Preview "save for web" is over saturated

[ruiapolinario]

Hello everyone.

I'm having a problem lately that when exporting for web, the preview gets over saturated, but it exports well.

It's just the preview that is giving the problem. I open the file in any other place and looks well. I have reseted the settings and this "problem" continues. It's not really a problem but it's anoying. Has this happen to anyone? If so, have you solved it?

[kglad]

in the future, to find the best place to post your message, use the list here, https://community.adobe.com/

p.s. i don't think the adobe website, and forums in particular, are easy to navigate, so don't spend a lot of time searching that forum list. do your best and we'll move the post (like this one has already been moved) if it helps you get responses.

<"moved from cc desktop">

[kglad]

you're using adobe animate and you created an html5/canvas project which you're publishing, correct?

[ruiapolinario]

Actually no. This is a photoshop question 😕

[ruiapolinario]

I see that this is the wrong place.. will move it to the right place

[kglad]

don't. it's already moved.

[D Fosse]

Change the Preview rolldown to "Use Document Profile". It's probably set to "Monitor Color", which disables display color management.

Of course, make sure the file actually has a document profile.  Every document should always have an embedded color profile, no exception. This is one of the most common reasons for color discrepancies.

[ruiapolinario]

It has color profile and in preview, the only option that comes close to the original file is selecting "Internet color managment"...

[D Fosse]

Is the profile embedded? Your screenshot only shows Convert to sRGB. That doesn't help if the profile isn't embedded.

And is the profile embedded in the original file? There has to be an embedded profile, always.

It needs to look like this in SFW:

With these settings, Save For Web will display absolutely identically to Photoshop. If it doesn't, something else is going on - either you have a corrupt/defective monitor profile, or perhaps the much bigger original is very noisy and different resampling algorithms influence the result.

Here's where you check the embedded profile in Photoshop:

[ruiapolinario]

The profile is embeded. I have downsized to final size and changed color profile settings (the collor settings was sRGB) and what now happens is for a split second, the image in the preview looks right, but right after saturates.

[D Fosse]

OK. This sounds like SFW isn't using your monitor profile, so that the whole color management chain fails. This can happen if the profile isn't written to correct icc specification. Then it may work in some applications, but fail in others.

I'm guessing you have a wide gamut / P3 monitor? Looks like P3 the way the reds turn towards magenta.

What calibrator are you using? Is it set to make LUT (table)-based profiles? Some applications don't like that, and it generally doesn't work well in MacOS.

[ruiapolinario]

i have a 24" iMac. I never had to do much of a calibration since I use Macs.... This wasn't happening until recently. I have uninstalled Photoshop and reinstalled, reboot and stays the same. I really can't figure it out... If after exporting the image, it was over saturated I could (somehow) understand, but no....

[D Fosse]

I never had to do much of a calibration since I use Macs

By @ruiapolinario

There's nothing exceptional about a Mac display. They need calibration and profiling like any other display. I use three Eizo Coloredges, and they are all regularly calibrated and profiled. However, Apple's display profiles are rarely outright defective, so we can probably rule that out.

In any case, that's a P3 display, and that's how a P3 display represents sRGB when color management fails. There is no conversion from document profile to the monitor profile; instead the RGB numbers in the file are just sent straight to the display without any correction.

Where it fails I don't know, but what is special about Macs is that the operating system integrates many functions that are run in discrete subsystems in Windows. That makes troubleshooting difficult because you can't easily isolate components.

If we assume the display profile is basically sound - as in working as it should, not necessarily entirely accurate - that points to the next possible cause, a GPU driver bug. In Mac, that means the GPU driver component in MacOS. One thing you can try is to uncheck "use graphics processor" in Photoshop preferences. If that corrects this difference, it's the GPU.

In modern software, the conversion from document profile into monitor profile is executed in the GPU. So this is two sides to the same coin: a marginal profile or a buggy driver can both cause the conversion to fail. Unchecking the GPU shifts it back to the CPU, so this is a way to narrow down the issue.

[ruiapolinario]

D Fosse, thank you for your patience 🙂
Unfortunatly that doesn't seem to be the problem also... I have unchecked the GPU option and still stays the same.
It could just be from the recent ios update, it could also be from adobe updates and it could be some profile damaged... I understand it is not easy to debug this as it only happens during preview. I will do another ios update and check back with the conclusions

[NB, colourmanagement]

@ruiapolinario you wrote "It could just be from the recent ios update"

are you using a mac or an ios device e.g. an iPad? 

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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[ruiapolinario]

sorry. macOS 🙂 The OS update had no consequences. I have compared to other computers with photoshop (windows and macs) and the levels of saturation in the preview window depends on configurations, but all show some extra saturation, so I guess it's "normal" even tho I had never noticed it before...

[D Fosse]

No, that's not normal. As long as you have SFW preview set to "Use document profile", and there always is an embedded document profile, and your monitor profile is sound and healthy, SFW and Photoshop will display absolutely identically.

One possible gotcha - is this a very noisy image? If so, different resampling algorithms could influence the result.

The only other possible explanation is a MacOS bug (in the GPU driver component).