Setting up a color profile so Photoshop will display colors right

the14thgod

New Member
I've had this problem for 2 weeks and can't find anything about how to set up a color profile in vista so that Photoshop will display colors right. Originally I went to Adobe and posted: Adobe Forums: PS Displaying Colors Oddly... but I got no useful help. Basically the colors are washed out and not as vibrant unless I save for web and view them in anything but photoshop (windows picture viewer doesnt display them right either). Here's a link to what the differences are: http://the14thgod.com/misc/adobe_messedup.jpg.

All I find on google are pages and pages talking about color theory and crap but nothing of "this is what you do." Can anyone help me with this, I'm extremely frustrated with this : /

Thanks,
Justin
 

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Just curious why you have your proof set to CMYK when it appears your image is either destined for the web or a dvd menu. Change it to Monitor RGB unless you plan on printing it (if you do plan on printing it, you'll have a flurry of monitor/printer/photoshop color profiles to sync). Finally when you save to web & devices, uncheck the convert to sRGB as any more conversion on the color profile is going to tweak it enough to make you want to put a boot through your monitor. Let me know if it fixes anything, if not it could be over/under gamma correction.
 
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that was something that i was concerned about too, however when i took a look at my laptop, it had the exact same settings and it displayed the color right (even when you export for web, there isnt a color shift, or a noticeable one). So I wasn't really sure what that was for. I ran accross other forums etc while looking up this issue stating that this way (that you suggest) is a temp fix. Windows picture viewer or whatever it's called still displays the pic messed up :( but when you put it in FF it's right.

I'd rather not have to check the monitor rgb thing each time :( Apparently adobe gamma is no longer supported for cs3? even when I did it it asked me to basically mess with contrast/brightness. not colors of any sort (i saw the calibration tool on mac which asked you to change R/G/B and a few others.)
 

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If you change the proof with no documents open, that will be set to the new default (or it does on CS4). If you aren't printing the document, CMYK should never be set anywhere. I imagine that Edit>Color Settings works the same. Try tinkering with the conversion options (also the advanced options) to make sure the gamma levels that Adobe is using is the same as windows. You could also try changing your conversion engine to Microsoft ICM to ensure the image is being processed using the same color processing.
 

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System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Sager NG2096
    CPU
    Intel P8700
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    4 Gigs
    Graphics Card(s)
    9600M GT
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    Samsung PN50A550
    Screen Resolution
    Primary 1680 X 1050, Secondary 1920 X 1080
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    Logitech MX Revolution
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    Satalite :-(
    Other Info
    Running SUSE, Solaris, Kalyware, and BSD through vmware whenever the mood strikes
Even with no documents open it shows up the same color (and it's selected in the menu, once you reselect it it changes the colors to the right color). Changing the thing to microsoft icm didnt do anything visible :(

I'm not sure where the gamma options are..
 

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Even with no documents open it shows up the same color (and it's selected in the menu, once you reselect it it changes the colors to the right color). Changing the thing to microsoft icm didnt do anything visible :(

I'm not sure where the gamma options are..

I believe you misunderstood me. When you don't have a document open and you select a proof, future documents are set to that proof. Existing documents would resort to whatever proof they were set to when they were saved. Gamma options are set per document in the Color Settings dialog. Tick advanced options and uncheck "Compensate for Scene-referred Profiles and see if that gives you any more consistency. Your best course of action is to create in photoshop and preview in the final medium (in this case web) of not only your machine but additional machine(s) as well to ensure accurate color reproduction. Print is easy, as long as your photoshop color profile is in sync with your printer then you have nothing to worry about. With digital mediums you have to keep in mind every jack and jill has their own (or lack of) color profile for their system and they may or may not be accurate.
 

