Colors on Browsers

[Joseph W. bourke]

And as Dave could also tell you, if you’ve ever worked in NTSC color for broadcast, you quickly realize that the acronym means “Never the same color”. Browser color matching is even worse! How many home (or even business) users do you know who calibrate their monitors? Colors will vary, and monitors will vary, and if you’re working for a client who wants their logo colors matched, you have to make it clear to them up front that all bets are off when it leaves the view on your monitor.

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com

[Tero Ahlfors]

It’s not even only the browser. It also changes between different video services on different operating systems. It would be neat if there was a universal solution for this but there isn’t.

[Jerry Smith]

Thanks All.

@Joseph: I’m still a bit confused as to why monitor calibration should matter. If I use the color meter to measure the css colors, then I get the same readings. Why shouldn’t a video with an embedded ICC profile give me the same readings? I get that one uncalibrated monitor will look different from another. And they often do even for css. But I don’t get why videos should diverge. Actually, I originally thought this thread was going to be more along the lines of: Why is Firefox different? And indeed, it does seem to be the biggest outlier and it does seem to be the one getting the most complaints. But then I noticed that they all diverge. What often happens in browser land is often Chrome and Safari behave similarly since they are both webkit browsers.

[Jerry Smith]

Hey Dave,

I’m not too worried about any of it anymore. But I’m not talking about my monitors. If I use a color meter on the receptionist’s monitor, I’ll get the same values for the css across browsers. For example, the grey around this reply box on Cow is #E7E7E7. I don’t understand why I get different values for the video across browsers.

[Tero Ahlfors]

[Jerry Smith] “I don’t understand why I get different values for the video across browsers.”

Because different video players between different browsers on different operating systems don’t adhere to any single standard on how things should look.

[Andrew Somers]

JERRY SAID:. But I’m not talking about my monitors. If I use a color meter on the receptionist’s monitor, I’ll get the same values for the css across browsers. For example, the grey around this reply box on Cow is #E7E7E7. I don’t understand why I get different values for the video across browsers.

Hi Jerry, before I respond to your newest post I wanted to address this older post.

The “digital color meter” in the Mac Utilities only shows you the RGB values of a particular pixel in a file. It does NOT show you how a particular monitor is going to display that pixel. “Digital Color Meter app” show you system values NOT display values.

This is because monitors have their own calibration (and hopefully a profile, but not always) that tells them how to display a particular set of RGB values. The computer SYSTEM might present a pixel value of #1423AB, but how a particular monitor interprets that is GOING TO BE DIFFERENT based on that monitor’s CALIBRATION and that monitor’s COLOR PROFILE.

You have no control over how someone adjusts their monitor, nor if they even bother to calibrate or profile it. properly, and most don’t. This is why the sRGB standard exists. It was developed to provide a “baseline” standard calibration target and profile for systems and monitors to abide by. Even so, compliance is “voluntary” on the part of manufacturers and users. At “defaults” (default monitor settings, default profile, etc) everthing is “supposed” to match sRGB.

BUT THEY DON’T for a variety of reasons.

Various reasons display color space does not match sRGB exactly:

1) Ambient light conditions. The color temperature and brightness of the ambient light will affect the perception of contrast, brightness, and color of the monitor.

2) Contrast/brightness setting on monitor. The user’s settings of contrast and brightness will NOT be taken into account by the monitor PROFILE being used in the computer unless the monitor is profiled by a hardware profiling device like the XRite i1 Display Pro.

3) Profile used in the computer for a given monitor. The monitor profile is how the computer and graphics card interpret how a particular set of RGB values are to be displayed on a particular monitor. They *mainly * applies to color managed environments, otherwise it is just a generic set of curves/values that may or may not match a given monitor.

4) Monitor inefficiencies. A given monitor is not necessarily even capable of rendering the complete gamut of sRGB. Some cheaper monitors are only 6 bit per color channel for instance. Some monitors are tweaked to look a “Certain way” for marketing purposes (the same way a TV store cranks the brightness and contrast of all their sets). Consider for instance the glass screen Macs — those are typically setup with a much deeper contrast that spec sRGB.

Andrew Somers
VFX & Title Supervisor
https://www.GeneralTitles.com