Why Is The Color Management Not Consistent?

[Tony Bluntwidth]

I noticed the other day that Adobe Camera Raw and Windows Photos display my photos (exported in the sRGB color space) identically in terms of color, but that when I view the same photos on Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge, the photos appear noticeably different. I did some googling to discover why this is, and I read that Adobe applications and Windows Photos are fully color-managed, and thus, I can trust them for accurate color-space reproduction. However, I also read that browsers are not fully color managed, especially when dealing with wide-gamut monitors...

It may also be relevant to add that I do use a wide-gamut (DCI-P3) monitor, and I have never experienced this in the past with sRGB monitors. I have also attached screenshots which show the color discrepancies, although I'd like to mention that the screenshots of the image in ACR and Windows Photos appear a bit muted when compared to the original image viewed in the respective applications.

So, does anyone know why this is happening or if there's a possible fix? I don't mind just working with what I see in Adobe Camera Raw and Windows Photos, but it'd be nice if all my applications were on the same page.




Screenshot from Adobe Camera Raw. This appears slightly muted in the screenshot compared to viewing the original, however, it shows the consistency in color management between ACR and Windows Photos.




Screenshot from Windows Photos.




Screenshot from Google Chrome. Not only are the colors different, the image also appears slightly brighter.




Screenshot from Microsoft Edge. By far, the worst deviation from the norm (ACR and Windows Photos).

 

[BobKnDP]

What version of Windows are you using?

Do you have ACM (automatically manage color for apps) enabled? (That may be newish, in Windows 11.)

 

[Tony Bluntwidth]

What version of Windows are you using?

Do you have ACM (automatically manage color for apps) enabled? (That may be newish, in Windows 11.)

I'm currently using Windows 10, so I don't think I have access to ACM at the moment...

 

[mclewis]

However, I also read that browsers are not fully color managed, especially when dealing with wide-gamut monitors...

Firefox is fully colour managed.

gfx.color_management.mode in about:config should be changed to a value of 1 for the best results though.

 

[Tony Bluntwidth]

However, I also read that browsers are not fully color managed, especially when dealing with wide-gamut monitors...

Firefox is fully colour managed.

gfx.color_management.mode in about:config should be changed to a value of 1 for the best results though.

I just downloaded Mozilla Firefox and changed the config settings as you suggested. However, the results I got in Firefox were identical to Chrome... It seems that browsers don't handle wide-gamut monitors properly.

 

[BobKnDP]

I asked about ACM because it complicates color management (to put it politely).

Does this page show you anything?

Wide Gamut - Test Page

 

[mclewis]

I just downloaded Mozilla Firefox and changed the config settings as you suggested. However, the results I got in Firefox were identical to Chrome... It seems that browsers don't handle wide-gamut monitors properly.

Firefox handles wide gamut monitors just fine. I have used it for years and had correct colour management.

Do you have the correct monitor profile for your monitor specified in the colour management settings in the OS? Is the monitor itself set to an appropriate preset for that colour profile? Have you calibrated and profiled the monitor yourself?

 

[Tony Bluntwidth]

I just downloaded Mozilla Firefox and changed the config settings as you suggested. However, the results I got in Firefox were identical to Chrome... It seems that browsers don't handle wide-gamut monitors properly.

Firefox handles wide gamut monitors just fine. I have used it for years and had correct colour management.

Do you have the correct monitor profile for your monitor specified in the colour management settings in the OS? Is the monitor itself set to an appropriate preset for that colour profile? Have you calibrated and profiled the monitor yourself?

Firefox handles color management as identically as Chrome, and there are many reported issues with both related to color management online.

I have the correct ICC profile for my monitor selected in the Color Management window. The monitor is also hardware-calibrated and I further improved the calibration by adjusting a few OSD color settings.

Both ACR and Windows Photos display colors identically, and those 2 applications are the reference standard. I think there is something wrong with browsers when it comes to color management...

 

[Tony Bluntwidth]

I asked about ACM because it complicates color management (to put it politely).

Does this page show you anything?

Wide Gamut - Test Page

I visited that page and was able to confirm that my monitor is wide-gamut (I can see a W in the red square). Also, the sRGB tagged and untagged colors are identical. Even untagged CSS elements are identical to sRGB images.

I'm not sure what to make of this though. I still don't understand why ACR and Windows Photos are displaying colors identically, and yet, Chrome and Firefox are displaying different colors, and Edge is a huge outlier...

 

[BobKnDP]

I asked about ACM because it complicates color management (to put it politely).

Does this page show you anything?

Wide Gamut - Test Page

I visited that page and was able to confirm that my monitor is wide-gamut (I can see a W in the red square). Also, the sRGB tagged and untagged colors are identical. Even untagged CSS elements are identical to sRGB images.

I'm not sure what to make of this though. I still don't understand why ACR and Windows Photos are displaying colors identically, and yet, Chrome and Firefox are displaying different colors, and Edge is a huge outlier...

It seems odd that Edge and Chrome show things differently. I believe they are built on the same base.

 

[Tony Bluntwidth]

I asked about ACM because it complicates color management (to put it politely).

Does this page show you anything?

Wide Gamut - Test Page

I visited that page and was able to confirm that my monitor is wide-gamut (I can see a W in the red square). Also, the sRGB tagged and untagged colors are identical. Even untagged CSS elements are identical to sRGB images.

I'm not sure what to make of this though. I still don't understand why ACR and Windows Photos are displaying colors identically, and yet, Chrome and Firefox are displaying different colors, and Edge is a huge outlier...

It seems odd that Edge and Chrome show things differently. I believe they are built on the same base.

I did some extra googling and it seems that browsers are a hit-or-miss with color management, in general. ACR and Photos perform color management and color correction using your monitor's ICC profile, while browsers only seem to perform just color management and ignore the color correction portion of it.

What this means is that I'd likely have to stick with what I see in ACR and Photos, which isn't an issue for me because those are the color-management standards anyway.

 

[Kaj E]

I asked about ACM because it complicates color management (to put it politely).

Does this page show you anything?

Wide Gamut - Test Page

I visited that page and was able to confirm that my monitor is wide-gamut (I can see a W in the red square). Also, the sRGB tagged and untagged colors are identical. Even untagged CSS elements are identical to sRGB images.

I'm not sure what to make of this though. I still don't understand why ACR and Windows Photos are displaying colors identically, and yet, Chrome and Firefox are displaying different colors, and Edge is a huge outlier...

It seems odd that Edge and Chrome show things differently. I believe they are built on the same base.

I did some extra googling and it seems that browsers are a hit-or-miss with color management, in general. ACR and Photos perform color management and color correction using your monitor's ICC profile, while browsers only seem to perform just color management and ignore the color correction portion of it.

Is your color corrected profile the monitor profile as it should?

What this means is that I'd likely have to stick with what I see in ACR and Photos, which isn't an issue for me because those are the color-management standards anyway.

 

[Kaj E]

The images you have enclosed in your post do not have an embedded color profile. They are therefore read as sRGB files by browsers. That is the reason for you discrepancies.

When you view the original images on your computer they have the embedded profile visible to ACR and Photos. When you export the photos you for some reason delete all EXIF including color profiles. The web browser, which all are color managed, read them as they would be in sRGB.

Always have the correct profile embedded when posting on the web. You can use any common profile as the browsers are color managed. For the color management to work the profile of your monitor should be the calibrated profile.

PS You may also be better off, as far as color management and file size goes, posting the images as JPEGs instead of png. The images you posted are 8-bit anyhow.

--
Kind regards
Kaj
http://www.pbase.com/kaj_e
WSSA member #13
It's about time we started to take photography seriously and treat it as a hobby.- Elliott Erwitt

 

[Tony Bluntwidth]

I asked about ACM because it complicates color management (to put it politely).

