Over saturated Images in Safari

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Level 1

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Over saturated Images in Safari

I'm experiencing an issue where Safari shows images optimised for the web in a very over saturated form.

It is really driving me mad!

My MackBook Pro and 23" apple LCD are both colour calibrated using the Spyder2Pro colouromitor. I use those profiles for the screens and the colours are great.

Here's my workflow:

- My camera is set to use Adobe RGB 1998 icc profile
- I take images in RAW format and import them into Aperture (ver 1.5).
- When I have made any adjustments I export them from Apertue into jpeg format
- I have set-up Aperture to use the sRGB colour space when exporting images into jpeg format from Aperture (the images will mainly be used for the web which is why I use sRGB)
- I open the images using Photoshop and use the 'optimise for web' feature to keep the file size low
- I select the option that says 'embed icc profile'
- Photoshop then embeds the sRGB icc profile in the image

If I look at the image, it looks just fine in Photoshop or any other image viewing program. If I then open it in Safari it looks way over sturated.

I have tried everything and I just can't work it out.

I've even tried setting my monitor colour space to that of sRGB to see if it makes any difference, and it doesn't.

However, if I choose NOT to embedd the icc profile in the image, then Safari opens the image and it looks just like the jpeg when I view it within Photohop or any other image veiwer.

I can view the images using Internet Explorer on a Windows PC and they appear to be fine. I guess thats because IE ignores colour profiles where Safari will use them if they exist.

It seems Safari is reading the colour profile incorrectly in the image.

Can anyone tell me whats going on?

MacBook Pro 17" 2.33, Mac OS X (10.4.10), 23" Apple LCD

Posted on Oct 17, 2007 7:33 AM

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Answer 1

andyBall_uk

Level 7

20,516 points

Oct 17, 2007 10:59 AM in response to avantissimo

Hi

I can sympathise with how annoying this must be - and although I haven't looked into it myself, I do recall several other posts over the last 18months or so, with the same issue.

I can't dig out the exact posts now, but maybe the following might lead somewhere?

http://webkit.org/blog/73/color-spaces/

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302827

http://www.gballard.net/psd/golive_pageprofile/embeddedJPEGprofiles.html

sorry I can't locate the threads I remember- I found one or two, but they were un-answered.

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Answer 2

avantissimo Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 18, 2007 2:36 PM in response to avantissimo

Thanks for those links, they were very useful.

I'd seen a couple before. I still don't have any answers though.

It seems apple do have an issue with colour space profiles being read properly in Safari.

I'll keep trying to find the answer....Thanks.

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Answer 3

Oct 30, 2007 7:09 AM in response to avantissimo

I JUST had that happen to me on my 20" calibrated monitor. Previously no problem reading the embedded profile — matched the same file in Photoshop. Suddenly most images on my website are garishly oversaturated... I've been driven mad trying to figure why and what to do. Reinstall Safari or what? (The same images look better in Safari on my old Powerbook 17".) And to add further confusion most of the websites I view seem to render images the way they had previous to this problem.

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Answer 4

Nov 1, 2007 7:31 AM in response to Christopher Wise

Upgrading to OS 10.4.10 and Safari 3.0 makes no difference. Safari still does not recognize the embedded profiles. I have sRGB images that look similar to original files from Photoshop ONLY in Firefox — Safari renders all "pure" colors (blues, reds, yellows) in the jpegs as supersaturated.

The only instance colors render correctly is converting to sRGB and not embedded the profiles — leaving them untagged. Why would that work? Safari is supposed to be color aware.

I'm baffled. Apple?

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Answer 5

Nov 7, 2007 3:13 AM in response to Christopher Wise

It is hard to say what is going on, without having the actual image to analyze.

I don't think it is a Safari problem, necessarily. It sounds like the color profile attached to the image does not match the actual color space of the image. Potentially this could happen in the step where you open and save the image in Photoshop, because depending on the settings, Photoshop can switch colorspace without telling you about it.

Open the picture from your harddrive, with Safari, before and after the Photoshop processing. See if they look the same or different. Also open with Preview for reference. Let us know how it works.

Tomas

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Answer 6

Nov 15, 2007 11:39 AM in response to Tomas Jonsson

It is a Safari 3 problem. Prior to Safari 3 all sRGB jpgs displayed from web matched what I saw in Photoshop. After the beta and now Safari in Leopard, issue still persists. Firefox on the other hand displays the jpgs correctly in Tiger and Leopard.

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Answer 7

Nov 16, 2007 3:36 AM in response to Team Photo

I know for a fact that Firefox is not color managed and that both Safari 2 and 3 are partially color managed.

I have also not found any difference between Safari 2 and 3beta, and they both treat images with color profiles correctly.

You may want to check my browser test page - http://www.tomasjonsson.eu/colortests/colortest-xhtml.html

Tomas Jonsson

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Answer 8

cminchom

Level 1

0 points

Dec 3, 2007 8:56 AM in response to Team Photo

I have been having exactly the same experience; many of my jpeg images that look fine in Aperture, Preview, iWeb, Mailapp and Firefox - all on the same, calibrated, 17 inch MacBook Pro display come out over-saturated in Safari 3. This occurred both in 10.4.x and now continues in Leopard as well; - sometimes, though not, always hugely so and skin tones are frequently also ruined. For the worst example, if you go to this page: http://www.cliveminchom.com/www.cliveminchom.com/Page_6.html and open it in both Safari 3 and Firefox you should see an enormous difference. Unless, that is, there is some bug only in my own copy of Safari, then it may be a significant ongoing issue awaiting resolution from Apple.

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Answer 9

Klaus1

Level 9

52,879 points

Dec 3, 2007 9:24 AM in response to Tomas Jonsson

Your 'browser test page' consistently crashes Safari 3.0.4 and is the only web page I have visited that does so.

You may want to do something about that.

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Answer 10

Feb 4, 2008 6:47 PM in response to cminchom

I saw a huge difference.
You can get away with it to some extent with the photo you displayed, might not be how you want it to appear, but with photographs of people it is extremely noticeable and quite an unpleasant effect.

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