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System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Sager NG2096
    CPU
    Intel P8700
    Memory
    4 Gigs
    Graphics Card(s)
    9600M GT
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung PN50A550
    Screen Resolution
    Primary 1680 X 1050, Secondary 1920 X 1080
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Revolution
    Internet Speed
    Satalite :-(
    Other Info
    Running SUSE, Solaris, Kalyware, and BSD through vmware whenever the mood strikes
oh brand new docs, thought you meant anytime documents were opened. got ya. I dont see the "compensate for scene-referred profiles" maybe a new CS4 setting?

ill see how it goes with the proof set up but im sure ill spend more hours trying to find a damn fix. I could try a fresh install of my system..i have a backup on hard drive now so it's pretty painless..just gotta reget some new programs. do you think a fresh install would do anything or would I still get the color difference?

i might end up calling adobe... i find it wired how different the colors would vary (I didnt do any calibration with my old monitors and it worked fine, the colors were the same on those and my laptop for the file in the screenshot I provided via adobes forums). the colors on the games i play seem to be fine too.

I do understand that colors vary on monitors (after all I am a web developer =D and dealing with that is a pain and explaining it to clients is a whole new story...) luckily i dont deal with print (that **** looks confusing)
 

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Best of luck to you in getting an answer from Adobe, have you asked someone with an ACE qualification yet? I'm no where near ready to take the ACE test, but I know more then your typical teenager with a pirated copy. I'm gonna see if we have a copy of CS3 at work so I can search around and see if i can come up with something a little bit better for you (I'll be there in a few hours). I'm not sure a fresh install is what you're looking for however. I reread what you originally wrote, and just want to make sure I'm clear on what the issue is, rather then drifting off into my own imaginary troubleshooting paradise:

If you use normal save prompt, it results in color inaccuracy
If you use save for web it doesn't

With the normal save prompt, are you embedding a color profile (it's a tick mark at the bottom of the save dialog). In the save for web are you converting so sRGB? (tick mark somewhere near the middle of the right panel). Have you tried saving as PNG and seeing how the colors are reproduced? I assume you're currently using JPG.
 

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System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Sager NG2096
    CPU
    Intel P8700
    Memory
    4 Gigs
    Graphics Card(s)
    9600M GT
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung PN50A550
    Screen Resolution
    Primary 1680 X 1050, Secondary 1920 X 1080
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Revolution
    Internet Speed
    Satalite :-(
    Other Info
    Running SUSE, Solaris, Kalyware, and BSD through vmware whenever the mood strikes
i'm not sure if i save normally (non save for web) how the colors look, there is no preview. if i save for web it doesnt matter if that convert srgb is checked or not. it looks the same. i just tried a PNG and same results as the jpg
 

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Are you sure about not having a preview when saving normally? I remember when I used CS2 saving as JPEG the prompt that followed after you selected the directory had a compression slider that would give you a preview of the saved image as you changed the compression value.

Can you upload the PSD file and give me a link so I can test it out on a few computers here? If you do so, I'd suggest you watermark the image so no one steals your work. Hell you could shrink it down to a smaller size just so I can at least work with the same file you are to see if its a color profile issue or something else.
 

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System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Sager NG2096
    CPU
    Intel P8700
    Memory
    4 Gigs
    Graphics Card(s)
    9600M GT
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung PN50A550
    Screen Resolution
    Primary 1680 X 1050, Secondary 1920 X 1080
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Revolution
    Internet Speed
    Satalite :-(
    Other Info
    Running SUSE, Solaris, Kalyware, and BSD through vmware whenever the mood strikes
Sure thing, I'll check it out in a bit when I get off work and see what I can come up with
 

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System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Sager NG2096
    CPU
    Intel P8700
    Memory
    4 Gigs
    Graphics Card(s)
    9600M GT
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung PN50A550
    Screen Resolution
    Primary 1680 X 1050, Secondary 1920 X 1080
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Revolution
    Internet Speed
    Satalite :-(
    Other Info
    Running SUSE, Solaris, Kalyware, and BSD through vmware whenever the mood strikes
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