Colors look dull in export

[samanthaj1995]

I am working on exporting an ad set for a client. I have all the color profiles set to RGB. When I go to view>proof setup the colors look how they should but when I go to export they export in dull colors. I made sure to check the Convert to sRGB box in export as well. Nothing changes. 

[Mylenium]

Simply sounds like you're not actually using any effective color management and PS therefore operates on wrong assumptions, in particular about a potentially customized monitor profile/ color setting. Start by checking your system's color panel for these things.

Mylenium

[D Fosse]

We need to know exactly where and in what application it looks desaturated. People always think it's something changing in the file, but that's not it. The question is only whether it's displayed correctly, and only applications that support color management will do that.

A lot of image viewers don't have color management support, and they will never be entirely accurate. All you can do for them is to convert the image to sRGB. That should display roughly correctly on most standard monitors/screens (but not all!)

But even when you do have color management, the profile needs to be embedded in the file. So in Export, always check "embed profile"! For some reason, it's unchecked by default. This also displays the file in Export with full color management, and so it will match Photoshop. If "embed profile" is unchecked, Export and Photoshop will not match.

There is one more link in this chain: the monitor profile. If you're not using a calibrator, monitor/laptop manufacturers distribute their own profiles through Windows Update. These profiles are surprisingly often defective. If this happens, Photoshop can't display correctly. But applications without color management are entirely unaffected - they don't use the profile in any case.

To check for this, replace the current profile with a known good generic profile like sRGB IEC61966-2.1. If this looks distinctly better, the monitor profile is bad and you should use a calibrator to make a new one.

[samanthaj1995]

I am working in Photoshop. I just changed my systems color profiles to sRGB IEC61966-2.1 on my Macbook Pro 2020. This looked a lot better when viewing the files in PS but still when I export the colors look washed out. I also made sure to also check the Embed Profile box as well. Not sure what else I can do from my end. Thank you for your help!

[D Fosse]

Please post a side-by-side screenshot - Photoshop vs the "washed out" version.

[samanthaj1995]

 

[D Fosse]

OK. The difference between these two is absolutely identical to the difference between sRGB and AdobeRGB.

Both screenshots are untagged (don't have a profile), so I first assigned sRGB to both. If I then assign Adobe RGB to the "bleached" version, and then convert it back to sRGB, they are identical. See for yourself:

So somewhere in your workflow, you don't have your color profile ducks lined up.

Always keep track of your profiles. If you need a different profile, convert, don't assign. I assigned here for diagnostic purposes, but normally you never use it. And always make sure the profile is embedded. Always.

The best way to keep track of profiles, is to set the notification area bottom left: