Skip to main content
Participating Frequently
October 31, 2007
Question

Photoshop CS3 color management "Save for Web" problem

  • October 31, 2007
  • 680 replies
  • 62256 views
This problem is getting the best of me.......

After spending 3 full days researching this problem, I am no closer to finding an answer than when I started. I still cannot produce a usable image through the "Save for Web" feature of Photoshop CS3. I have read web page after web page of "Tips, Tricks and Recommendations" from dozens of experts, some from this forum, and still I have no solution... I am exhausted and frustrated to say the least. Here's the simple facts that I know at this point.

I have a web design project that was started in PS CS1. All artwork was created in photoshop and exported to JPG format by using "Save for Web". Every image displays correctly in these browsers (Safari, Camino, FireFox and even Internet Explorer on a PC).

I have recently upgraded to PS CS3 and now cannot get any newly JPG'd image to display correctly. My original settings in CS1 were of no concern to me at the time, because it always just worked, and so I do not know what they were. I have opened a few of my previous images in CS3 and found that sRGB-2.1 displays them more or less accurately. I am using sRGB 2.1 working space. Upon openning these previous image files, I get the "Missing Profile" message and of course I select "Leave as is. Do Not color manage". CS3 assumes sRGB-2.1 working space, opens the file, and all is well.

The problem is when I go to "Save for Web", the saturation goes up, and the colors change. The opposite of what most people are reporting. Here's another important point... new artwork created in CS3 does exactly the same thing, so it's not because of the older CS1 files.

I have tried every combination of "uncompensated color", "Convert to sRGB", "ICC Profile", etc. while saving. I have Converted to sRGB before saving, and my monitor is calibrated correctly.
I have tried setting the "Save for Web" page on 2-up and the "original" on the left is already color shifted before I even hit the "Save" button. Of course, the "Optimized" image on the right looks perfect because I am cheating by selecting the "Use Document Color Profile" item. Why do they even have this feature if doesn't work, or misleads you?

Does anyone have any ideas what could be happening here? Why is this all so screwed up?
CS1 worked fine out of the box.

Final note: I do have an image file I could send along that demonstrates how it is possible to display an image exactly the same in all 4 of the browsers I mentioned with no color differences. It is untagged RGB and somehow it just works.

I am very frustrated with all of this and any suggestions will be appreciated

Thanks,
Pete
    This topic has been closed for replies.

    680 replies

    November 7, 2007
    I hope what works for me works for you as well Peter. I also have a tendency to obsess about things until I have totally got it sorted out.

    It occurs to me that rather than using Monitor RGB as a Proof Setup, I could get the same results by using Monitor RGB as the embedded profile for my web image files...thereby making it "stick" between sessions, instead of me remembering to turn on "Proof Colors" each time I open a web image.

    Or, I can use any embedded profile -- I just need to remember to convert to Monitor RGB profile when it comes time to SFW.

    By George I think I'm on to something here.
    November 7, 2007
    I just played around a bit.

    Adobe RGB goes straight to SFW uncompensated bit of a slight difference, not much.

    Adobe RGB converted to sRGB goes to SFW uncompensated practically identical. Quality was 20.
    Participating Frequently
    November 7, 2007
    Exactly~!
    Participating Frequently
    November 7, 2007
    1. View Menu > Proof Setup > Monitor RGB.
    2. Make sure Proof Colors is turned on (Cmd+Y to toggle) while making image adjustments.
    3. Make sure "convert to sRGB" is NOT checked in the SFW menu; that "Uncompensated Color" is selected in the preview window menu; and that "ICC Profile" is unchecked.

    Thanks for your helpfulness... I for one appreciate your tenacity in this matter. I will try this suggestion. I have to admit that I am by now a bit exhausted with all of this and have basically given up. There is definitely something wrong here. It's not my imagination, and it's not my monitor or it's calibration. I will admit that I am a perfectionist and these things tend to drive me crazy until find a solution. For my own sanity I am now using PS 7 for web work as it just seems to work. I am sticking with OS X 10.4 until a solution is found as 10.5 is not compatible with PS 7. I will look into your suggestion. Thanks again!
    November 6, 2007
    For anyone who is still frustrated by SFW behaviour, here's what is working for me:

    1. View Menu > Proof Setup > Monitor RGB.
    2. Make sure Proof Colors is turned on (Cmd+Y to toggle) while making image adjustments.
    3. Make sure "convert to sRGB" is NOT checked in the SFW menu; that "Uncompensated Color" is selected in the preview window menu; and that "ICC Profile" is unchecked.

    This gives me a JPG in a web browser (on my computer) that looks the same as the original image in Photoshop WITH "PROOF COLORS" TURNED ON. That's the best I can do, but it's acceptable for my primarily print-oriented work. (I only wish that saving a file would remember to use "Proof Colors" when I open it again, so I could apply it permanently to my web-oriented images.)
    November 6, 2007
    I think I'm sort of understanding some of this. Perhaps every monitor I've used up until now has been closer to sRGB, including the Apple Cinema Displays, which I calibrated only by using the Display Preferences calibration tool, and then only switching gamma to 2.2 and white space to D65.

    I look forward to seeing how my calibrated set up looks compared to reliable printer's proofs. If it looks ok then I'll know that my CMYK set up is good.
    Participating Frequently
    November 6, 2007
    1

    >Does that makes sense to anybody,

    yes - Photoshop is not compensating your preview routed to the video card until you close that dialog box.

    2

    Sound like your monitor is close to Adobe RGB color space and not
    sRGB.
    November 6, 2007
    Although I have figured out a way for me to get the result I want using SFW, there are a couple of questions I would love to have answered:

    1. When I am clicking on different monitor profiles in Display Preferences, I see a live change each time I click on a different profile. However, as soon as I actually close the Display Preferences dialog box, the Photoshop image I am viewing (and only the PS image, nothing else on the screen) changes drastically again to something completely different. (I'm not sure at this point if the end result is actually accurate...we need some accurate colour proofs from a printer to use as a reference). Does that makes sense to anybody, that Photoshop is re-adjusting after I close the Display Preferences window?

    2. In CS2 and earlier, I had to remember to convert to sRGB before using SFW. (eg. an Adobe RGB image taken into SFW loses saturation, but an sRGB image looks identical in SFW.) However, in CS3 now when I take an sRGB image into SFW, the colour becomes more saturated, no matter if "convert to sRGB" is checked or not. An Adobe RGB image looks the same in SFW if I have unchecked "convert to sRGB". This all seems backwards. Why would an sRGB image change when taken into SFW?
    November 6, 2007
    Peter Figen, just to confirm...you are taking an Adobe RGB image into SFW, with "convert to sRGB" checked, and it looks the same? Does your resulting image when viewed in a browser look the same as your Adobe RGB image in PS?
    Participating Frequently
    November 6, 2007
    yep G.

    I have become very rich because Adobe has not listened to me.

    Life is good.

    Maybe they should smoke that for a while.

    ;o)