Keeping Color Consistent in Web Images

Now that you understand what a Web-safe palette is and how hexadecimal colors work, let me just make a general comment or two about working with color Web images. Granted, getting color consistent and optimal for print purposes is probably more challenging; there are a couple issues to consider for the Web as well. First, your images will be viewed on a wide variety of monitors, operating systems, and computer platforms. This alone will cause the images to display differently. In addition, most Web browsers do not take into account an image’s embedded ICC profile (see Book II, Chapter 3). Raw RGB color data is all that displays. Only Internet Explorer and OmniWeb for the Mac can interpret ICC profiles. So again, how your image is viewed depends on the viewer’s computer system/monitor. Some of the things you can do to help remedy the situation are the same things you do for working with color for print, and a couple are unique:
- Set up the optimum image editing environment. Keep your desktop a neutral gray, eliminate distracting surroundings, and so on.
- Calibrate your monitor! Set your monitor to its optimum viewing state and keep it that way.
- Establish your color settings. I recommend that if you’re cranking out lots of Web images to use the Web Graphics Defaults as your setting. This will enable you to produce images in the sRGB color space and increase the chances that your images will be displayed correctly and consistently.
- Convert any non-sRGB profiled documents you have to sRGB. To do this, choose Image Mode Convert to Profile. Select sRGB under Destination Space.
- Finally, use the Save for Web feature to save all your Web images. This way you have more control over how your images are optimized. You can choose how many colors are displayed, what palettes are used, and so forth.