flash to start from, one and the same illumination source, but see no reference to that.

I'm afraid that similar to the above app adding profiles both ways creates the illusion that they are more than handy gadgets on color aspects . They are not. Then there is that odd Safari CM default for untagged images, no CM could prove to be the wiser choice right now. With CM and assuming sRGB as the most likely color space for an untagged image should be the road if the displays improve and become more consistent in time.

met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

New: Spectral plots of +250 inkjet papers:
http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm

Tim Lookingbill · « **Reply #16 on:** February 18, 2011, 10:44:17 am »

Interesting link to the Pantone 32 comparison considering someone actually made the effort to take photos.

But Pantone must be viewed under a spectrally even D50 light or something close like the Solux 4700K halogen to make a more accurate comparison to the Lab numbers and/or spectral radiance measurements that describe that particular color.

I can guarantee you that Pantone color would look so rich and vibrant under those lights it would be beyond the gamut of most camera's to capture and displays to render on screen. A reasonable facsimile can only be expected and usually suffices with most graphic designers. I'm surprised the iPad got that close considering the non ISO standard viewing conditions shown in those photos.

I still don't think we have anything to be concerned about with regard to color reproduction on the iPad.

Ernst Dinkla · « **Reply #17 on:** February 22, 2011, 04:11:20 am »

Quote from: pherold on February 10, 2011, 02:14:38 pm

While you can't calibrate an iPad, it is possible to profile one.

No hacks for iOS like there is one for Android ?

http://www.androidpolice.com/2010/08/04/surfaceflinger-hack-brings-screen-calibration-to-nexus-ones-running-cyanogenmod-6/

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=745248

The iPad panel itself should be quite capable.

Edit: I see even the Nook Color has an ISP panel + 8 bit, running Android (and hacked already) so a calibrated and profiled screen is a possibility. More Android tablets + eRaeders with panels like that around the corner.

met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/

jerryrock · « **Reply #18 on:** May 26, 2011, 04:24:58 pm »

New DataColor Spyder3 app for iPad.

http://spyder.datacolor.com/product-ms-spydergallery.php

Spyder3 device (Express, Pro or Elite)

Apple iPad® or iPad 2

MacOS® X (10.4 or higher)

Windows® XP 32/64, Vista 32/64 or Windows7 32/64

USB port

Local Wi-Fi network

Todd Shirley · « **Reply #19 on:** August 01, 2011, 11:44:09 am »

Quote from: John-S on February 05, 2011, 02:32:05 pm

Images on my ipad look very good and quite close to a calibrated monitor. So don't worry about trying to profile colors for the ipad. Seems moot.

This is not true in all cases. Images with lots of warm, rich browns and in general very dark rich colors (deep purple comes to mind) get very washed out and desaturated on an iPad. Skin tones and bright saturated colors tend to look great, as do black & white, but a leather chair in a warmly lit wood paneled room is going to look pretty shabby. A profile that helped compensate for that would be very useful.

-Todd Shirley

Author Topic: iPad (Read 10479 times)