Click to See Complete Forum and Search --> : mac vs. pc color correction??
macJr
09-23-2006, 04:43 AM
hey all, about 2 months ago I picked up a macbook pro, I've noticed something real weird... In photoshop using color code #424242 I get a nice dark gunmetal-ish type grey.. BUT whenever I use dreamweaver and input #424242 its ALOT more lighter than the color in photoshop, I mean ALOT, its impossible to match grey colors... Does anyone have any idea whats going on?? I've looked/read everywhere I cannot seem to fix it. :mad: :mad: :mad:
urstwile
09-23-2006, 05:12 AM
What computer were you using before? Is this a problem you're noticing now that didn't happen on your earlier computer?
I would say that as long as you have the values typed in correctly, you're probably okay, but the preview difference is strange, especially if it was okay before.
macJr
09-23-2006, 05:21 AM
I used a pc before... The preview differences are different and so is the final image... On a pc they would match, But on my screen they're two totally different shades of grey.. The only way I could show you is by taking a photograph of my screen.. It has always been like this, I've even had some reports of people running pcs that some of my images appear darker than they are on my mac... Which isnt good.
macJr
09-23-2006, 05:24 AM
give me a second, i took a picture im uploading it now.
I guess you are trying to match an image that you are going to insert with the background colour in dreamweaver?
When you insert image into dreamweaver and preview in a browser, do they stil look different?
macJr
09-23-2006, 05:29 AM
yea buda exactly! hang ooooon im almost done and i'll show you guys what I mean...
I just did a test. You're right. Dreamweaver displays this colour as a light grey. But once you open your site in a browser it will match a jpg that is filled in with 424242. Don't worry about it!
Also, if you fill 424242 in the "bg" bit next to where the blue folder is, you will get a light grey. But for some reason, when you put 424242 under this, where the colour box is, you will get the colour you are after.
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/6630/picture1lt6.png
(http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/6630/picture1lt6.png)
macJr
09-23-2006, 05:40 AM
http://www.jreeter.com/images/IMG_9406.JPG
Ultimately, I want photoshop to be the same shade as dreamweaver, because the dreamewaver is almost perfectly matched on my pc.
macJr
09-23-2006, 05:41 AM
there you go! Buda, im putting 424242 under bg color in page propertise(apple+j) the outcome is above... that is color code: 424242 in both photoshop / dreamweaver see how bad it is. :(
Yeah but dreamweaver just a crappy preview.
Insert a 424242 jpg square that you have created in Photoshop into your dreamweaver file with a 424242 background. They will look different. Save.
Have a go at opening up your html file now in your browser (internet explorer, mozilla, safari etc). It should be fine.
macJr
09-23-2006, 05:50 AM
buda, samething happens for me the square is noticably darker... same outcome as above.
Really? It's not for me...Maybe your dreamweaver is snapping your colour to websafe colour automatically. I don't know how to fix this exactly...
In Photoshop colour panel, if you tick websafe colour, is that pretty much the colour that has come up in Dreamweaver?
I guess what you got to do now is to choose your colour in dreamweaver instead of in Photoshop. Work backwards maybe?
macJr
09-23-2006, 05:53 AM
I uploaded the html/square to my pc and they blend PERFECTLY. where is this websafe option your taking about? I do not see it.
edit: the funny thing is the dreamweaver comes pretty close to the pc color... so that means all my imagese in photoshop are off for all pc users...
buda if i work backwards, samething will happend.
macJr
09-23-2006, 05:56 AM
found the websafe option, I use the color picker... still the same outcome.
http://graphicssoft.about.com/library/course/ps/psc5-023.jpgIf you open colour picker in Photoshop. (double click on the colour box in the tool panel) there's an option for "only web color" under the colour box on the bottom left. I'm not sure this will help much in this situation though...
macJr
09-23-2006, 06:11 AM
Thanks for your help, buda.. Maybe someone will see this tomorrow and have the key to my problem..
hmmm.... try sampling in Photoshop from the screenshot you took. See what numbers it comes up with for both colors....
macJr
09-23-2006, 06:55 AM
Riya, the color codes are different, not only because of my poor photographic skills(lol), but photoshop will read them as two different colors. This is frustrating..
