Re: testing color browsers for ICC compatibility
Re: testing color browsers for ICC compatibility
- Subject: Re: testing color browsers for ICC compatibility
- From: Marco Ugolini <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 00:31:41 -0800
In a message dated 12/11/05 3:06 AM, Steve Kale wrote:
> While many browsers are not colour profile aware, it's not that alarming if
> we can make assumptions with reasonable confidence that they at least
> interpret colour according to a constant benchmark, sRGB.
That is not my experience. That is, when viewing an image (tagged or
untagged) on my Mac in un-color-managed browsers.
If I convert my image to the RGB space defined by my *monitor* profile, save
it as untagged JPEG, and then view it in these un-color-managed browsers,
the visual match with what I see in Photoshop is extremely close (though
values differ very slightly throughout the image, possibly due to some minor
proprietary differences in color interpretation among browsers).
> While many browsers are not colour profile aware, it's not that alarming if
> we can make assumptions with reasonable confidence that they at least
> interpret colour according to a constant benchmark, sRGB. If that benchmark
> shifts according to the viewer then it really is alarming. I really do
> suspect though that the latter is not the case. I have consistent colour
> interpretation across the Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer and Netscape
> (Mac) for any sRGB images.
Yes, but that appearance match across browsers happens with *untagged* sRGB
images only. I will try to explain the behavior by breaking it apart.
If I convert my image to sRGB and save it as *untagged* JPEG, it appears the
same when viewed in *all* browsers (with minimal variations of only a few
decimal points), but only because Safari and IE5 act very much like other
browsers in the absence of an embedded profile.
*But* if I save the image as JPEG with an *embedded* sRGB profile, the
appearance in Safari and IE5 is extremely close to what I see in Photoshop
when I assign the sRGB profile to that image (though, again, not perfectly
the same), whereas in Firefox or Netscape the image looks dramatically
*different*, because the embedded sRGB profile is *not* being honored.
This proves to me that these last 2 browsers do *not* interpret the colors
in the image using sRGB, not even by default, because, if that were the case
-- and whether or not the profile is embedded -- the image would appear as
it does in Photoshop when sRGB is assigned to it, or as it does in Safari or
IE5 when the profile is embedded. Instead, it looks very much (with still no
more than a point or so of difference in R, G, or B values) as it does in
Photoshop when the *monitor* profile is assigned to it.
I know this sounds confusing, and I did my best to describe this whole
dynamic as clearly as I was capable of doing.
I hope that I gave enough exact info so that you can try these tests on your
Mac at home to verify the behavior I am describing.
> As a result, at least the situation is predictable - convert to sRGB
> and you're fine.
Unfortunately, I think it's not working out that way: while sRGB indeed
remains (by default) the most advisable color space to use when preparing
images for the Web, it's still far from a problem-free solution.
Best regards.
--------------
Marco Ugolini
Mill Valley, CA
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