Snow Leopard - Colors dull faded and washed out.

I have a theory that it is somehow related to the "Change Desktop Background" option. Try selecting one of the apple images as a desktop background and make sure it isn't set to "Change Picture". I've already reinstalled and the issue is gone, but I would be interested to hear if that solves your problem!

Hey Josh -

I have a older MBP and the first thing I noticed was the icons faded -I to do a lot of video and photo work -but as you figured out -the colors look fine in photoshop lightroom and aperture.

I have a Dell Ultrasharp 27 inch screen


Matt

I'm too having this 'washed out' problem with my brand new MacBook Pro 15" 2.8 GHz. It is only happen to my MacBook display BUT not the external Apple 24" LED Cinema Display I connect with.

Besides from the pale Dock icons, I hardly see the white & light blue line separation in the iTunes's list view (for an example).

Could you guys please test with this Calibration Chart see if you can notify the 4% gray? I can't see it on my MacBook display.

http://pkey.us/files/utilities/monitor/Monitor%20calibration%20chart.jpg

Add me to the list. I've also got a Mac Pro (Early 2008) connected to an NEC 30" LCD. In 10.5 the colors are vivid and contrasty; in 10.6 the colors (especially the GUI) are dull and faded.
Color calibration through the system prefs has no effect.
I also noticed that when screen sharing our MacBook Pro (also with 10.6 installed) the colors look as they used to on my screen.
I'd love to at least have the option of getting the old color back.

To clarify:
Colors in photos and on web pages and the like are unchanged from 10.5 to 10.6. The problem is the OS X user interface, and only on my Mac Pro. The MacBook Pro that I updated to 10.6 still has the vivid, good colors in interface elements and icons.
To me, this means it's a bug, or at the very least a misstep. Anybody figure out a work around yet?

I had the washed out problem, tried all kinds of re-calibrations, nothing worked. Then I reinstalled SL in an attempt to improve browser performance (Safari taking forever to load pages). Well, the Safari problem is still there, but - my original colors are back in the GUI. No more washed out, dull-looking dock icons, etc.

So a reinstallation appears to have corrected whatever was wrong.

So - When you reinstalled SL did you use migration assistant to transfer over your files and settings? There must be something from the 10.5 system folders that's messing up the GUI colors, because I did a fresh install of 10.6 and then used migration assistant to transfer my 10.5 files and settings. Does anyone know if there's a cache file or something that I should try deleting?

No, did not have to use the migration assistant. I just left everything as was and used the installer disk to do a regular installation. I had actually intended to do an archive and install, but didn't ever really see that option anywhere during the installation process.

I did clean reinstalled the SL too, but no luck for me. The washed out is still here.

I am also having this issue of the UI looking lighter and washed out, this includes icons on the desktop and the dock as well. Since the window UI look lighter and washed out, it appears upon first glance that the window is not even active when in fact it is active. I'm finding myself squinting a lot! Nothing I've tried has fixed this issue for me. After a couple of weeks I went back to 10.5.8 from a cloned backup. I left SL on another drive in the hopes someone would come up with a fix. I installed the 10.6.2 update and the washed out problem still exists. (MacPro, ACD 23", NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT)

Somewhere I found this:
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10384201-263.html

when I tried that out for myself, I looked up model etc for my own screens in a working colorprofile (10.5.8) and it appeares to be empty. I have two apple screens (cinema & cinema HD) and both have no model/makes in their profiles therefore no reference in 'system/displays' ALTHOUGH screen colors are OK in 10.5.8. Could this be of any influence in profiling while in 10.6.2, because there are no references to the models/makes in the CProfiles either (therefore not present in system/displays)???

My workaround consists of these hoops to jump thru, but once you have different display profiles setup to switch between, and I find it pretty usable now.

FYI -- I only have problems on my built in LCD screen on a summer 09 macbookpro (model 00009CB1). Not the Dell LCD as my primary monitor.

Adjusted the CONTRAST settings about 1 unit to the right (system preferences-Universal Access).

Adjusted a new LCD Calibration and selected a different white point. Used SIMPLE settings for the calibration.

Selected:
Gamma 2.2
D50 White Point or NATIVE (this is the big difference for me)

Save this as a new setting!

When you are selecting WHITE POINT, you will notice that it looks different as you choose different radio buttons, and the order in which you switch seems to matter.

There appears to be a problem in the way the System switches between them. So if I go Native to 9300 (tv) then I get a lot of the blue. Anyway, keep toggling until you get the screen to look like you really want it. I am finding the D50 white the most stable.

*Now when I need to reset the monitor, I can just open the DISPLAY PREFS and toggle between 2 different Display Profiles that gets the white balance to reset when going back and forth.*

Anyway, it is holding me over till Apple sends us a REAL fix!