Skip to main content
Participating Frequently
October 31, 2007
Question

Photoshop CS3 color management "Save for Web" problem

  • October 31, 2007
  • 680 replies
  • 62091 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 5, 2007

    "I guess I'll try to find answers somewhere else."

    I think all the answers are here in this thread. You just have to read through them and try the different ways of saving out to Jpeg...

    Participant
    November 5, 2007
    This is what I do:

    Open a .jpg from the existing site (which was saved prior to CS3). Copy, paste from new file onto this jpg. Flatten image and Save (sometimes you get a jpg quality dialog box, sometime not.

    This works for me.
    November 5, 2007
    Also keep in mind that Adobe RGB is a larger color space than sRGB and depending on the image a conversion to sRGB from aRGB with clip the space causing color to shift a little. Just like converting from RGB to CMYK although not as drastic.
    November 5, 2007
    Ballard's site is a great starting point.
    November 5, 2007
    So much for the help and patience of those trying to explain this stuff. It does matter Ramon, but I guess I'll try to find answers somewhere else.
    Participating Frequently
    November 4, 2007
    So Ramon and MO let us in so that we can roll around the floor also!
    Ramón G Castañeda
    Inspiring
    November 4, 2007
    Larry,

    Yes, I should have added "for Tiger".
    Participating Frequently
    November 4, 2007
    Ramon - Safari 3.0.4 is now the current non-beta version. I'm running it with 10.5. I haven't read anything as to whether it's a good idea or not to run it with 10.4.10.

    So Ramon and MO let us in so that we can roll around the floor also!
    Ramón G Castañeda
    Inspiring
    November 4, 2007
    >So I still don't get what you're trying to say

    Forget it, then. It doesn't matter.
    November 4, 2007
    Ramon...I appreciate your effort to explain, but there is still a lack of understanding here. TO try to reiterate: I created a crap monitor profile using the Display Preferences calibration tool. Dark. Orange. I'm not talking about tagging an image with a dark and orange biased colour profile, I'm talking about a monitor colour profile as chosen in the Display Preferences panel. How can you say Photoshop will use it and Word will not, when I choose this crap profile, everything that is displayed is affected by it, including menu bars, preference boxes, websites...I'm talking about everything on the screen. You know when you're messing around with the gamma setting and stuff you are seeing the whole screen changing. I see this as a global display preference, so that if the monitor display is accurate globally, then my eye can trust what photoshop shows me when it uses different tagged image profiles for different purposes.

    So I still don't get what you're trying to say. This is a very challenging subject to explain apparently because nobody here who SEEMS to know what is going on has been able to clearly explain.

    You make a distinction between Calibrating and Profiling a monitor. When I calibrate using SpyderPro, is it not saving a monitor profile (white balance, gamma settings, etc.) which shows up in the list of colour profiles in the Display Preferences panel? For the system to use globally for the display as a whole? Perhaps you could explain the distinction between calibrating and profiling. (I figure calibration is the process, and the profile is the end result, display preference file, or whatever.)

    Again I appreciate the help and patience of those trying to explain this stuff.