Does this page show you anything?

Wide Gamut - Test Page

I visited that page and was able to confirm that my monitor is wide-gamut (I can see a W in the red square). Also, the sRGB tagged and untagged colors are identical. Even untagged CSS elements are identical to sRGB images.

I'm not sure what to make of this though. I still don't understand why ACR and Windows Photos are displaying colors identically, and yet, Chrome and Firefox are displaying different colors, and Edge is a huge outlier...

It seems odd that Edge and Chrome show things differently. I believe they are built on the same base.

I did some extra googling and it seems that browsers are a hit-or-miss with color management, in general. ACR and Photos perform color management and color correction using your monitor's ICC profile, while browsers only seem to perform just color management and ignore the color correction portion of it.

Is your color corrected profile the monitor profile as it should?

What this means is that I'd likely have to stick with what I see in ACR and Photos, which isn't an issue for me because those are the color-management standards anyway.

Yes, it is the monitor profile, and ACR and Photos recognize this appropriately. Browsers don't, though.

 

[Kaj E]

I asked about ACM because it complicates color management (to put it politely).

Does this page show you anything?

Wide Gamut - Test Page

I visited that page and was able to confirm that my monitor is wide-gamut (I can see a W in the red square). Also, the sRGB tagged and untagged colors are identical. Even untagged CSS elements are identical to sRGB images.

I'm not sure what to make of this though. I still don't understand why ACR and Windows Photos are displaying colors identically, and yet, Chrome and Firefox are displaying different colors, and Edge is a huge outlier...

It seems odd that Edge and Chrome show things differently. I believe they are built on the same base.

I did some extra googling and it seems that browsers are a hit-or-miss with color management, in general. ACR and Photos perform color management and color correction using your monitor's ICC profile, while browsers only seem to perform just color management and ignore the color correction portion of it.

Is your color corrected profile the monitor profile as it should?

What this means is that I'd likely have to stick with what I see in ACR and Photos, which isn't an issue for me because those are the color-management standards anyway.

Yes, it is the monitor profile, and ACR and Photos recognize this appropriately. Browsers don't, though.

Why not. Mine do.

What do you use to calibrate?

As you post in the PC forum, Isuppose you are on windows. Left click on the dispaly and go to display settings, do you see the calibrated profile?

--
Kind regards
Kaj
http://www.pbase.com/kaj_e
WSSA member #13
It's about time we started to take photography seriously and treat it as a hobby.- Elliott Erwitt

 

[Tony Bluntwidth]

The images you have enclosed in your post do not have an embedded color profile. They are therefore read as sRGB files by browsers. That is the reason for you discrepancies.

Nope, the discrepancies are visible on my monitor (even more so, since the attached screenshots are slightly muted). On that note, all my attached images are PNG screenshots, so there is no embedded profile. All images (photographs) I export have the sRGB profile embedded, and while ACR and Photos use the ICC profile properly to correct colors, browsers do not perform this step.

When you view the original images on your computer they have the embedded profile visible to ACR and Photos. When you export the photos you for some reason delete all EXIF including color profiles. The web browser, which all are color managed, read them as they would be in sRGB.

The web browsers are not properly color managed. I have run into numerous, similar issues while googling what I've experienced. Firefox is supposed to be the best at this, but many have also reported that it fails to color correct properly.

Always have the correct profile embedded when posting on the web. You can use any common profile as the browsers are color managed. For the color management to work the profile of your monitor should be the calibrated profile.

The profile of my monitor IS the calibrated profile. It wouldn't make sense to embed my ICC profile in my exported images, as it would yield unintended results on other monitors. The browsers are clearly not doing color correction in addition to color management, and this has been reported by quite a few wide-gamut monitor users online.

PS You may also be better off, as far as color management and file size goes, posting the images as JPEGs instead of png. The images you posted are 8-bit anyhow.

