Colour Management in your web browser - Test Images

Images with different profiles

This page contains a number of test images saved with different icc profiles and settings.

As you will see, most browsers take no notice of colour settings or profiles.

Not for nothing is colour mangement on the web known as 'Colour Manglement'.

Colour Management and the web

Keith has written an article covering this and many more aspects of using photos on the web.

The example image (©Photodisc Inc.) is the PDI freeware test image (license details-PDF)

There is a link to all the various colour management information on this site at the end of this page.

The first examples show the result of saving a file with its correct profile.

In this case the files were converted in Photoshop and saved as jpegs with the 'embed color profile' option ticked.

Saved in Adobe98 with ICC profile	Saved in sRGB with ICC profile

The two examples below show what happens if you do not attach the profiles

Adobe98 image saved without ICC	sRGB image saved without ICC

Note that they are technically no longer colour managed, but we 'know' what they should be. Unfortunately the browser doesn't know this and will make its own choices.

The examples below show what happens when you take a file in Adobe98 and just assign a profile to it. One has the (wrong) sRGB profile attached, while the other does not.

Adobe98 file Assigned a sRGB profile	Adobe98 file Assigned sRGB, but saved w/o profile

Once again, the version without a profile is just shown as whatever the browser chooses, whilst the first one (with the wrong profile) will be shown honouring the profile in some browsers, but since we've used the wrong profile, it still shouldn't look right.

Safari (1.2 and above) and IE5 on the Mac seem to get it right. I'm not aware of any PC browsers that do, but please do let me know if you are using one that works (all three images in the first set should look the same)

June 2008

PC users now have the availability of Safari (from Apple) or Firefox 3, both of which support colour management. Unfortunately Firefox 3 currently needs colour management enabling - see this article for instructions and download links.

There is also the problem of how untagged images are handled, which also seems pretty much a random choice of the browser writers.

And if you are someone who uses a big space like ProPhoto, be very careful with images that end up on the web.

Image in ProPhoto with ICC profile	Image in ProPhoto without profile

Note the distinct hue shift in the man's shirt - this would happen to nice blue skies.

If you want to see whether your browser also supports the newer V4 icc profiles then try the test at http://www.color.org/version4html.html

Colour management info on this site

Colour management resources on this site
Colour management and the web
Adjusting your monitor 'by eye'
Choosing a working space

Explore our site... Digital Black and White photography and printing - some of Keiths thoughts, techniques and tips for those interested in a digital approach to black and white. We've lots of original Photography Articles and Photography Reviews on the site to help anyone interested in photography. New site content appears on the What's New page.

Thanks to the visitors who've made Amazon purchases (any kinds of items whatosever)
via: Amazon UK/Amazon France/Amazon Germany/Amazon USA/Amazon Canada
It won't save extra money we're afraid, but it does help in the running of the site, and we really appreciate it...

Northlight Images is based in Leicester in the UK and supplies Commercial Photography services
Visiting Leicester or wondering where it is? We have views from the Leicester traffic cameras.