Dull / washed out colors across programs

[roberts82307609]

I'm suddenly having an issue where the colors in all of the Adobe programs I use (Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign) are dull and washed out. The only program that seems to display the colors correctly is Acrobat. I work almost exclusively in CMYK because my work is all print work. 

I have not changed any settings and I checked to make sure my color settings were the same as they have always been: North America General Purpose 2. It also says that setting is synchronized across CC programs.

I believe this is a bug on how the programs are just displaying the colors because all of my settings seem correct and the colors are the same ones I've used before, they just look duller. I can simply save a file out of Photoshop or Illustrator as a PDF, and it displays perfectly when opened with Acrobat. I also haven't had an issue with the colors once they are printed.

I've tried a few fixes I found while searching online, like resetting colors in Bridge (which I never use), turning off the GPU performance, and updating or reverting the programs to different versions. All to no avail. All programs are currently up to date, but the problem persists. Any suggestions?

[D Fosse]

Obviously people can buy whatever they want. All I'm saying is that with an Eizo Coloredge or an NEC Spectraview (in the US), properly calibrated and profiled - anything that goes wrong is not the monitor's fault. Then something is wrong with the file. That certainty is worth paying for.

[Zesty_wanderlust15A7]

I just mean, if you have heard genuine critiques on BenQ, I'd love to hear them (you mentioned bugs, for example).

I have now read up a little on the two "competing" EIZO 2K monitors (www.eizocolour.com/spotlight/coloredge-cs-or-cg). One is not much more than the BenQ.

The CG 2700S one I could not use because most of the time I'm not in PS, so I'm really wasting a quality monitor on browsing and YouTube, so to speak. This is what rationally has to drive me to the cheaper Eizo or the BenQ. I'll have to ponder that further in the following days... The Eizo may still be capable of doing "orange mode" natively or with software? (the screenmanager software functionality some had before) — just in case I see no other way. The BenQ may not have that built-in.

[NB, colourmanagement]

@Zesty_wanderlust15A7 I wouldn’t choose BenQ unless they have recently fixed it their calibration software is problematic.

They do seem to set up "evangelists" who they apprently expect to do presentations. Shady? who knows

I hope this helps
neil barstow, colourmanagement net - adobe forum volunteer - co-author: 'getting colour right'
google me "neil barstow colourmanagement" for lots of free articles on colour management

[Zesty_wanderlust15A7]

Which power tripping mod is doing all this uber silly editing?

Using the words "having (removed)" is not in any way cursing.

Again: where is the world going to...?

One of these mods is doing the exact same thing on like every other reply they make. I of course assume they are above the law.

[Irakli Topuria]

In Photoshop: Edit > Color settings > Settings > and choose "Monitor color"

This worked for me. In Photoshop, colors will be displayed the same way they are displayed in other programs on your PC.

[D Fosse]

@Irakli Topuria 

That is a wrong and misleading answer in every possible way.

What that does is turn off all display color management. It dumbs down Photoshop to the level of any simple consumer-level image viewer.

Photoshop is more sophisticated than that. You don't seem to understand what color management does. By applying icc profiles and color management, the file is correctly represented on screen. All those other applications that you refer to are wrong! Photoshop is right.

You just need to make sure your profiles are in order. It's not complicated at all (despite the popular myth), it just takes some very basic and simple precautions.

[davescm]

@Irakli Topuria  'In Photoshop: Edit > Color settings > Settings > and choose "Monitor color"'

That is not good advice at all. What it does is produce a document using your monitor colour space as the document colour space. The monitor profile is not meant to be a document profile, it describes the colour space of your monitor.

If you do what you suggest:

Photoshop will produce a document albeit restricting the document to those colours which can be seen on your monitor. If your view it on none colour managed applications on your PC only, it will look OK.
If you embed the profile in the document and view it on other PCs using colour managed software then, if they can read the profile it will look OK, if they cannot read it, or if they are not colour managed it will look incorrect.

Short version - use a monitor profile for your monitor only, use a print profile for your printer only, use a document colour space for your documents.

Longer version:

Digital images are made up of numbers. In RGB mode, each pixel has a number representing Red, a number representing Green and a Number representing Blue. The problem comes in that different devices can be sent those same numbers but will show different colours. To see a demonstration of this, walk into your local T.V. shop and look at the different coloured pictures – all from the same material.

To ensure the output device is showing the correct colours then a colour management system needs to know two things.

1. What colours do the numbers in the document represent? 
This is the job of the document profile which describes the exact colour to be shown when Red=255 and what colour of white is meant when Red=255, Green = 255 and Blue =255. It also describes how the intermediate values move from 0 through to 255 – known as the tone response curve (or sometimes “gamma”).
Examples of colour spaces are (Adobe RGB1998, sRGB IEC61966-2.1)
With the information from the document profile, the colour management system knows what colour is actually represented by the pixel values in the document.

2. What colour will be displayed on the printer/monitor if it is sent certain pixel values?
   This is the job of the monitor/printer & paper profile. It should describe exactly what colours the device is capable of showing and, how the device will respond when sent certain values.
   So with a monitor profile that is built to represent the specific monitor (or a printer profile built to represent the specific printer, ink and paper combination) then the colour management system can predict exactly what colours will be shown if it sends specific pixel values to that device.
   
   So armed with those two profiles, the colour management system will convert the numbers in the document to the numbers that must be sent to the device in order that the correct colours are displayed.
   
   

So what can go wrong :

1. The colours look different in Photoshop, which is colour managed, to the colours in a different application which is not colour managed.
   This is not actually fault, but it is a commonly raised issue. It is the colour managed version which is correct – the none colour managed application is just sending the document RGB numbers to the output device regardless without any conversion regardless of what they represent in the document and the way they will be displayed on the output device.
   
   
2. The colour settings are changed in Photoshop without understanding what they are for.
   This results in the wrong profiles being used and therefore the wrong conversions and the wrong colours.
   If Photoshop is set to Preserve embedded profiles – it will use the colour profile within the document.
   
   
3. The profile for the output device is incorrect.
   The profile should represent the behaviour of the device exactly. If the wrong profile is used it will not. Equally if the settings on the device are changed in comparison to those settings when the profile was made, then the profile can no longer describe the behaviour of the device. Two examples would be using a printer profile designed for one paper, with a different paper. A second example would be using a monitor profile but changing the colour/contrast etc settings on the monitor.
   The monitor profile is set in the operating system (in Windows 10 that is under Settings>System>Display >Advanced) which leads to a potential further issue. Operating system updates can sometimes load a different monitor profile, or a broken profile, which no longer represents the actual monitor.

Colour management is simple to use provided the document profile is correct, always save or export with an embedded profile, and the monitor/printer profile is correct. All the math is done in the background.

I hope that helps

Dave

[NB, colourmanagement]

@Irakli Topuria great replies from @D Fosse and @davescm 

you wrote

" In Photoshop: Edit > Color settings > Settings > and choose "Monitor color""

that’s terrible advice, unfortunately, for many reasons as explained -  That is not at all how colour management is meant to work, please study those replies and think it over

I hope this helps
neil barstow, colourmanagement net - adobe forum volunteer - co-author: 'getting colour right'
google me "neil barstow colourmanagement" for lots of free articles on colour management
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