Embedded RGB Profile in Graphics

A
Posted By
Alex
Jul 19, 2005
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349
Replies
4
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Closed
Hi everyone,

Our graphic designer sent me some graphics for our website, but when I edit the graphics and resave as GIF the colors are abit off compared to the graphics our graphic designer created on her computer.

The graphics are from Photoshop CS, and when I open it I get the message:

The document has an embedded color profile that does not match the current RGB working space. The embedded profile will be used instead of the working space.
Embedded: Cinema Display
Working: sRGB IEC61966-2.1

I figure this is why the graphics I save are just abit off when put next to the graphics created by our graphic designer. For example we have a menu created in PS and chopped into smaller graphics to do hover-overs. Here’s one graphic created by our web designer: http://www.hillcrest.net/images/Hillcrest-rollovers_03.gif and one I edited and resaved:
http://www.hillcrest.net/images/Hillcrest-rollovers_03b.gif They’re each off just a shade, but when put next to one another it’s VERY noticeable.

Suggestions? How can I edit the graphic so what I create matches verbatum what the graphic designer creates? The designer charges quite abit for simple stuff like changing menus, which is why we requested the Photoshop files.

Thanks for any suggestions or ideas —

Alex

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BH
Bill Hilton
Jul 19, 2005
Alex writes …

Our graphic designer sent me some graphics for our website, but when I edit the graphics and resave as GIF the colors are abit off compared to the graphics our graphic designer created on her computer.
Suggestions? How can I edit the graphic so what I create matches verbatum what the graphic designer creates?

I think there are two problems, one is that the designer is using "Cinema Display" for a working space and you are set up for sRGB. So when you convert to a different working space you’ll get some color changes.

The second problem (or potential problem) is that gif files are limited to 8 bit color or 256 total colors and once you’ve changed working spaces you could easily map to a different set of 256 (or at least some of them will be different).

There is a 216 color sub-set known as "web safe colors" which should display colors correctly on both Mac and PC systems using 8 bit color, but of course most of us have our monitors set to display more colors than this. But this is probably your best bet for consistent gif colors. You can go to Photoshop Help and type in ‘web safe palette’ and read up on the nuances of this.

Ideally you could get the designer to give you gif files that are already converted to this 216 color palette and you should be OK. If you are not getting gif files from them I would suggest either asking them to use sRGB working space or, perhaps the better idea (depends on various factors), you should just select to use the embedded "Cinema Display" working spaces for images from this designer when you get the Profile Mismatch dialog box and then convert to the web safe palette later when you make gifs. (This assumes you actually have the ‘Cinema Display’ ICC profile on your system … if you don’t you can probably get it from the designer easily enough).

So there are two problems (working space conversion causing color shifts and probable different gif mapping of colors) and the two solutions are to use the same working space and to limit the gifs to a fixed palette like the ‘web safe’ one described above.

Thanks for any suggestions or ideas

Good luck.

Bill
T
Tacit
Jul 19, 2005
In article ,
"Alex" wrote:

Suggestions? How can I edit the graphic so what I create matches verbatum what the graphic designer creates?

Step 1: You can’t.
Step 2: Forget it.

The thing that designers–especially print designers not accustomed to dealing with the realities of the Web–do not realize is that browsers (by default) do not pay any attention to color management or color profiles whatsoever. Every Web graphic is going to look different on every different monitor. You simply can not get a graphic to look the same way on Sally’s computer and on Billy’s computer and on Joe’s computer, unless you go into Sally’s house, Billy’s house, and Joe’s house and calibrate their systems.

Web graphics can not be expected to display consistently on every user’s computer. Sorry.


Art, photography, shareware, polyamory, literature, kink: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html
SR
Sir Real
Jul 19, 2005
On 19 Jul 2005 09:42:22 -0700, in article
, Alex drawled…
Hi everyone,

Our graphic designer sent me some graphics for our website, but when I edit the graphics and resave as GIF the colors are abit off compared to the graphics our graphic designer created on her computer.

My first knee-jerk reaction is to question why you need to use the GIF format. I would say to go ahead and edit/resize the images, then use the "Save for Web" option and save to a JPG format.


Sir Real http://www.sirrealcomix.ws/

"Timeo Hominem Unius Libri" (Thomas Aquinas)
BH
Bill Hilton
Jul 19, 2005
tacit writes …

Step 1: You can’t.
Step 2: Forget it.
Web graphics can not be expected to display consistently on every user’s computer. Sorry.

While I agree with what you say, I think the original poster is asking something different … I *think* he’s asking how to make sure a graphic created by designer A on his computer has the same GIF colors as a graphic created by designer B on a different computer when the two graphics are placed on one web page.

Or, to be a cynic about it, "we’re over-paying this frippy designer so we want to take his PSD files and edit them a bit to save money when we make a small change, but when we do the colors don’t match the rest of the web page he designed earlier" 🙂 The original designer probably anticipated this and didn’t make color matching easy on them on purpose, given his choice of working spaces.

Anyway, that’s what I thought was being asked and what I was answering in my response.

Bill

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