Trouble with color profiles

Question

I just got an iMac and am having trouble with color settings when I save a photo as a JPEG from Photoshop. I can pull up the saved JPEG in Photoshop (color looks here how I want it) and the pull up the same file via Viewer, and when compared side by side, there is a significant difference in color. It looks like some of the reds are missing. My color profile is sRGB. I saved it with the embedded sRGB color profile. Can someone tell me why the color isn’t the same? I pulled up a photo this same way on this iMac that I edited on my PC, and they look the same, so it’s got to have something to do with how I’m saving it. Can someone help??

D Fosse · Answer

It's about whether color management works properly, or is supported at all, in the application you are viewing the file in.

Some applications (like Photoshop) are color managed, and translate the RGB numbers from the document profile into your monitor profile, to represent the file correctly on screen.

Other applications are not color managed, and they just send the RGB numbers directly to screen without any correction.

For color management to work, the file needs to have an embedded profile, which in your case it has. But there also needs to be a valid monitor profile on your system to complete the process. This is normally made by a calibrator. If you don't have one, manufacturer profiles are often installed through Windows Update. These are often of very poor quality, not written to spec, etc.

A bad profile can often affect color managed applications differently.

So the question is - what is "Viewer"? Is it color managed at all? If it isn't, that's the explanation. If it is, then you need to look at your monitor profile.

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