a solution for Firefox color management issues on wide gamut monitor due to not supporting icc v4 profiles.

[matussik]

<p>I recently upgraded my system to windows 7 and reinstalled the newer version of Firefox 3.6. I was surprised that despite of having the settings set to have proper color management within Firefox (gfx.color_management.mode set to 1), the displayed colors were wrong (far too high saturation).<br>

<br /> On my old system with Windows XP and Firefox 3.0 the color management within Firefox worked just fine (same colors displayed as in Photoshop or other color managed software).<br>

<br /> The test pictures with tagged/untagged images on gballard.net were telling me that color management within Firefox was active as no color shift was visible when switching between different tagged color spaces (but the displayed colors were all equally wrong).<br>

here is the link to the test pictures:<br /> <a href="http://www.gballard.net/psd/go_live_page_profile/embeddedJPEGprofiles.html">http://www.gballard.net/psd/go_live_page_profile/embeddedJPEGprofiles.html#</a><br>

On the other hand I could reproduce in Photoshop the colors displayed in Firefox by checking view-> "proof colors" with "Monitor RGB" selected in the Proof setup, which is basically turning of the color management in Photoshop and thus was indicating that the color management of firefox was not functioning properly.<br /> The reason for this malfunction is that Firefox couldn't read the icc profile generated by the calibration software of my monitor.<br>

I found out on google that in Firefox 3.0 the "Icms" code was used for color management but it was changed with the release of Firefox 3.5 to the open source "qcms". Unfortunately while Icms was able to read icc v2 and v4 profiles, the newly used qcms only supports the older icc v2 profiles.<br>

You can read more here:<br /> <a href="http://forums.adobe.com/thread/719755">http://forums.adobe.com/thread/719755</a><br>

Most calibration softwares produce icc v4 monitor profiles which means that for those users the firefox color management will not work properly.<br>

This malfunction is particularly visible on wide gamut screens as it leads to a strong color shift (increase of saturation) but on standard screens this is less visible as they are generally designed to display sRGB wich is also the default color space used by Firefox thus making the color shift less obvious between a truly color managed software and Firefox.<br /> <strong> </strong><br>

<strong>Therefore I believe that many users are mislead by the test images on gballard.net and wrongly assume that their color management within Firefox is working properly while in reality it's not (Firefox can't read the icc profile of their monitor calibration).</strong><br /> <strong> </strong><br>

<br /> <strong>The question is: How can I get Firefox to read correctly the icc profile created by my calibration software?</strong><br /> <strong></strong><br>

<strong>A. </strong>Set your calibration software to save the icc profile in v2 format and recalibrate your screen.<br /> <strong></strong><br>

<strong>B. </strong>What if your calibration software doesn't offer that option? (this is my case)<br>

B.1<br /> The first option is to get a calibration software that offers that option.<br>

B.2<br /> The other solution is to convert the calibration icc V4 profile into an icc V2 profile. I couldn't find a software doing that, <strong>BUT</strong> I found a "rat run" that worked well in my case:<br>

1. download and install "ICC Profile Inspector 2.4" from www.color.org which is a software allowing you to edit your ICC profile<br /> <a href="http://www.color.org/profileinspector.xalter">http://www.color.org/profileinspector.xalter</a><br>

2. make a copy of your calibration icc profile in a temporary folder (desktop). Your calibration icc profile should be stored in C:/windows/system32/spool/drivers/color/ (sort by date for easier find)<br>

3. edit the profile with ICC Profile Inspector 2.4 (see attached image)<br>

3.1 click on Modify<br>

3.2 change in the Version field the digit for version 4 into version 2 (see attached image)<br>

3.3 confirm the change by clicking ok. You'll have a warning notification "Warning: Changed version number from V4 to V2, tags should be updated accordingly!" which I ignored by clicking ok and it worked fine.<br>

3.4 Save as: save your profile with a different name to keep your original icc v4 profile working for other application such as Photoshop. Example: "my_monitor_profile_v2.icc"<br>

4. copy your new icc V2 profile back to the folder C:/windows/system32/spool/drivers/color/<br>

