Color management - same image looks different on web than in pic viewer

[travel27]

Hello,
I'm a novice. I calibrated my monitor with a Colormunki Display. I found a test image online, downloaded it and printed it.
1. The printed image matches the web image when viewed within the actual website on my screen.

2. I downloaded the image file (all the embedded info), as well as just the small website image and when I open either image in Window's pic viewer or any photo editor on the same screen, the colors are very noticeably skewed from the printed image. The downloaded images can be opened in a variety of my editors, pic viewers, etc and they all have the same color skew.

3. I went back to the website, right-clicked on the image and "set to background" and THAT image matches the printed image.

4. When I open the image in a photo editor it looks skewed (as above), but when I print it from the editor, it looks different but great - just like the web image.

Hope that's clear. What am I missing? Seems like it's clear that the monitor is calibrated (?), since the printed image matches at least the web image, right? How do I get my picture editors to display the same colors I'm seeing on the test image's original website?
Thanks in advance.

[Macmahon]

Hey travel27

There's a whole can of worms in here.

You don't say what test image you downloaded, but if it is any good as a test image it will have AdobeRGB (possibly sRGB) embedded as the colour space. The image will have a 'tag' written in it's file structure that tells an application that the image data is to be read as AdobeRGB (or sRGB, in the unlikely event that's what it is). (Incidentally, you should be able to see that tag for yourself: if you do a 'get info' or 'properties' on the test image you'll find an entry somewhere about the expected colour space.)

What happens when you look at this image depends on whether the application you're using, be it a web browser or a picture editor, properly recognises and responds to that tag. The browser, or pic editor will read and properly display the colours if it is 'ICC aware'. Many browsers are not - and you didn't say what browser you're using.

There's a really good (if slightly daunting) site on this, where you can test your browser. See http://www.gballard.net/psd/go_live_...Gprofiles.html.

Anyway, the short answer is, that if you are using a recent version of Firefox or any version of Safari, you should see almost exactly the same colours on your calibrated monitor as you would see in Photoshop, Lightroom etc, and exactly the same colours that I or any other person with a colour-managed workflow, would see.

If you're using Google Chrome or an old version of Internet Explorer, and/or if you're using, for example, Windows Picture viewer to look at the image, then frankly, what you see will be a lottery because those applications are not ICC aware and will ignore the embedded colour space tag (If this has changed in the last few months, then I apologise to their makers )

I suggest that you follow up on Ballard's page and then, if you haven't already, download and install Firefox to look at the web image, then see if your frustrations are just the same.

Cheers

Tim

[travel27]

Thanks,
I do use Firefox, and am trying to get used to Linux. Firefox shows the image, which is tagged as ColorMatchRGB, identical to the printed image - showing that Firefox converts other color schemes(?) to sRBG, which is also what my printer is set to. Sorry for the grammar
I am checking out your reference site to learn more and will fiddle with DigiKam (the editor I am trying to use) to see how to get it to display things properly. Maybe I just need to find a test image tagged sRBG. Live and learn. Thanks again.

[herbert]

Hi travel27,

You should note that there are different types of profiles. You can have table based (a set of numbers mapping input level to output level) or matrix based (a single matrix to multiply each RGB triplet). There is also specification v2 and v4. Although v4 has been around for a few years there are not many applications that work with it. The most robust profile will be a matrix based v2. Check what your output options are from the profiling software. You may have generated a profile that only some applications can use.

Alex

[Macmahon]

Thanks,
I do use Firefox, and am trying to get used to Linux. Firefox shows the image, which is tagged as ColorMatchRGB, identical to the printed image - showing that Firefox converts other color schemes(?) to sRBG, which is also what my printer is set to. Sorry for the grammar
I am checking out your reference site to learn more and will fiddle with DigiKam (the editor I am trying to use) to see how to get it to display things properly. Maybe I just need to find a test image tagged sRBG. Live and learn. Thanks again.

Hi again

I don't think you'll find too many test images encoded in sRGB, as that's the lowest common denominator of colour spaces: such an image would not really tell you much about the capabilities of your system or accuracy of your profiles (usually the purpose of a test image)

Also, I'd be surprised if your printer is really 'set' to sRGB. Somewhere in your print 'pipeline' image files will be converted from their embedded colour space by a 'printer profile' that converts the RGB numbers into ones that are tuned precisely for the inks (and paper) in the printer. (Depends on your workflow whether the conversion is done with a fairly generic profile in the printer driver, or with a very accurate profile in application software.) If you encode a file in sRGB before sending it into that process you're potentially throwing away colours that the printer might be able to print.
If you're interested in a (fairly) non-technical explanation of this stuff, try http://fromcameratoprint.com/About%2...anagement.html

Cheers

Tim

[travel27]

I think I'm figuring it out - has to do with the way the ColorMatchRBG was rendered maybe. I can now get the ColorMatchRBG image closer to the printed image by selecting "relative" as opposed to "perceptual" intent and converting to sRBG, which is also my printer color space selection at the moment. Still working on it. Learning and I appreciate the responses.
Conway