P: Save For Web, Convert to sRGB should be off by default for PNGs and GIFs

Report · Jul 26, 2012

Photoshop's Save for Web ability contains a setting called Convert to sRGB. If on, it destructively changes the resulting file's colour values from the document's profile to sRGB. I believe this is the wrong thing to do in almost every conceivable scenario. The default behaviour is for Convert to sRGB to be enabled. I think this is a huge mistake.

Let's take a look at some common scenarios.

You're building a website using GIFs:
GIFs can't contain ICC profiles. This means if you're using GIFs, they can't benefit from any colour management at all. Converting to sRGB when saving for web will destructively change their appearance with no benefit. If you've used a specific colour, like #FF0010 in your GIF, it will likely be changed to not match the same colour used in HTML, CSS or other code.

You're building a website using PNGs:
PNGs can contain ICC profiles, but PNGs saved using Save For Web can not. This means if you're using PNGs and Save For Web, they can't benefit from any colour management at all. Converting to sRGB when saving for web will destructively change their appearance with no benefit. If you've used a specific colour, like #FF0010 in your PNG, it will likely be changed to not match the same colour used in HTML, CSS or other code.

You're using a PNG or JPEG image with a colour profile on the web, and it's being shown in a colour managed browser:
In this situation, you wouldn't want Convert to sRGB turned on, you'd want to store the document's ICC profile within the image and let the browser do a realtime correction, based on the viewer's computer and settings.

You're building an iOS app:
iOS uses PNG files almost exclusively for app design. I believe iOS ignores ICC profiles stored in PNGs (this is smart for many reasons, including performance). The best way to ensure colours look good on the device is previewing your UI on the device itself. There is some variation between iOS devices, but Convert to sRGB does not improve consistency. Converting to sRGB when saving iOS assets will destructively change their appearance with no benefit.

You're building an Android app:
Android uses PNG files almost exclusively for app design. I believe Android ignores ICC profiles stored in PNGs (this is smart for many reasons, including performance). The best way to ensure colours look good on the device is previewing your UI on the device itself. There is wild variation between Android devices, but Convert to sRGB does not improve consistency. Converting to sRGB when saving iOS assets will destructively change their appearance with no benefit.

I can not think of any scenario where Convert to sRGB makes sense. If, in the highly unlikely event you do need to convert a document to sRGB, it can be done using Edit → Convert to Profile.

Why was Convert to sRGB added in the first place?

Further reading.
Colour management and UI design — My article. Explains the situation with more depth.
A search for "save for web color shift" returns over 8 million results. This is a real and significant issue for many people. An issue that can be fixed by changing a single default setting.
Save For Web, Simply — Note that the settings recommended match what I'm suggesting.

This is a big deal.
This has been demonstrably incorrect for a very long time. I don't know any web or app designer worth their salt who keeps Convert to RGB on. In fact, I'd go as far as saying that if it was permanently turned on, I wouldn't be using Photoshop for any screen design work.

By changing the default behaviour, I think Adobe could remove a lot of frustration for Photoshop and Illustrator users.

Report · Aug 06, 2012

I have a Lynda account.

Justin states: "I want to make sure that convert to sGSB is unchecked. By doing this, I'm insuring that the graphics that i export out of Photoshop will NOT have a color profile assigned to them, and thus they have the best chance of displaying properly across multiple screens and browsers". (emphasis his)

He also recommends Monitor RGB for Color Settings Working Space and Off for all Color Management Policies.

And to set Proof Setup to Monitor RGB and to use Legacy Macintosh and Internet Standard RGB (sRGB) to periodically see what things will look like on a Mac or PC.

Report · Aug 06, 2012

What does this person mean with »displaying properly«?
Edit: »This person« referring to the aforementioned Justin, not Jay.

Report · Aug 06, 2012

Convert to sRGB has nothing to do with color profiles. And converting to sRGB is how you get images to what most people will see on multiple screens and browsers. Turning off all color management policies guarantees that you'll get bad results because you won't know that you have multiple colorspaces in use.

Using Monitor RGB is just hiding your head in the sand and pretending that everyone has the same monitor as you. If you work in Monitor RGB, there is no need to turn on proofing of Monitor RGB.

Legacy Macintosh is NOT what current Macintosh users will see - they see sRGB.

So "Justin" was wrong on all of that.

