Washed Out Images When Using “Save for Web” in Photoshop

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I’ve gotten stung by this before, but since I recently purchased a new MacBook Pro the problem has reared its ugly head once more: Images shift color and get washed-out while using “Save for Web” in Photoshop CS3.

The problem is that Photoshop is an application that manages color profiles whereas the web, generally speaking, is not a color-managed environment. Safari, for example, does honor color profiles in embedded images, but it is definitely the exception and not the rule.

Much has been written about this topic elsewhere, so instead of reinventing the wheel I’ll just point you to some existing resources:

There’s a good overview of the phenomenon here: http://www.gballard.net/psd/srgbforwww.html

And some tips for setting up Photoshop here: http://www.gballard.net/psd/saveforwebshift.html

Also, although more geared towards Aperture, this Apple Support article is a good read also: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302827

Personally I tend to prefer the 1.8 Gamma that ships as the default on Apple hardware, but using a 2.2 Gamma setting with a D65 target white point really does help make my images look more consistent across browsers and platforms.