Silence04
09-23-2006, 07:31 AM
it sounds like you have photoshop in a different colorspace than dreamweaver...
i have no idea what dreamweaver's default colorspace is.
Riya, the color codes are different, not only because of my poor photographic skills(lol), but photoshop will read them as two different colors. This is frustrating..
You actually took a picture of your screen? *blinks* Ok, ummm.... extra points for ingenuity and some more for leaving me speechless for a second.
You know that "print screen" button on your keyboard that never seems to do anything when you push it? Yeah well if you press it, it copies whatever is currently displaying on your monitor onto your clipboard so you can just paste it into Photoshop or any other image editing program. (<---For PC, for Mac, there is a utility called Grab) Try doing your color sampling from that.
If the numbers come up different, one or the other of your programs is doing something to the color, but you tried the websafe route already.
If they come up the same, then it might be a color profile issue, like Silence said. I don't have Dreamweaver so I can't tell you how to check that, but if you go into help, and search "color profile" it should tell you.
Shift+Control+K for Photoshop. The two profiles should match... If they don't, you've found your problem. If they do.........
BTW, the reason for the difference in display between the Mac and the PC is because Macs have a higher gamut (range of colors they can display). They are brighter. If you do web design on a Mac and you know that your audience will be using PCs, you need to adjust for this.
mmm.... another thing. You can syncronise all the color settings in all of your Adobe programs in Bridge, but I'm not sure if they have integrated Dreamweaver into that, or if it's just the Creative Suite.
urstwile
09-23-2006, 09:52 PM
Photoshop and Dreamweaver clearly are using different color spaces for preview.
When I tested it here, I initially got a different preview in Photoshop and Dreamweaver with the same color. The true test is the browser. You can test it by saving that color swatch out of Photoshop and uploading it to your browser, and then compare that swatch in the browser to what it looks like in your Dreamweaver file (also previewing the Dreamweaver file in the browser). If they're different, then there's a problem.
If they're the same, then one thing you can try to do is in Photoshop, set your Proof Setup view to Monitor RGB. This seemed to bring Dreamweaver and Photoshop into the same preview space, at least here on my iMac. I don't know if the Intels also have an effect on preview.
urstwile
09-23-2006, 09:55 PM
BTW, the reason for the difference in display between the Mac and the PC is because Macs have a higher gamut (range of colors they can display). They are brighter. If you do web design on a Mac and you know that your audience will be using PCs, you need to adjust for this.
You can change Photoshop's Proof Setup view to be Windows RGB, and it will simulate the gamma difference between Macs and PC's, so your images will look darker in Windows RGB mode, due to the different gamma settings on PCs vs. Macs.
macJr
09-24-2006, 03:14 AM
yay i got it to work!!!! in photoshop i had to use a custom profile and use apple RGB the color matches dreamweaver now, yay!
urstwile
09-24-2006, 10:25 PM
Congrats! :)
Isn't color management a wonderful thing?
SurfPark
09-25-2006, 03:32 AM
I didn't know Mac Photoshop could emulate Windows colors via proof display prefs. You learn something new everyday. Can Photoshop, in Windows, emulate how Macs render colors as well?
There is a setting for it, and it does make things brighter, but I don't know how close it could be due to gamut issues.
activeseven
09-25-2006, 01:28 PM
If you are seeing colors being represented differently in your workflow I would suggest that you begin looking into some type of color management.
>>Can Photoshop, in Windows, emulate how Macs render colors as well?<<
Yes. But generic screen RGB CM is a bigger grain of salt than RGB prepress. If I'm doing anything for web I always load up the results directly in a browser for a check, and sometimes on a totally uncalibrated system as the last test.
Remember too how files saved-as JPGs directly are usually different than ones made using the 'Save4Web' plugin. The main difference is that ones saved directly, by default, contain profiles while the S4W ones, don't. Unless you specify otherwise. This can mess up your previewing --depending on how you have your colour managment setup.