Browser color differences

Allen · November 10, 2009

I'm having a huge problem with Firefox 3.5.x, Vista. The color of the main
photo is terrible. You can see that the thumbnail is the correct color. The
original is the correct color but all generated display copies are not.
http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/10273007_HvLBY

Firefox 3.5.x

All sizes look ok in IE8

Andy · November 10, 2009

Allen wrote:

I'm having a huge problem with Firefox 3.5.x, Vista. The color of the main
photo is terrible. You can see that the thumbnail is the correct color. The
original is the correct color but all generated display copies are not.
http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/10273007_HvLBY

Firefox 3.5.x

All sizes look ok in IE8

FF 3.5 Mac

FF 3.5 Win

Have you changed anything on your FF? Addons?

bwg · November 10, 2009

Allen wrote:

I'm having a huge problem with Firefox 3.5.x, Vista. The color of the main
photo is terrible. You can see that the thumbnail is the correct color. The
original is the correct color but all generated display copies are not.
http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/10273007_HvLBY

Firefox 3.5.x

All sizes look ok in IE8

FF 3.5 is color managed and has it on by default for tagged images. The main image is tagged, the thumbnails are not.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Gfx.color_management.enabled note the caveat in that article

IE is not a color managed browser.

You can disable color management in firefox if you want. Just google for firefox color management.

Allen · November 10, 2009

bigwebguy wrote:

FF 3.5 is color managed and has it on by default for tagged images. The main image is tagged, the thumbnails are not.

..

IE is not a color managed browser.

You can disable color management in firefox if you want. Just google for firefox color management.

Thanks guys, but I can't see anyone viewing my site disabling theirs, they
wouldn't have a clue.

Luckily, most are using stupid IE though.

Found this and changed to "0". Photos look good now.

There are three modes for color management which can be verified/changed by typing about:config in the url bar.

Filter for: gfx.color_management.mode

The values are:

0=Color management disabled. (Default in Firefox 3.)
1=Full color management
2=Color management applied only to tagged images.  (Default in Firefox 3.5.)

jfriend · November 10, 2009

Allen wrote:
Thanks guys, but I can't see anyone viewing my site disabling theirs, they
wouldn't have a clue. Luckily, most are using stupid IE though.

Found this and changed to "0". Photos look good now.

There are three modes for color management which can be verified/changed by typing about:config in the url bar.
Filter for: gfx.color_management.mode

The values are:

0=Color management disabled. (Default in Firefox 3.)
1=Full color management
2=Color management applied only to tagged images.  (Default in Firefox 3.5.)

There is something messed up here.

If I take these two image URLs (two different sizes of the same image):

http://photos.smugmug.com/photos/708818715_2fSdP-M.jpg
http://photos.smugmug.com/photos/708818715_2fSdP-O.jpg

and view them in Photoshop and in Firefox 3.5 with color mgmt enabled, both look the same in Photoshop, but the two look different from each other in Firefox 3.5. The -M image in Firefox looks the same as the two in Photoshop, but the -O image in Firefox looks different than all the others.

Something is messed up with either Firefox or the images served up from Smugmug. Photoshop reports that both images are tagged as "sRGB IEC61966-2.1", yet they display different colors in Firefox, but not in Photoshop.

As bigwebguy mentioned, the thumbnail image: http://photos.smugmug.com/photos/708818715_2fSdP-Th.jpg does not have a color profile so it will likely not match the main image when color management is on.

Browser color differences

Comments