Retina Screens Show Colors Dull - Any Advice?

Hi, As with any screen used fior serious work - our iMac screen should ideally be calibrated, as should your macbook - during the process, the calibrator makes a profile that is used by colourmanagemement savvy aplications like Photoshop and some web browsers . That way you know you are viewing 'true' colour. Apple's default screen profiles aren't bad, maybe a bit oveer-saturated - but, generally, screen brightness will be set too high. A custom profiule from e.g. an i1 display pro will give better accuracy.

If your iMac screen has a  really high brightness setting (they come out the box that way) then that can lead to disappointment when images are viewed on other devices which may be less 'bright' (by 'bright' I mean like a bright light, i.e. 'luminance', I'm not referring to saturation [as in a 'bright' colour]). 

I think your issues with "Retina Screens" are not about screen technology (which is irrelevant as all screen types can be colour managed to have correct appearance given software capability) - but really it's about your experience with devices "using retina screens" like your phone - my own 2016 touchbar macbook has a retina screen - now its been calibrated and brightness adjusted (with auto brighness disabled), the colour management is fine. The macbook matches my Eizo Coloredge reference screen acceptably as long as both have similar brightness.

Careful with viewing a macbook though, tilting the screen affects perception. Personally, I wouldn’t use one for final edits.

I am assured by colour management experts that many mobile phones (e.g. iPhone, Galaxy) may actually have a fair bit of colour management going on in the background [in effect, many will have the characteristics of sRGB, or, for more recent models something close to 'P3' colourspace, iPhone since 7, I believe, uses "displayP3"] but it's not manageable colour management as we know it. This stuff is hidden.

A test:

I suggest you set aside your own images for the moment and take an known composite test-image

(ideally with 'memory colours' such as skin tone) like this one:

free test-image download here - I suggest you get the Adobe RGB version

copyright PixlAps & Neil Barstow 2004 / colourmanagement.net (zip file, 1 MB)

http://www.colourmanagement.net/downloads_listing/

First assess the image appearance in Photoshop on the iMac, do colours look 'natural', the skin, the grass, is the greysxcale neutral? 

Next, open it on the macbook in Photoshop (so its colourmanaged in the same way), it should be virtually identical.

Next use Photoshop's 'save for web' which will output as sRGB (be sure to check "embed profile")

Now view then image on your "retina"  iPhone

has the match improved?

make sure brightness "luminance" is similar between devices too

you clould also test a conversion to "displayP3" if you have a recent iphone. 

Any better? I'd love to read your feedback

I hope this helps

if so, please "like" my reply and if you're OK now, please mark it as "correct", so that others who have similar issues can see the solution

thanks

neil barstow, colourmanagement.net :: adobe forum volunteer

[please do not use the reply button on a message in the thread, only use the one at the top of the page, to maintain chronological order]

First of all, retina is irrelevant in itself. That's about screen resolution, not color.

To display correct color, you need a functional color management chain. That means:

• the image must have an embedded color profile. A normal save does this automatically, but note that Export and Save For Web both strip the profile at default settings. You need to check the box to "embed color profile".
• you need to have a valid monitor profile set up at system level. A calibrator will make that for you. Relying on the system default profile should normally work, but no guarantees. It will in any case not be entirely accurate. A calibrator is a must if you care about accurate color. There is one requirement for a monitor profile: it needs to describe the actual and current response of the monitor.
• you need to view the exported file in an application that supports color management. Many consumer-oriented image viewers and some web browsers don't. Find out which. A color managed viewer will convert from the document profile into the monitor profile. It's a standard profile conversion. That's why you need both those profiles.

I should also emphasize that you should not change anything in Photoshop's color settings. The only thing you should do is check "embed profile" in Export/SFW.

Phones and tablets are not color managed at all. They can never be trusted under any circumstances, there is nothing you can do about that.