screencapture/Colorspace over multiple monitors

[Torichan123]

Hi

I am on a PC using windows 11pro (but had the same issue on my preview pv on windows10).

I have calibrated my 2 monitors with the SyderX Elite software and sensor and they each have their own colorprofile:

My dell: Dell01

my Wacom: Wacom Generic PnP-2-1

The problem is that photoshop can't seem to handle 2 different colorspaces at the same time.

I have duplicated my photoshop window so that it shows on both screen. 

When I have selected the dell profile the colors are good on the dell but not on the wacom and the reverse is also true.

It is very problematic because I need my 2 screens to check the colors and I use screen capture very often. This means that if I screencapture an image in photoshop on the wacom while photoshop is configured with the dell colorspace, the colors are off when I paste it again, even if I paste it in the same file on the wacom. I don't have this problem if I screencapture the UI or anything else.

Is there a way to tell photoshop to use this colorspace on that monitor and that colorspace on the other monitor?

 

I know colorscpace issues have been discussed a lot but I haven't been able to find an answer on the internet for my problem.

I'd be really gratefull for any insight into this since it's been driving me crazy for a while now...

[Torichan123]

Oh and another thing:

If I deactivate my screen calibration on my wacom while photoshop has the dell colorspace, I don't have a colorshift while doing a screencapture....but of course then the colors on my wacom monitor are wrong to the eye.

[D Fosse]

Stop, reset Color Settings to default and start from the beginning. You have set your monitor profile as working RGB, which is something you should never do! That sets color management policies to "off" and disables all display color management, thus defeating the whole purpose of using a calibrator in the first place. The monitor profile is ignored and not used with your settings.

Set working RGB to a standard color space, set color management policies to "preserve embedded profiles", and don't change that setting again. That's how color management is supposed to work.

The calibrator software sets the monitor profile up at system level automatically, no user action required. Just run the software and then don't do anything.

As for the screenshots, here's the correct procedure. You need to make the two screenshots separately, as per the following:

• The numbers sent to screen have already been converted into the monitor profile. The original document color space no longer applies.
• To get accurate color in a screenshot, you need to first assign the monitor profile, for the above reason. Then convert to a standard color space like sRGB.
• For a dual screen setup, the two monitor profiles are obviously different. Photoshop color manages the two screens separately, sending different numbers to each screen for the same color.

Once you've made the two screenshots, assigned the corresponding monitor profile for each screen, and converted to sRGB, you can put the two sRGB files together and they will now be correct.

[Torichan123]

First thanks for replying.

I was using the default colosetting. I just tried to change them to try to understand where the problem was comming from. I wouldn't even try to go in the colorsetting otherwise.

What I understand is that it is not possible to have correct colors out of the box with screenshots when different monitors are calibrated and have different monitor profiles. For my needs, if I need to save a screencapture, open it, convert it, etc, meens that the time saved by screencapturing is juste wasted afterwards. 

I guess I'll just have to continue putting my photoshop windows on my dell before screencapturing, which is quite a hasle since I have to do that a lot and quite often on the fly.

The weird thing is that I didn't have this problem before calibrating my 2 monitors. Does it mean that windows assigned the same default colorspace to both before and can only screencapture with the main screen colorspace (which is my dell at the moment)? Does a third party screencapture application exist that could take in account automatically the different colorspaces?

It's a bit sad to have to choose between usable screencapture and calibrated monitors 

[D Fosse]

If you're not making a custom monitor profile, Windows will set sRGB IEC61966-2.1 as default.

In other words, the same correction will be performed regardless of the monitor's characteristics. So the actual numbers sent to screen will always be the same, and that's what is recorded in the screenshot. And as a result, the visual appearance will vary from wrong to very wrong. The profile will just be more or less wrong.

All that said - all this shouldn't be necessary. With a little care in setting the white points (which is the main variable), it should be possible to get the two displays very close. Admittedly, this is always easier when the two displays are fairly similar to begin with. In any case, there won't be any dramatic differences with correct calibration/profiling.

[Torichan123]

I guess one very clunky way to make it work would be to have one montior software calibrated and the other eyeballing manually the calibration using the montor's options. 

What I don't really understand is why when I screenshot the same wallpaper on both screen and paste it in photoshop I get the same colors, but if I screenshot the same image in the photoshop window on the wacom, the image is different. 
The images in photoshop with duplicated windows on both screens seem much closer in colors than the wallpapers of windows so I guess the wallpaper in the wacom monitor doesn t have  a correct colorspace applied (maybe it has the dell's colorspace).

I'll just continue screen capturing on my dell. It seems the simplest solution and less prone to color errors.

Thanks for your time!

[davescm]

Does a third party screencapture application exist that could take in account automatically the different colorspaces?
I have a few screen capture apps installed here and all work the same way, they just capture the values being sent to the screen.

'For my needs, if I need to save a screencapture, open it, convert it, etc, meens that the time saved by screencapturing is juste wasted afterwards. '
It is very easy to record an action to assign the correct profile then convert to a standard document colour space, and, optionally, save the screenshot. I do that here so that one click on the action sorts it. You would need two such actions - one for each screen.

Dave

[Torichan123]

Thanks for the tips!

Unfortunately my workflow implied pasting the screencapture from my clipboard directly into a web production tool (kitsu) , so unless I can change the profile automatically directly from the screencapture app, I don't think an action would be possible.

[davescm · Accepted solution]

Most screencapture software does not embed a colour profile. So, in your described workflow, you are sending your web application an image with the RGB values are being sent to your screen, using your display profile, but without any reference to that profile.  Most browsers will take an image without an embedded profile and assume a default profile (usually sRGB) and display as if those image RGB values were referenced to sRGB. This is a real recipe for incorrectly displayed colour.

The recipe for controlled colour is to take the screenshot. Open it in an application such as Photoshop and assign the display monitor profile. Then convert to sRGB and embed that profile in the file when you save. That way browsers can work with the correctly referenced RGB values and display your images correctly. Even if the sRGB profile was to be stripped out at some stage, the default set up of most browsers will treat it as sRGB which will be a correct assumption given the steps above.

Dave

[D Fosse · Accepted solution]

With two screens, I understand that this profile business complicates your simple procedure a bit. But the point is - without this crucial step of assigning the monitor profile, the screenshot isn't accurate. And unless you then convert to sRGB, you can't put the two screenshots together.

So you really have no choice. Or rather, your choice is accurate, reliable and repeatable result on one hand, or all over the map and unpredictable on the other. Even if "simpler", the latter is pretty much useless.

I have a Photoshop action triggered by the F2 key, which fetches the screenshot from the Windows clipboard, and dumps a finished PNG right on my desktop. Doesn't get any simpler than that. That action is set to assign the profile for my main screen. I haven't needed it, but I could easily make another action triggered by, say, the F3 key that uses the profile for the secondary screen.