Posting images as JPGs would defeat the purpose of this post, which is to demonstrate the discrepancy between applications. I do not normally export any images as PNG, and screenshots on my PC default to PNG, hence the file format.

I'm beginning to doubt that there's a proper solution to this, as it doesn't make any sense how ACR and Photos (two distinct applications) would get color management (and correction) perfectly, but all browsers (despite config setting changes) fail to do so properly.

 

[Tony Bluntwidth]

I asked about ACM because it complicates color management (to put it politely).

Does this page show you anything?

Wide Gamut - Test Page

I visited that page and was able to confirm that my monitor is wide-gamut (I can see a W in the red square). Also, the sRGB tagged and untagged colors are identical. Even untagged CSS elements are identical to sRGB images.

I'm not sure what to make of this though. I still don't understand why ACR and Windows Photos are displaying colors identically, and yet, Chrome and Firefox are displaying different colors, and Edge is a huge outlier...

It seems odd that Edge and Chrome show things differently. I believe they are built on the same base.

I did some extra googling and it seems that browsers are a hit-or-miss with color management, in general. ACR and Photos perform color management and color correction using your monitor's ICC profile, while browsers only seem to perform just color management and ignore the color correction portion of it.

Is your color corrected profile the monitor profile as it should?

What this means is that I'd likely have to stick with what I see in ACR and Photos, which isn't an issue for me because those are the color-management standards anyway.

Yes, it is the monitor profile, and ACR and Photos recognize this appropriately. Browsers don't, though.

Why not. Mine do.

What do you use to calibrate?

As you post in the PC forum, Isuppose you are on windows. Left click on the dispaly and go to display settings, do you see the calibrated profile?

I see the calibrated profile selected in Display settings under Color profile. My monitor is hardware-calibrated, so I use the ICC profile in the monitor's drivers. It works perfectly for ACR and Photos.

 

[Kaj E]

The images you have enclosed in your post do not have an embedded color profile. They are therefore read as sRGB files by browsers. That is the reason for you discrepancies.

Nope, the discrepancies are visible on my monitor (even more so, since the attached screenshots are slightly muted). On that note, all my attached images are PNG screenshots, so there is no embedded profile. All images (photographs) I export have the sRGB profile embedded, and while ACR and Photos use the ICC profile properly to correct colors, browsers do not perform this step.

The pngs you posted here do not have an embedded profile.

When you view the original images on your computer they have the embedded profile visible to ACR and Photos. When you export the photos you for some reason delete all EXIF including color profiles. The web browser, which all are color managed, read them as they would be in sRGB.

The web browsers are not properly color managed. I have run into numerous, similar issues while googling what I've experienced. Firefox is supposed to be the best at this, but many have also reported that it fails to color correct properly.

All widely used browser are nowadays color managed.

Always have the correct profile embedded when posting on the web. You can use any common profile as the browsers are color managed. For the color management to work the profile of your monitor should be the calibrated profile.

The profile of my monitor IS the calibrated profile. It wouldn't make sense to embed my ICC profile in my exported images, as it would yield unintended results on other monitors. The browsers are clearly not doing color correction in addition to color management, and this has been reported by quite a few wide-gamut monitor users online.

I also have wide gamut monitors and do not have any problems like yours. I mostly use Chrome. Secondly Firefox and third Edge.

PS You may also be better off, as far as color management and file size goes, posting the images as JPEGs instead of png. The images you posted are 8-bit anyhow.

Posting images as JPGs would defeat the purpose of this post, which is to demonstrate the discrepancy between applications. I do not normally export any images as PNG, and screenshots on my PC default to PNG, hence the file format.

I'm beginning to doubt that there's a proper solution to this, as it doesn't make any sense how ACR and Photos (two distinct applications) would get color management (and correction) perfectly, but all browsers (despite config setting changes) fail to do so properly.

