CS4 – Save for Web settings

DC
Posted By
d_cole
Oct 31, 2008
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577
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10
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I’d be grateful for confirmation that I am using the correct Save for Web settings to achieve the colour effect I want.

I am using an sRGB workflow as my output is for the web. I am using a NEC 2690 LCD display which is wide colour gamut but I am using in its factory set sRGB (and non-calibratable) mode. I have calibrated the NEC using my Eye One display and this shows as the default monitor profile in the vga card’s driver but what effect it is actually having I am not sure (OS is Vista 32bit). My CS4 colour management settings are based round the sRGB Working Space. Normally I convert to sRGB all images before saving them in Save for Web.

I am trying to ensure that the colours I see in images at the Save for Web stage preview are what I will see on the web and in other non colour managed environments. Specifically, I’d be grateful to know if the following settings seem right for what I am trying to achieve:

Preset: JPEG High
Quality: High
Optimize selected (but not Progressive or Embed Colour Profile) Convert to sRGB selected
Preview: Use Document Profile

In the past (pre-CS4) I’ve had problems with images outside of CS3 looking over colour saturated and I want to avoid this now.

Thanks for any help with this.

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RP
Russell_Proulx
Oct 31, 2008
I am trying to ensure that the colours I see in images at the Save for Web stage preview are what I will see on the web and in other non colour managed environments. Specifically, I’d be grateful to know if the following settings seem right for what I am trying to achieve:

Preset: JPEG High Quality: High

That’s good, though you you should still try to get the image filesize as small as possible without losing important image details. Many images can support a lower quality JPG setting so you should see how low you can go before you visually see a problem. No sense delivering a higher quality JPG if it’s not needed. Higher quality = larger file sizes = longer download time for the webpage.

Optimize selected (but not Progressive or Embed Colour Profile)

I prefer ‘Progressive’ as that loads an image in 3 stages (low->med->fullRez) and looks better on webpages instead of having images load top-to-bottom like a window shade.

Convert to sRGB selected

Doesn’t hurt to leave it on. Though you said you already converted them before saving for web.

Preview: Use Document Profile

I think that "Windows (No Color Management)" will display a better preview of what to expect when the image is displayed on a Windows computer (95% of your visitors) using a web browser that’s not color managed (ie: 99% of the windows web browsers – are there any?).

In the past (pre-CS4) I’ve had problems with images outside of CS3 looking over colour saturated and I want to avoid this now.

The previous step should help with this in that you’ll at least see what visitors using a decently calibrated monitor will see. But since there really is no standard that most of the world adheres to, you can only do your best to get things right at your end. You cannot control how the rest of the world adjusts or miss-adjusts their equipment.

Russell
DC
d_cole
Oct 31, 2008
Thank you very much for your reply. I am happy to try "Windows (No Colour Management". My aim is, I suppose, to get to the position where the image I see pre-Save-for-Web is the same as the one I see in the Save-for-web preview window. In other words, I need to see an sRGB image in CS4 pre-S-f-W that looks the same after S-f-W. The complicating factor is that I will usually push the image from CS4 to (Corel) Painter for further work which up till now has shown images from Photoshop looking over-saturated.

Incidentally, does an sRGB image look the same in Photoshop (a coloured managed environment) as it does in an internet browser (not colour managed so far).

I thought I had this cracked but I’m not sure now.

Thanks for your advice. I’ll give these things a go.
F
Freeagent
Oct 31, 2008
does an sRGB image look the same in Photoshop (a coloured managed environment) as it does in an internet browser (not colour managed so far).

The way I understand it, the sRGB spec was made to mimic the response of a "generic" (or average) CRT monitor. In other words, it’s a color profile made to mimic <no color profile>. So in most cases it’s a close match, but the two are not identical. It’s a question of how close the monitor’s native response is to sRGB.

Someone correct me if I got this wrong.
DC
d_cole
Nov 1, 2008
I am grateful for your responses. I have read some of the standard advice on the web (like Computer-Darkroom and Luminous-Landscape) but I haven’t found an answer to the Save for web settings and the saturation issues.
F
Freeagent
Nov 1, 2008
I keep thinking the saturation issues must have something to do with your wide-gamut monitor. There’s been a lot of discussion about this over on the Mac forum, so you could dig a little there. Here’s one:

<http://www.adobeforums.com/webx?224@@2d1e7f83@.59b66d1f>
DC
d_cole
Nov 1, 2008
Yes, I think the wide gamut display must complicate things – at least conceptually. I have clung on to the idea that my display’s factory set sRGB mode should make it display images with a colour space like my old crt’s. But it doesn’t seem to work like that.

Thanks for the link, I’ll look through it.
DC
d_cole
Nov 1, 2008
I hardly dare suggest this but the problem seems to have gone. I did three things –

– selected "preserve embedded profiles" in the three related colour settings – did not convert files to sRGB that were already sRGB (ie double convert) – I used Windows (no colour management) not Document Profile in Save for Web.

No colour shifts, no increase in colour saturation.

I do not understand how this solved the problems and can’t really beileve that it has but I’ll work with this and see how it goes.
MP
manual_peters
Jan 3, 2009
the solution of d cole works for me.

I had lots of irritation when I got a new NEC 2690
and CS 4 with new save for web dialog at the same time.

all the too red skintones and also slightly increased contrasts.

what I did is converting all the sRGB images to Adobe RGB(1998), then used the same save for web settings as d cole suggested.

result: works on my NEC wide gamut and also on older NEC 2090.

and… I use a flash website. It works!

tested with firefox, opera and safari.

thanks!
RP
Russell_Proulx
Jan 3, 2009
what I did is converting all the sRGB images to Adobe RGB(1998), then used the same save for web settings as d cole suggested.

That’s incorrect. Your best bet for predicting colour on other folk’s non-calibrated ‘all over the map’ mis-calibrated computer web browsers is to make sure the image is in sRGB and then, in ‘Save for web’, make sure the preview is set to "Windows (no color adjustment)". You’ll then at least have some slim chance of previewing what others might see of they had their computers setup properly.

Using "Windows (no colour management) not Document Profile in Save for Web." is the solution. The other 2 recommendations (selected "preserve embedded profiles" in the three related colour settings, did not convert files to sRGB that were already sRGB) should not make any real difference except that any image not already in sRGB, and which was not converted by ‘save for web’, would look like do-do.

Not converting images for the Web to sRGB is an error that many Mac users make as they use colour managed browsers. That prevent them from seeing how bad their images look for 98% of their website visitors…
CM
camille_mcmorrow
Jan 5, 2009
Hi Russell,

I’m having the same problems with save-for-web oversaturation on a calibrated Dell 2480WFP.

When you say in your instructions "Using Windows (no colour management) not Document Profile in Save for Web is the solution," I’m afraid I don’t see that setting in Save for Web. Is it somewhere else? I’ve looked around and can’t find it.

Thanks!

Camille

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