Column
Web browsers and
colour management
How to set up Adobe’s colour management
settings to ensure you have the most
accurate and predictable output online.
As of 2019, all the Internet browsers on
the Mac support Version 2 ICC profiles.
On Windows, it’s still a mixed bag. Firefox
handles images with an embedded profile,
but all untagged images are rendered to
the full gamut of the display. If you have a
high gamut display, this will lead to over-
saturated colours. You can fix this, but it
requires you to go into some advanced
options that are beyond the scope of this
article. The fix can be found by simply typing
“How to configure Firefox color manage-
ment” into Google.
All Mac tablets and iPhones render colour
in the sRGB colour space. If you want
to ensure that images are previewed
properly on a Mac tablet or iPhone, simply
convert the images to sRGB. It’s also
recommended to tag or embed the image
with an sRGB colour profile. Years ago we
were told not to include the ICC profile
because it would add to the size of the
file. But it only adds 4K, 4K! Back when
we had dial-up service and you could hear
your modem squealing, this was an issue.
But we’re no longer downloading at the
9600 baud rate.
The current recommendation is to embed
the ICC profile when saving images for
the web. The safest option for all cases is
to optimize your images to look their best
in sRGB. If you want to test if your browser
has colour management turned on, Google
“Web browser color management test.”
I personally like the one from Chroma-
Checker. It should be on the first page.
That last piece of the puzzle is to ensure that you’re calibrating your monitor. X-Rite
has a few options from the ColorMunki up to the i1 Display. The big difference between
the two comes down to custom settings. ColorMunki has presets that work great, and
i1 Display allows you to customize things like white point and black point.
28 | November 2019 | GRAPHIC ARTS MAGAZINE
Having colour management turned on
simply means that if an image is viewed,
with an ICC profile that isn’t sRGB, then
your browser will accurately render that
file. Keep in mind that images that are
not tagged with sRGB will be, by default,
previewed using the sRGB profile.
In Photoshop we have a few options to
preview images. Under View/Proof Setup,
we can select Internet Standard RGB. This
can be helpful when your image is in
Adobe RGB and you want to see how it
will look in sRGB. The best way to export
your images is under the new Export As
option under the File menu. The new Export
dialogue box has the option to “Convert to
sRGB” and “Embed Color Profile”.
Angus Pady is a colour management
expert working with FujiFilm in Toronto.
He can be reached at
[email protected]
graphicartsmag.com