--
Kind regards
Kaj
http://www.pbase.com/kaj_e
WSSA member #13
It's about time we started to take photography seriously and treat it as a hobby.- Elliott Erwitt

 

[Kaj E]

I asked about ACM because it complicates color management (to put it politely).

Does this page show you anything?

Wide Gamut - Test Page

I visited that page and was able to confirm that my monitor is wide-gamut (I can see a W in the red square). Also, the sRGB tagged and untagged colors are identical. Even untagged CSS elements are identical to sRGB images.

I'm not sure what to make of this though. I still don't understand why ACR and Windows Photos are displaying colors identically, and yet, Chrome and Firefox are displaying different colors, and Edge is a huge outlier...

It seems odd that Edge and Chrome show things differently. I believe they are built on the same base.

I did some extra googling and it seems that browsers are a hit-or-miss with color management, in general. ACR and Photos perform color management and color correction using your monitor's ICC profile, while browsers only seem to perform just color management and ignore the color correction portion of it.

Is your color corrected profile the monitor profile as it should?

What this means is that I'd likely have to stick with what I see in ACR and Photos, which isn't an issue for me because those are the color-management standards anyway.

Yes, it is the monitor profile, and ACR and Photos recognize this appropriately. Browsers don't, though.

Why not. Mine do.

What do you use to calibrate?

As you post in the PC forum, Isuppose you are on windows. Left click on the dispaly and go to display settings, do you see the calibrated profile?

I see the calibrated profile selected in Display settings under Color profile. My monitor is hardware-calibrated, so I use the ICC profile in the monitor's drivers. It works perfectly for ACR and Photos.

Why do you not try to post images with an embedded profile.

 

[Tony Bluntwidth]

The images you have enclosed in your post do not have an embedded color profile. They are therefore read as sRGB files by browsers. That is the reason for you discrepancies.

Nope, the discrepancies are visible on my monitor (even more so, since the attached screenshots are slightly muted). On that note, all my attached images are PNG screenshots, so there is no embedded profile. All images (photographs) I export have the sRGB profile embedded, and while ACR and Photos use the ICC profile properly to correct colors, browsers do not perform this step.

The pngs you posted here do not have an embedded profile.

Because, they are screenshots.

When you view the original images on your computer they have the embedded profile visible to ACR and Photos. When you export the photos you for some reason delete all EXIF including color profiles. The web browser, which all are color managed, read them as they would be in sRGB.

The web browsers are not properly color managed. I have run into numerous, similar issues while googling what I've experienced. Firefox is supposed to be the best at this, but many have also reported that it fails to color correct properly.

All widely used browser are nowadays color managed.

Color management and color correction are two separate things. Browsers often get the second part wrong, or ignore it entirely...

Always have the correct profile embedded when posting on the web. You can use any common profile as the browsers are color managed. For the color management to work the profile of your monitor should be the calibrated profile.

The profile of my monitor IS the calibrated profile. It wouldn't make sense to embed my ICC profile in my exported images, as it would yield unintended results on other monitors. The browsers are clearly not doing color correction in addition to color management, and this has been reported by quite a few wide-gamut monitor users online.

I also have wide gamut monitors and do not have any problems like yours. I mostly use Chrome.

Nice that it works on your end! For me, I think I'll stick with ACR and Photos. Browsers handle color management in a different way than editing and photo viewing software. Sometimes they get it right, sometimes they don't.

PS You may also be better off, as far as color management and file size goes, posting the images as JPEGs instead of png. The images you posted are 8-bit anyhow.

Posting images as JPGs would defeat the purpose of this post, which is to demonstrate the discrepancy between applications. I do not normally export any images as PNG, and screenshots on my PC default to PNG, hence the file format.

I'm beginning to doubt that there's a proper solution to this, as it doesn't make any sense how ACR and Photos (two distinct applications) would get color management (and correction) perfectly, but all browsers (despite config setting changes) fail to do so properly.