wide gamut monitor: proofing for web

[barry_ward1]

I am interested in the NEC 2690 (wide gamut display), but a significant amount

of my content is displayed to the web. From lightroom and CS-3, How do I proof

how sRGB will appear on the web when the monitor displays a significantly

wider gamut?

 

I don't care if I can view websites (not color managed) accurately. I only

care that I can predict how images I tag as sRGB will display on the web and

how they will look on monitors displaying a colorspace more similar to sRGB.

[ericf1]

Barry,

 

By choosing a narrower color space, such as sRGB, the limiting factor will be the color space itself not your monitor. Unless I am mistaken, most monitors will display the gamut of colors contained in sRGB.

 

Since your monitor is calibrated, the image will still look different on your monitor in a non-color managed application such as Explorer, than it will on another uncalibrated monitor. If there is a way to guaranty that your image is displayed accurately across the web on a variety of monitors, platforms and browsers, I have yet to hear of it.

 

When I am saving an image for web in CS3, I use the Save for Web function, and I can click on the Explorer icon at the bottom and it will display the image in an explorer window. A fairly easy way to view the image in a non-color managed environment.

[digitaldog]

You CAN proof how the images will appear on the web on YOUR display in Photoshop, its

a color managed application. You can't preview how those images will appear on other's

machines because, you don't know if they are using calibrated and profiled displays or

color managed browsers (today, Safari and FireFox beta). So the gamut of your display

isn't an issue here.

 

When you view a Lightroom web gallery IN LR, its color managed. IF you don't post that as

a Flash gallery (Flash isn't color managed) but view the subsequent web gallery on the

2690 in Safari, it will match Lightroom. What everyone else sees is totally up to debate.

You can't control that.

[scott_richards4]

While you cannot control how your images will be displayed on other peoples monitors you could narrow your target audience and set your images to be displayed on their monitors properly.

 

EX:

If you are targeting ma and pa smith I would buy a cheap PC machine with a generic flat screen running IE and test your image size, color against that.

 

If you are targeting AD's and creative people I would get a mac running firefox or safari and also set test environments for calibrated and not.

 

Of course you could always run a DOM script checking the users browser and platform and serve a designated set of images depending on the results.

 

While you cannot control everything with a little bit of creative thinking you can always find substantial work a rounds. So if you were going to plob down 1200 for that monitor just for web proofing I would put that money towards another computer set up running the OS which you are not currently running for another testing environment.

[digitaldog]

You don't have to buy a cheap PC. Just use Photoshop and select Windows RGB in Customize

Proof Setup. And again, since every user has a different display (some 10 years old, some

brand new, some that can hit 300cd/m2, some that can't hit 80), all bets are off as to what

others will see.

 

The ONLY way multiple users of various types of hardware and operating systems can see the

same numbers the same way is to calibrate and profile their displays and view the numbers

in an ICC aware application. Short of that YMMV (and often, a lot).

[barry_ward1]

Thanks for your replies. I post a wide variety of photos, from portraits to landscapes on the web, and I am really gnashing my teeth... A lot of newer monitors have larger gamuts, and it is so hard to predict what people will see... When I go to my dad's house, all the rich subtle reds that I carefully create on my Sony Artisan are garish neon-red. I have 2 macs and 3 pcs in the house, running everything from an aging Sony Artisan to a 150 dollar viewsonic LCD...guess I can just walk around the house to "guestimate" what people will see... Oh, I can't wait until the whole world is better color managed...

 

A serious question... I am looking for good uniformity, no banding, and neutral grays...I really don't need PERFECT color, as I am not a prepress guy, and I print from home, so I can tinker with the color... $650 seems like minimum to get these characteristics... add 250 for a decent puck and calibration software, and I am within 350 of a 2690-SV. I got 6 happy years out of My Artisan... worth the plunge to get the 2690?

[micheleberti]

As already stated above you can soft proof how pictures will display in a non-color managed environment (such as Internet Explorer for example). First step is to convert the picture to sRGB then setup a soft proof picking up your monitor profile and turning on the option "Preserve RGB numbers".

 

With this soft proof activated you have now a preview on how the picture will show once in the web in a non color managed environment with YOUR monitor. You cannot predict how the same picture will looks on other monitors.

 

With soft proof on if the picture looks good then save as jpg and post it to the web.

 

Otherwise - still keeping soft proof on - if the picture looks ugly make some adjustment to colors to match the origina and then save as jpg and post it.

 

Just a final tought. When saving the jpg for the web you have two choices: one is to strip away the sRGB ICC profile, the other is to left the sRGB profile attached. If you go for the second this will ensure that your picture will looks better if someone will look at your picture with a color-managed browser (like Safari for example).

 

Finally keep in mind that some web sites will IN ANY CASE strip away the attached sRGB icc profile when posting the picture to their database so just be aware of this when uploading pictures with embedded an sRGB profile.

 

P.S.

Haven't check it to be honest (and cannot do it right now) but I wonder if Photo.Net keeps ICC profiles when posting to galleries or not? Can anyone do a try?

[ericaw]

I have been trying to figure out why my images look so washed out and color shifted when

posted to photo.net. After doing some testing and research it appears that the icc profile

is stripped out of the file when it is uploaded to photo.net. This means that even on my

color calibrated computer with Safari (which recognizes and handles icc profiles), my

pictures look terrible.

 

I will either need to accept the fact that they will not look good on photo.net (or really on

most people's computers as Safari is the only browser I know of that supports icc profiles

and it is in the single digits percent of use as of today), or... I need to produce a special

version of the image just for posting on photo.net that is supersaturated and contrasty.

[emre]

photo.net strips JPEG headers for historical reasons (to prevent malformed JPEGs from choking browsers).