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shoot_machine
Topic Author
Posts: 13
Joined: 14 Nov 2022, 07:54

Thumbnail image colours

21 Nov 2022, 03:47

Unfortunately I still have a problem with my new website, I hope I can describe it understandably:
The thumbnails on a page with a grid gallery view do not show the correct colours, they are flatter. Only when you click on the thumbnail image to enlarge it and it opens, the correct colour profile (?) is loaded with a short but visible delay. Closing the image reverts this back to the flat thumbnail.
What can I do here? 
 
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mjau-mjau
X3 Wizard
Posts: 13993
Joined: 30 Sep 2006, 03:37

Re: Thumbnail image colours

21 Nov 2022, 04:15

Ok, so let me explain what's going on: Your images (at least the ones you are referring to) include a specific color profile, embedded into the image. When X3 creates thumbnails, it doesn't by default also copy the color profile into the thumbnail. That's why you see difference between the preview images and your original image, as the image fades from preview-to-original on zoom.

Not long ago, it was recommended to ALWAYS convert your images to sRGB when you are going to use them on a website. WHY? Because most browsers did not support color profiles, or only a few, which means browsers would display your images differently, or simply wrong. That is why there is an option in Adobe Photoshop "Convert to sRGB" when you save/export images, and that is why it has normally been recommended to convert to sRGB for all your images intended to use for the web.
https://www.naturefocused.com/articles/ ... ernet.html

Times have changed, and now most browsers will support color profiles. However, this is not handled automatically by X3, for two reasons: 1. It's still not a bad idea to convert to sRGB for the web for cross-browser consistency, 2. It's not efficient to "copy color profiles" into X3 thumbnails, although it can be done.

TWO options for you:

1. Go to Settings > Advanced > Image Resizer > and ENABLE Copy ICC color profile, This will copy your original image color profiles into the resized images, so they should match. PS! You might have to clear X3 image cache and browser cache to see it work on existing images, but it would work immediately for new images (after applying the setting).

2. Follow the "traditional" fix of converting images to sRGB preparing them for a website.
 
shoot_machine
Topic Author
Posts: 13
Joined: 14 Nov 2022, 07:54

Re: Thumbnail image colours

21 Nov 2022, 07:06

I already thought it is the color profile and recreated some images with sRGB profile and uploaded them. Unfortunately, this helped only partially: For some shots the thumbnails are now apparently correct and you don't see a delayed profile loading anymore, for others the behavior is strange, here the image changes back to a flat looking thumbnail when closing.

I have also enabled loading of the embedded ICC profile (according to option 1) for testing and the behavior is similar to the above description (X3 and browser cache allways cleared). Basically it seems to only occur with the resized thumbnails, if images are displayed larger (e.g. the intro on the homepage) everything seems to be ok, no matter if with own or sRGB profile.
The uploaded images are 2560px at the long edge in size, the image resizer settings are default (image quality 85, sharpen images enabled).
 
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mjau-mjau
X3 Wizard
Posts: 13993
Joined: 30 Sep 2006, 03:37

Re: Thumbnail image colours

21 Nov 2022, 23:27

shoot_machine wrote:I already thought it is the color profile and recreated some images with sRGB profile and uploaded them. Unfortunately, this helped only partially: For some shots the thumbnails are now apparently correct and you don't see a delayed profile loading anymore, for others the behavior is strange, here the image changes back to a flat looking thumbnail when closing.
Could this by cache? For me to diagnose this, I need to see a link.

There are two images in the viewing process, 1. thumbnail and 2. original. If they are different, then either the color profile was not copied into the thumbnail, or the thumbnail was cached from previously (without color profile), or your browser can't handle the given color profile.

Also, did you use the "resize images" option on upload? This could affect some images that need to get resized.
shoot_machine wrote:I have also enabled loading of the embedded ICC profile (according to option 1) for testing and the behavior is similar to the above description (X3 and browser cache allways cleared). Basically it seems to only occur with the resized thumbnails, if images are displayed larger (e.g. the intro on the homepage) everything seems to be ok, no matter if with own or sRGB profile.
The uploaded images are 2560px at the long edge in size, the image resizer settings are default (image quality 85, sharpen images enabled).
Can't really make anything from the above. It's clear it would only happen to resized images, because your original images would display with their integrated color profile, as long as the browser supports it (most modern browsers). In cases where "images are displayed larger", then X3 will normally display the "original" anyway, so yes it definitely would only affect resized images.

I need some link reference to diagnose this further.
 
shoot_machine
Topic Author
Posts: 13
Joined: 14 Nov 2022, 07:54

Re: Thumbnail image colours

23 Nov 2022, 11:25

So, in the end it may be a mix of uncleared cache in conjunction with my ICC profile, this being sRGB by the way with slight color adjustment.
I then started over after some more testing and reloaded almost all galleries with sRGB exported images and now everything seems ok.
Thanks for the tips and a generally good support here.