Picture looks different in Safari vs Photoshop

[michaela43953481]

I noticed that a picture looks different in Photoshop than in Safari, however it matches if I open it in Apple Preview (App). I'm using the standard sRGB ICC color profile (OS Display Settings). 

The picture is disiplayed with a much lower gamma in Safari than it is in Photoshop and Apple Preview.

What could possibly be going on?

The easiest way to replicate the issue is to open a gamma chart in Photoshop and Safari.

Step 1: Go to www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/gamma_calibration.php and save the chart as a png

Step 2: Open the png in Photoshop and Safari (png will be tagged as sRGB... you see that in the inspector in the Preview App)

Step 3: Compare how the chart looks in Photoshop to how it looks in Safari. They won't look the same (this is especially visible  in the 48% greyscale bands)

What is going on here? I would like to make sure that what I create in Photoshop looks the same when displayed in Safari.

[D Fosse]

If the image has an embedded document profile, but displays differently in two color managed applications - then you have a bad/defective/corrupt monitor profile.

A monitor profile not correctly written to icc specifications, will often affect applications differently. In fact, that's a common smoking gun.

What calibrator are you using?

[michaela43953481]

The standard sRGB IEC61966-2.1... tried the one from Apple and the one from Adobe to make sure there is not a corrupt profile... made no difference. 

[Yamonov · Accepted solution]

When using a gamma checker with stripes, it's crucial to display it at the exact same size, dot by dot. Is it being displayed at the exact same size? Additionally, be aware that on Retina (Hi-DPI) displays, achieving dot by dot display can be quite challenging. Especially on Macs, due to the monitor's scaling display, moiré will inevitably occur unless the display is set to use the monitor's actual pixel resolution (fully utilizing 3840 pixels for 4K, for example) or half the display resolution.

By the way, have you specified sRGB in your MacOS System Preferences > Monitor settings? If your monitor is not accurately adjusted to the sRGB gamut and contrast, setting the monitor profile to sRGB in System Preferences is not advisable. If you're using an internal display, it's safer, in terms of color management, to leave it at the default setting, like Display or Color LCD (unless you have created a profile using a calibrator to measure your monitor, of course).

This sentence has been translated into English from Japanese using ChatGPT.

[michaela43953481]

Wow... finally an answer that solved my problem (I was posting in like 4 other forums). The problem was with the monitor scalling (in Display preferences where you can select how the retina display gets scaled (Larger text / Defaul / ... / More Space). Using the native resolution fixed the problem. Thanks a lot!!!

[Yamonov]

The monitor scaling on Macs can be somewhat difficult to control with the default settings, so I recommend using utility software like Display Menus to adjust it. For instance, on older models of the MacBook Air, it was not possible to set the resolution to half-scale through the system preferences. You either use the monitor's actual resolution or half of it. However, setting it to half on a 4K display can feel very cramped and may not be practical. In comparison, Windows scaling is much more rational in this regard. By default, it allows for proper Dot by Dot display in applications like Photoshop.

This sentence has been translated into English from Japanese using ChatGPT.