Firefox 3 colour management

[Ian]

UPDATE: I'm not sure that by default browsers conform rigidly to the sRGB space - they are un-managed, but sRGb is reasonably close, probably!

One of the most interesting aspects of the recent launch of the FireFox 3 web browser is that it supports colour management, although it's not switched on by default.

Loosely speaking, older versions of Firefox and all existing versions of Internet Explorer default to sRGB colour space. Most consumer digital cameras default to sRGB, but more advanced cameras give you the option of using Adobe RGB space. sRGB is a narrower colour space than, Adobe RGB. But Adobe RGB is not supported by most browsers, so if you use images in Adobe RGB colour space on the Web, they look desaturated and flat because the colours are mis-mapped. Now, with FireFox 3, with colour management enabled, Adobe RGB images should be correctly recognised and displayed, with richer colour and vibrancy, superior to sRGB images.

To enable colour management in FireFox 3, type about:config in the address bar (where you'd normally type in a web address) and hit enter. A long and complicated looking list of options appears, but you can drill down to the configuration you need to change to enable colour management by entering gfx in the filter bar. Click on the entry that refers to colour management enable/disable and it should change to user/enabled. Re-start Firefox and you're done

Of course, you need to be aware that even if you can see Adobe RGB images online in all their glory, users of most other browsers (including Firefox 3 users who haven't enabled colour management - which will be most of them) will see Adobe RGB images in less than all their glory. The only browser that I'm aware of that supports colour management is Apple's Safari.

Ian

[Patrick]

Re: Firefox 3 colour management

One of the most interesting aspects of the recent launch of the FireFox 3 web browser is that it supports colour management, although it's not switched on by default.

Loosely speaking, older versions of Firefox and all existing versions of Internet Explorer default to sRGB colour space. Most consumer digital cameras default to sRGB, but more advanced cameras give you the option of using Adobe RGB space. sRGB is a narrower colour space than, Adobe RGB. But Adobe RGB is not supported by most browsers, so if you use images in Adobe RGB colour space on the Web, they look desaturated and flat because the colours are mis-mapped. Now, with FireFox 3, with colour management enabled, Adobe RGB images should be correctly recognised and displayed, with richer colour and vibrancy, superior to sRGB images.

To enable colour management in FireFox 3, type about:config in the address bar (where you'd normally type in a web address) and hit enter. A long and complicated looking list of options appears, but you can drill down to the configuration you need to change to enable colour management by entering gfx in the filter bar. Click on the entry that refers to colour management enable/disable and it should change to user/enabled. Re-start Firefox and you're done

Of course, you need to be aware that even if you can see Adobe RGB images online in all their glory, users of most other browsers (including Firefox 3 users who haven't enabled colour management - which will be most of them) will see Adobe RGB images in less than all their glory. The only browser that I'm aware of that supports colour management is Apple's Safari.

Ian

Hi Ian

I have type in Config and got a long complicated page as you say which states clearly it is about config. I cannot find a filter box only the search box and this simply explains what GFX is.
Can you point to where this filter box is, or am I missing something.

Patrick

[Guest]

Re: Firefox 3 colour management

Patrick _ You must enter 'about:config' without the quotes. You will then get a popup window in which you tick a box to indicate you know what you are doing. !!

[Patrick]

Re: Firefox 3 colour management

Patrick _ You must enter 'about:config' without the quotes. You will then get a popup window in which you tick a box to indicate you know what you are doing. !!

Thanks Dennis I have got to a list and think I have changed to RGB but who knows, I cant see many users bothering with it buried away as it is.
I would have thought it should be easily accessible on the tool bar so the user can switch from one to the other as required.

Typical computer geeck design.

Patrick

[Ian]

Re: Firefox 3 colour management - examples

Here are two versions of the same image, the first exported from Lightroom in sRGB colour space and the second in Adobe RGB. If the second looks drab compared to the first, your browser is not colour managed.


sRGB (above)


Adobe RGB (above)

By the way, the two versions shouldn't necessarily appear exactly the same as Adobe RGB should display a wider range of colour than sRGB, depending on the capability of your display. But there should be no sharp differences and the Adobe RGB version should not look flat and desaturated compared to the sRGB version.

Ian

[Ian]

Re: Firefox 3 colour management - examples

Here are two versions of the same image, the first exported from Lightroom in sRGB colour space and the second in Adobe RGB. If the second looks drab compared to the first, your browser is not colour managed.


sRGB (above)


Adobe RGB (above)

By the way, the two versions shouldn't necessarily appear exactly the same as Adobe RGB should display a wider range of colour than sRGB, depending on the capability of your display. But there should be no sharp differences and the Adobe RGB version should not look flat and desaturated compared to the sRGB version.

Ian

It works for me

The sRGB and Adobe versions look great under FireFox 3 with colour management enabled, while the Adobe sRGB version looks right off colour with Internet Explorer.

Ian

[Patrick]

Re: Firefox 3 colour management - examples

It works for me

The sRGB and Adobe versions look great under FireFox 3 with colour management enabled, while the Adobe sRGB version looks right off colour with Internet Explorer.

Ian

Hi Ian

Both images look better on Firefox than Explorer, the RGB looks particularly poor in Explorer on my monitor both Laptop and PC (both profiled)

In Firefox the greens look darker in the sRGB then RGB, also in RGB the flower heads show a greater tonal range.

Patrick

[Ian]

Re: Firefox 3 colour management - examples

Hi Ian

Both images look better on Firefox than Explorer, the RGB looks particularly poor in Explorer on my monitor both Laptop and PC (both profiled)

In Firefox the greens look darker in the sRGB then RGB, also in RGB the flower heads show a greater tonal range.

Patrick

Interestingly the thumbnail of the Adobe RGB image in my gallery looks off-colour in FireFox 3 while the actual image looks good. I would guess that that the thumbnail routine in the gallery code doesn't colour manage properly and gets the colour space wrong when creating the thumbnail from an Adobe RGB image.

Ian

[Stephen]

Re: Firefox 3 colour management

Thanks for the tip Ian, just done it on my Mac and it works perfectly, the two images look the same. The new browser now has a very Safari look to it too. The installation process, as with many programs, seems so much easier on the Mac. and of course it simply overwrites the old installation but retains all bookmarks etc.