Interface/Gamma issue - Display profiling

*So here's what I think happens (+ my idea to solve the grey-boxes issue):*

Some applications use the monitor-profile to draw their interface. Like Photoshop and Graphic Converter. (The only 2 I've installed, I'm sure some video-editing-applications, even players are concerned that's maybe the reason some people think it's 'random'). I think these apps do so to immediately can reflect a change in the profile, without restart.

Now Mac OS X Leopard seems to not allow these applications to do so in certain parts of the interface. (Must be new, that's why there were no issues with Tiger) The window itself is drawn by the OS. That's the reason only elements like the text and buttons are affected.

And the problem is that the OS uses its 'Generic RGB Profile.icc' which contains Gamma 1.8. So if you calibrate your display with Gamma L* (which you really should do and most profiling-software does by default) those grey boxes appear in said applications.

The solution is easy. Replace the system-rgb-profile with one that supports L* - like the eciRGB profiles.
To do so you have to rename the .icc file in finder but also edit the information inside (which can be done with the ColorSync Utility). Then copy it to the System/Library/ColorSync/Profiles folder.

*After that the grey boxes dissapear and everything is back to normal.* There's some difference in the tabular data like the CMM and a chroma-entry, so you might want to re-write your display-profile just to make sure everything's alright.

I haven't seen anything yet but could imagine that the rendering of webpages in safari might be affected. Or rather some webbrowsers' without colour management. (Just a theory, hopefully not...)




*Problem 1:*
Some Adobe apps can see that the current system-profile is identical to your working-space-rgb and reset your rgb-choice to the Generic RGB profile after a restart. (Without changing the 'Colormanagement SYNC'd icon/setting.) This probably could cause trouble if you export or open files.

Solution:
Use a different profile for your system than your Adobe-RGB setting. I used the 'L-Star RGB v2' for the system and the 'eciRGB v2' for Adobe. They're technically identical but for some reason Photoshop and esp. Illustrator now respect my choices and don't reset anything. Works fine for me.


*Problem 2:*
Besides the aforementioned chroma-entry in the Apple default profile (which loss shouldn't cause any issues) there's also the localisation information. Because the profile is named differently in different languages of OS X. I haven't found anything causing trouble (probably because if the profile isn't found it resets back to the english version by default).

Solution:
This would be easy if someone knows about a .icc file editor. If we could add those localised names from the Apple profile no application would ever know. I've only found hexadecimal editors but won't put something like that on my machine, especially since everything works fine.




*I hope Apple comes up with a real solution soon, this seems like too much of a hack - considering the delicate nature of colour management.*

*If you read this and know what I'm talking about and disagree or know any reasons why one would not want to do this - please speak up! I'm sure I'm not the only one who would like to know.*

This is pretty much mirrored on the Adobe forums btw.

Now that we know how to get rid of the grey boxes I would hope many people try it out and report back if they run into any troubles with replacing the system-profile.

If someone could edit the default-profile to include a different gamma we would have a perfectly compatible file to use for everyone who chooses to calibrate the monitor to something else but gamma 1.8. (A lot of Apple users I would imagine.)

In the long run I guess it's up to Apple to resolve this issue. If it's not possible technically (I guess it's about permissions), maybe they could provide an 'official replacement profile' or even add a setting to change the system-default.

Ok, I'll try to simplify for everybody who doesn't want to read through all that ^

*How to get rid of grey boxes under text and buttons in application windows*

• Profile (calibrate) again and use a Gamma-setting of 1.8 - they're gone

• If you use 2.2 the boxes might still be there but barely noticable

• If you don't want to use a fixed Gamma-setting (but L*) you've to replace Leopards 'Generic RGB Profile' in the system-folder with an ICC file that supports that (like eciRGB or L-Star-RGB). You just rename it in Finder, open it in 'ColorSync Utility' and also change the name inside. Save, replace, restart, done.

 *NO MORE BOXES!*

No you shouldn't, only if you would use 'AdobeRGB' to replace the system-profile too there might be a problem. +The replaced 'Generic RGB' and the 'Adobe RGB Workingspace' one must not be the same.+

Also, I talked to the company which provided me with my colormanagement solution and they said it's an alright way to deal with this issue - there are no problems to be expected, colormanagement-wise.

Now I'm curious if this turnes out to be true. I would really hope so!