Color in unmanaged apps (web)

[KT]

I would like to list some points I think I've learned about posting photos to the web for viewing by users with unmanaged apps.  I'd like to ask the color management pro's among you to confirm or refute these points so I can have them clear in my mind.  Thanks in advance.

•   The recommendation to convert photos to sRGB for posting on the web is based exclusively on the premise that this colorspace is the one that most closely resembles the colorspace of the majority of monitors currently in use by people browsing the web.
•   The accuracy of what you see on your monitor when viewed through an unmanaged app is determined by how closely your monitor’s colorspace matches the image file’s intended colorspace.  Examples:
       o   Viewing an AdobeRGB file on a sRGB monitor in an unmanaged app compresses the file information, thus distorting the color
       o   Viewing an sRGB file on an AdobeRGB monitor in an unmanaged app spreads the file information out, also distorting the color
       o   If you open an AdobeRGB file in an unmanaged app on an AdobeRGB monitor, it will look good
       o   If you open an sRGB file in an unmanaged app on an AdobeRGB monitor, it will be too saturated
       o   If you open an Adobe RGB file in an unmanaged app on a sRGB monitor it will look dull and unsaturated
       o   If you open a sRGB file in an unmanaged app on an sRGB monitor, it will look good
•   Gamma, intensity, black level, variations, etc. of the monitor also matter in similar ways.  The critical issue is how closely it resembles the intended environment

For those familiar with Spectraview on NEC monitors: I have a Multisync 2690 with Spectraview II and it allows me to switch calibrations between my photo editing target calibration and an sRGB emulation target calibration.  I changed the sRGB emulation target to a set intensity instead of the default “maximum” because it was painfully too bright.  But using this gives me the best reasonable simulation of what the web looks like to the assumed majority of web users, correct?

[digitaldog]

•   The recommendation to convert photos to sRGB for posting on the web is based exclusively on the premise that this colorspace is the one that most closely resembles the colorspace of the majority of monitors currently in use by people browsing the web.
•   The accuracy of what you see on your monitor when viewed through an unmanaged app is determined by how closely your monitor’s colorspace matches the image file’s intended colorspace. 

That’s about it in a nutshell. If you aim your web images to folks with sRGB like displays and the images are in sRGB, in non color managed browsers, the images should look “OK” but there is no guarantee they will match what you saw in either a color managed or non color managed application. But those viewing the images on wide gamut displays will see poor results because of the sRGB like assumption. As more users work with wide gamut displays, the sRGB assumption for non color managed applications becomes problematic. IOW, if someone flipped a switch and the worlds display systems were closer to Adobe RGB (1998), all the sRGB images posted to the web, viewed in non color managed browsers would look poor.

[Tim Lookingbill]

To get an idea how problematic check out the Cascade Complete ActionPac tablet commercial, the one that shows men with jackhammers scraping lasagna sauce off a white ceramic dish.

That ad played at my newly built local multi-screen digital cinema theatre and the sauce which looks an intense red/orange brown on my TV looks glowing bright pinkish red at the theatre. The Cascade logo red looks like X-rite color checker red on TV but 255,0,30 red in ProPhotoRGB in the theatre.

All the non color managed color in the Flash driven banner at Cascade's website looks normal meaning no glowing colors viewed on my sRGB-ish iMac in Safari. Even the Cascade logo red looks correct and the lasagna sauce leans more toward orange brown but is still a bit over saturated.

Because of the amped up reds and oranges at the digital theatre non-make up corrected rosacea like skin discoloration becomes an over emphasized intense pinkish orange on pasty white Caucasian skin.

Overall color looks acceptable but I imagine these are the color errors that might arise viewing non-color managed sRGB images on wide gamut displays especially if they're not calibrated.

[Luca Ragogna]

If a viewer has an uncalibrated monitor and is using unmanaged apps to view the images they're pretty much used to seeing crappy color everywhere. I don't put much effort into worrying about how the colour in my images looks to them. It's a wasted effort IMO.