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WEB BROWSER Color Management Test

by Gary G. Ballard, a professional multi-media photojournalist, San Diego, CA, USA.

HERE IS A DEFINITIVE TEST SET to determine if your Web browser is using color management:

FIREFOX MOZILLA COLORMANAGEMENT ICC PROFILE TEST

Top image has an embedded ICC Profile -- WhackedRGB -- it will appear blue in non-colormanaged apps -- it will look like the lower sRGB image in color-managed apps.

The lower image is untagged sRGB.

Compare the two images for appearance:

SOURCE> MONITOR RGB
or Source> sRGB
or No Color Management

If the Tagged Whacked RGB image is a visual correct dead-on exact "MATCH" with the Untagged sRGB IEC61966-2.1 your Web browser is color managed -- either Source>sRGB or Source>MonitorRGB.

If the top "Tagged Whacked RGB" has a heavy BLUE color cast -- your app is not color managed -- the RGB numbers are being sent straight to the display with no conversions.

Ideally you want both the above two images to "match" with correct skin tones -- that's what color management does.

THIS IS HOW UnTagged WhackedRGB appears in non-color-managed workflows. WhackedRGB is useful for testing because the error is super obvious when it is not being converted to MonitorRGB:

FIREFOX MOZILLA COLORMANAGEMENT ICC PROFILE TEST

This stuff lower is over 12 years old:

WINDOWSWINDOWS "HALF" COLOR MANAGEMENT DISCLAIMER (Source> sRGB): Take notice some Windows color-managed applications Convert tagged elements to sRGB (not the monitor profile).

SOURCE> sRGB

My tests (late 2012) included so-called "color-managed" Windows versions of Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer IE, which all displayed the PDI tagged reference images with oversaturated reds on a wide gamut monitor. Firefox with its Value1 enabled was the only Windows browser that displayed with "Full Color Management" (Source> Monitor).

So, while color-managed Windows browsers will likely "match" the above rollovers, they may only be Converting to the sRGB profile (Source> sRGB). And they may not be displaying "accurately" like Photoshop and Firefox's "Full Color Management" do (Source> Monitor RGB).

Software updates and user settings may change how my reference images display so be sure to perform your own tests to prove or disprove my theories on your devices.

Windows Firefox with it's Value 1 Full Color Management setting enabled is the one exception — Firefox on both OSX and Windows Converts to the monitor profile (Source> Monitor Profile) for color "accuracy" the same as Photoshop.

If you are using Windows — and want Photoshop quality color accuracy in your Web browser — Firefox (Value 1) is your only option because it's the only Windows color-managed Web browser that transforms (Converts) the all source colors to the monitor profile like Adobe Photoshop.

"It is the theory that decides what we can observe."

- Albert Einstein

MORE BASIC COLOR MANAGEMENT ARTICLES:

BASIC THEORY of Color Management

ASSIGN VERSUS CONVERT TO PROFILE Tutorial

SEE THE TOP ICC PROFILES IN ACTION Tutorial

PDI Graphic
DOWNLOAD the high-resolution PDI Photodisc RGB reference files.
This link contains free professional color reference images and tips about how to use them, plus the WhackedRGB.icc and ProPhoto.icm profiles, including the print-resolution PDI reference images in tagged ProPhoto RGB, Whacked RGB, Adobe RGB (1998), Apple RGB, and sRGB.

This page was created on January 14, 2011.

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