5. edit the Firefox configuration by typing "about:config" in the field for web adresses and confirm by clicking on "I'll be careful, I promise!"<br>

6. scroll down to the line "gfx.color_management.display_profile", double click it and enter the address of your new profile: " C:/windows/system32/spool/drivers/color/ my_monitor_profile_v2.icc"<br>

7. restart Firefox to get the changes active. Windows asked me: "do you want to allow the following program to make changes to this computer?" I clicked NO.<br /> <strong> </strong><br>

<strong>Now Firefox should have proper color management active. </strong>I know this method isn't really clean, but in my case it worked very well. Some feedback would be appreciated!</p>

<p>Now I'm not an expert on color management and I wrote those indications to the best of my knowledge and belief, please correct me if I made some errors. I hope this post to be helpful.<br>

Kind regards, Jan</p><div></div>

[howard_m]

<p>from everything I've seen & read, support for v4 profiles in just about everything is either wrong, not done or an implementation disaster.</p>

<p>stick w/ V2</p>

 

[martin-s]

<p>The Spyder calibration software defaults to v2 profiles, which is what you should use for compatibility reasons. I'm sure others will offer v2 at least as an option if not also as the default.</p>

[digitaldog]

<blockquote>

<p>from everything I've seen & read, support for v4 profiles in just about everything is either wrong, not done or an implementation disaster.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Pretty much yes. Worse, most V4 profiles are V4 in disguise or don’t implement the full V4 (PRMG) routines. Bottom line, build v2 profiles. </p>

[chas_frady]

<blockquote>

<p><strong>A. </strong>Set your calibration software to save the icc profile in v2 format and recalibrate your screen.<br /> <strong> </strong><br /> <strong>B. </strong>What if your calibration software doesn't offer that option? (this is my case)</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I'm confused... Most of the information you've recently discovered about Firefox is old news, but you're saying that your display calibration software ONLY creates v.4 profiles? I re-read your post but couldn't find mention of the name of this software. Typical consumer software like DataColor Spyder3 Pro default to v.2 profiles.</p>

<p>And... Firefox 4 is soon to be released and they say it WILL have support for v.4 profiles.</p>

[matussik]

<p>I use "color navigator" that was delivered with my screen and I haven't found the option for creating v2 profiles (at least it's not under tools->preferences->profiles). I recently bought a new computer which lead me to reinstall everything including Firefox 3.6<br>

On my old computer with windows XP I had firefox 3.0 which I never updated as it all worked fine and the system was running stable.<br>

prior to my computer change I had no reason for looking for v4 profile compatibility of Firefox (before that I even didn't know about v4 and v2 profiles existing)... so, yes I guess I'm a "late bloomer" on that issue, sorry about that.<br>

thanks all for your feedback! I had read on a forum that most calibration software produced v4 profile unless you specified in the options you wanted v2, I guess this information wasn't accurate.<br>

In my research I found some forum threads asking about how to convert v4 profiles to v2, so I thought my rat run might interest some people.</p>

[gary_player]

<p>Hi Jan,<br /><br /> I had the same problem with Color Navigator after moving from Windows XP to Windows 7 (64 bit). I contacted Eizo and between us we worked out the following simple solution to get Color Navigator to produce ICC v2 profiles on Windows 7:<br /><br /> For both the following programs:</p>

<ul>

<li>C:\Program Files\EIZO\ColorNavigator\ColorNavigator.exe</li>

<li>C:\Program Files\EIZO\ColorNavigator\ColorNavigatorAgent.exe</li>

</ul>

<p>Change the compatibility mode to Windows XP by:</p>

<ul>

<li>Right Click > Properties > Compatibility</li>

<li>Check the 'Run this program in compatibility mode" box </li>

<li>Select 'Windows XP (Service Pack 3)' in the drop down list.</li>

</ul>

<p>I was assured by Eizo that Version 6 of Color Navigator will have the option to select the version of ICC profile it produces. Hope this helps until that version is released or Firefox is updated to support ICC v4.<br /><br />Gary</p>

[matussik]

<p>Thank You very much for the hint Gary! I'll try it out for the next calibration of my screen!</p>