Report · Aug 06, 2012

What method is Adobe using to get the correct message out there, as you seem to be stating that many alleged authorities are "wrong on all of that". Is there supporting documentation, blog articles, tutorials that Adobe endorses, so to give their customers some clear, concise information on this topic?

Report · Aug 06, 2012

We've tried a variety of methods, but many web developers have trouble understanding the concepts and give up.

Report · Aug 06, 2012

Could you please direct me to any?

Report · Aug 06, 2012

I'm not trying to call you out on this. There seems a lot of hyperbole here and I'm genuinely interested in learning about this, understanding it, and applying it correctly in my work. Surely, if there is a correct way to use Photoshop for web colours, Adobe should be out there pushing it and explaining it to customers, rather than aggressively defending the decision at Get Satisfaction. Yes?

Report · Aug 06, 2012

»Adobe should be out there pushing it and explaining it to customers,«
Have you bothered reading what the documentation offers on Color Management?
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/creatives...

Report · Aug 06, 2012

I have, but I'm unable to find any references to the web and/or browsers and how they react to colors. Perhaps you can refer me to something?

Report · Aug 06, 2012

The best I can find is this one:

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/creatives...

Which is basically just one paragraph that says "use sRGB." Not very helpful. No explanation. No support. Nothing about ICC. No examples. Nothing about JPG vs. PNG/GIF. Nothing about how to then calibrate the CSS colors codes to match those images. Is this as good as it gets?

Report · Aug 07, 2012

When reading anything on the topic, make sure you keep in mind that PNGs saved from Photoshop using Save for Web can't have ICC profiles.

The reality is that there's often a simple choice:

**Option 1** — Are you aiming for consistency across multiple devices? Follow Adobe's advice and use sRGB, just be aware that it's actually unachievable with the current state of browsers. Although, if you want colour management to have a chance of working, you'd better embed colour profiles. Colour management only works properly when the document has a profile and the browser/viewer knows what to do with the profile.

**Option 2** — Are you aiming for consistency within the page across CSS/HTML and images? You have no choice but to aim for “device RGB” and to disable colour management. Despite the advice against doing so in this thread, it's actually a smart way to go for user interface design, where colour accuracy is trumped by consistency between elements (there's nothing worse than a join between a CSS colour and image colour not matching). Please note that going down this path also has issues in Safari 6, thanks to an awful recent change.

It's also worth mentioning that iOS, Mac, Android and other user interface design work can not and should not target anything other than device RGB, because the platforms aren't colour managed for user interface images. And, advice to use sRGB or some kind of colour managed workflow for app design is poor advice... all you're doing is ensuring Photoshop doesn't look like the final result. In those situations you should be doing as much device testing as possible.

Report · Dec 13, 2012

Thanks everyone for a great discussion here. Very informative. One question: Chris, you said that:

"New displays coming in the near future will make the difference even worse (larger gamuts, not necessarily RGB primaries, etc.), and require color management at all times to work well."

Can you point to any more info on that? What displays?

Report · Dec 13, 2012

right now, there are only a few displays with larger gamuts than Adobe RGB (like the RGB-Yellow displays).

There are more coming, but not announced yet, so I can't say much about them.

Report · Dec 13, 2012

Could you tell whether those will add different colors apart from yellow?

Report · Jan 10, 2013

@LAUENSTEIN There's a bit more info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quattron

Unless those displays end up on mainstream consumer devices, I'm not sure they're relevant to this discussion about web and app UI PNG and GIFs.

Report · Jan 10, 2013

Thanks for the Link.

Report · Feb 25, 2020

There's one more very valid reason for keeping "Convert to sRGB" - namely, many CMS and other automated management systems will perform image resizing/rescaling/cropping and so on as you load these images. Most of these systems are not color-profile-aware. PHP's GD library (still most widely used in the wild as of 2020) doesn't understand color profiles at all and assumes everything is in sRGB. Imagick does understand color profiles, but the result really depends on your target output and how it was built and linked (for instance, getting WebP output to respect color profiles necessitates a manual compile of the plugin - something not often possible on shared web hosting).

Bottom line is: if you don't convert to sRGB at some point (instead relying on color profiles), you're almost guaranteed to have false color results on your Wordpress, Joomla, Prestashop or other CMS-driven website. And yes, this is valid in 2020 still.

Report · Jun 21, 2020

to Marcc : dude you are wrong in everythin..you really dont understand how this work at all..pls do some research ..its not as easy as you think..but pls stop trying to convince everyone that you are right because you are completely wrong! thats not how colorspaces and displays and web works!!