TROUBLESHOOTING WIDE-GAMUT MONITOR COLOR

I prepared this web color tutorial to test and troubleshoot internet color problems reviews on the new so-called wide-gamut LCD panel flat monitors in a color-managed web browser like Safari for the Mac OS X and Windows XP Vista operating systems.

Writers are dubbing the new LCD technology "Adobe RGB monitors" because they have a wider color gamut range closer to Adobe RGB (1998), 92% of NTSC, and boast of specs like covers-reproduces 96% of Adobe RGB color space, Delta-E differences, TFT, S-IPS, TN, 1080p HD, 16:10 aspect ratio, 10- 12-bit Look-Up Table, Photoshop 8 bit.

MY MAIN POINT is the internet is based on untagged sRGB colorspace and these new high-gamut monitors are turning my Apple Mac browser internet color into cartoonish oversaturated color.

May 17, 2008

An OS X Mac user wrote me today:

I have calibrated my Dell 2408WFP (a wide gamut panel) to 6500 deg, 2.2 gamma using Eye1 and turned on color management in Firefox 3.0RC1. The (above) tagged-untagged sRGB rollover on your tutorial webpage shows absolutely zero shift.

In addition to enabling color management in Firefox, you also should enter the name of the monitor profile - it's next to the enable/disable parameter in the parameters list that you get to by entering about:config in the address field.

An NEC LDC2690 WUXi user also just reported he did not enter a display profile. He just enabled color management in FireFox 3 and it appeared to have fixed the untagged sRGB problem.

Another user just confirmed FIREFOX 3 browser color management fixed the problem.

See TEST ONE and TEST FOUR for the short tests to evaluate, review and troubleshoot the problem.

I was especially interested in the EIZO ColorEdge CG241W ($2,500 USD) and how it displays untagged sRGB in Mac browsers — but EIZO support did not answer my question, how their wide-gamut monitors display untagged sRGB color on the internet using Mac OSX browsers, so I went with NEC.

On the other hand, X-Rite GretagMacbeth tech support e-mailed me their monitor calibrating-profiling instruments had no workaround for profiling wide-gamut monitors and viewing in Mac web browsers because of how the Mac operating system deals with untagged RGB.

THE CORE PROBLEM ON Mac:

Apple COLORSYNC has always assigned-assumed-applied its default monitor profile to untagged RGB color.

Apple could fix the problem simply by allowing users to set their ColorSync Default RGB to sRGB.

In the past, ColorSync had this option, but it never worked.

I am pursued this point because I bought a Dell Ultrasharp 2408WFP and was not able to get it to display untagged sRGB (the internet target profile) acceptable on Mac browsers.

The Dell Ultrasharp 2408WFP was greatly oversaturating the reds. Dell support told me they are aware of this issue on OS X and they returned their monitor with no further questions.

NOTE: DELL customer service and tech support was truly outstanding and forthright to resolve the problem, I would not hesitate to try DELL products again.

Given I need a quality monitor for Adobe Photoshop AND web surfing on a Mac, I bought a NEC LCD2490WUXi 24", a more standard gamut monitor that NEC says achieves 76% Adobe RGB coverage which is very similar to the Apple Cinema HD display panels.

I really like the color on my 30" Apple Cinema Display, but choose the NEC model for its dual DVI-I DVI-D connections and standard four-year warranty included in its retail price.

This beats Apple's one fixed DVI port and one-year warranty.

I am very pleased with this NEC LCD2490WUXi 24-inch professional monitor and highly recommend it for professional color proofing for prepress, desktop printing and web designing.

About two years ago CarL Lang wrote in a (now archived) Apple Mailing List (Eizo CG241W vs. NEC 2690 SpectraView):

A wide gamut LCD display is not a good thing for most (95%) of high end users. The data that leaves your graphic card and travels over the DVI cable is 8 bit per component.

You can't change this.

The OS, ICC CMMs, the graphic card, the DVI spec, and Photoshop will all have to be upgraded before this will change and that's going to take a while.

What does this mean to you?

It means that when you send RGB data to a wide gamut display the colorimetric distance between any two colors is much larger.

As an example, lets say you have two adjacent color patches one is 230,240,200 and the patch next to it is 230,241,200.

On a standard LCD or CRT those two colors may be around .8 Delta E apart. On an Adobe RGB display those colors might be 2 Delta E apart on an ECI RGB display this could be as high as 4 delta E.

It's very nice to be able to display all kinds of saturated colors you may never use in your photographs, however, if the smallest visible adjustment you can make to a skin tone is 4 delta E you will become very frustrated very quickly....

+++++

FIrst, before I start with my tests, this writing is part of my popular main WEB COLOR TUTORIAL.

To get the full benefit of these Photoshop-Safari web tutorials, you will need to use a modern COLOR-MANAGED web browser like SAFARI for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Mac OS X: DOWNLOAD Free Safari web browser.

In my research (booting my Mac Pro into Windows Vista Business and running Explorer and Safari browsers), I learned Windows does not have the sRGB over saturation problem because XP and Vista browsers Assume untagged browser color is sRGB — so Windows will show zero shift in the above sRGB rollover.

TEST ONE:

1) Simply move the mouse cursor over and off the picture.

a) This move pinpoints the problem by demonstrating the cartoonish color shift in the baby faces (in Mac browsers).

b) In essence, this move is stripping the embedded sRGB profile and applying the monitor profile (on a Mac).

c) In Mac browsers, this color change represents the difference between the sRGB color space and the monitor profile (the high gamut monitors show a huge red boost).

d) As over 95% of the internet is untagged and based on the sRGB profile, these new monitors on Mac browsers are displaying this bad color globally across the internet — look at the color next time you surf the web on OS X and the new wide-gamut LCDs.

e) If you see absolute zero change in the sRGB rollover, you are likely on a Windows Operating System because some Window's operating systems apply sRGB to untagged color files — or you have sRGB loaded as the monitor profile (not recommended).

THE FIX SOLUTION (what I've tried to date):

2) SRGB PRESET: Set Dell's monitor's hardware to sRGB Preset — this made my Photoshop/web color look bad like a tired old CRT, but it got rid of the problem.

3) CUSTOM RGB: Set monitor's hardware to Custom RGB Preset, and HARDWARE CALIBRATE the RGB levels evenly and build a custom profile. I used an eye-one display 2 Xrite puck and Eye-One Match 3 software bundle by gretamacbeth.

f) Photoshop and color-managed applications like Safari displayed color acceptable on files with embedded profiles, but stripping the profile brings back the saturation problem, which is my point.

TEST FOUR:

4) Adobe PHOTOSHOP can nail the problem with a simple test:

g) Convert a RGB file to sRGB (Edit> Convert to Profile).

h) View> Proof Setup> Monitor RGB

This shows the same problem demonstrated in the above pictures Tagged sRGB—Untagged sRGB rollover.

Toggle in/out of SoftProof mode Command+Y.

Another way to demonstrate the characteristics in Photoshop is to Convert a file to sRGB (Edit> Convert to Profile: sRGB), and then Edit> Assign Profile: Adobe RGB — note the extreme red shift.

In essence, this is exactly what the Apple ColorSync CMM is doing behind the scenes in OSX web browsers, it is Assigning its default monitor profile (Monitor RGB) to the un-tagged file.

+++++

ADOBE RGB (1998):

As seen in lower rollover, UNTAGGED ADOBE RGB DOESN'T SHIFT MUCH on the wide-gamut monitors using Safari color-managed web browser on OS X 10.4 Tiger, 10.5 Leopard.

This higher-gamut color space would be great if the internet was based on AdobeRGB or similar ICC profile, but it is not — the internet is based on 2.2 gamma Standard RGB (sRGB), and these monitors are displaying untagged internet color poorly in Mac browsers.

TEST FIVE ( Adobe RGB):

i) Mouse over on the picture to rollover the Untagged Adobe RGB color.

j) Untagged Adobe RGB will historically desaturate and washout on un-managed devices, but the wide-gamut monitors are displaying Untagged aRGB fairly normal — hence people are calling them Adobe RGB monitors.

BECAUSE the Mac color-managed web browser Safari displays Tagged and Untagged Adobe RGB so closely -- it is proof the wide-gamut LCD monitor 2.2/6500 profile is a lot closer to Adobe RGB than sRGB because the Mac OS X Colorsync is Assigning (Assuming) its default monitor profile to the untagged RGB rollover.

The Windows PC widegamut monitors, in Safari, will show a big jump on the Adobe RGB rollover because Windows is incorrectly assuming/assigning/applying sRGB to the untagged aRGB photo (as noted in TEST FOUR).

What Are the Top Best Monitors?

Dell 2407WFP 24" UltraSharp Wide Screen Flat Panel LCD

Dell Ultrasharp 2408WFP (24")

DELL UltraSharp 3008WFP (30" monitor) $1,900

EIZO ColorEdge CG241W (24-inch monitor) $2,500

Eizo CG301W 30" Widescreen ColorEdge Monitor, $5,000

NEC MultiSync LCD2490WUXi-BK (24-inch)

+++++

If anyone has figured this out — how to get these monitors to display untagged sRGB acceptable in web browsers, please EMAIL ME the solution, or if I am wasting my time trying to get this hardware to do something it can't....