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Until users can't modify the way images are displayed on the monitor (by adjusting settings on the monitor or in the operating system), and until all monitors a

Until users can't modify the way images are displayed on the monitor (by adjusting settings on the monitor or in the operating system), and until all monitors are properly calibrated, this seems like an incomplete solution to the issues that arrise when representing color on a computer. Imagine a design team and web development team both at the top of their game, ensuring perfect color matching to their manufactured product and trademarked logo using state-of-the-art tooling and technologies, including those in the linked post. I'd be surprised if a single consumer monitor correctly match the color on the website those teams created. Even further, I suspect most web designers don't even use calibrated monitors. Maybe this would be useful for a design-centric service website?

jacobolus 2y ago
Consumer displays can do quite a good job matching colors if either (a) they have been characterized (either by a color measurement device or by eye by a careful human observer with normal color vision) and the OS is set up to do proper color management using the resulting profile, or (b) the company producing them buys consistent parts and does careful Q/C. If you get a recent model iPhone, as an example, you are likely to get very close to the same output as every other iPhone, assuming you are in similar lighting conditions. Of course, human vision is quite sophisticated at adapting to various conditions, so the colors will not be precisely perceptually matching unless the observations take place in a standard setting. If one observer is sitting under a fluorescent bulb, another is in a dark room, and a third is sitting outside on a sunny day, all bets are off. There's also nontrivial inter-observer variation, even among people with normal color vision.
harrall 2y ago
I own a monitor color calibration tool and my Apple devices have fairly been well calibrated out of the box. And even if your users may not use color calibrated monitors, you’re still better off picking the correct color on a calibrated monitor rather than doubling up on the error. Also, none of this is new. Even if you used #aabbcc color codes, you were implicitly choosing the sRGB colorspace even if you had no idea about colorspaces. There isn’t a solution that gets rid of colorspaces… it’s like suggesting that it’s possible to specify length without a unit like meters or inches. The colorspace is the unit.
- cosmotic 2y ago
  I own a calibration tool too, but I prefer the way the screen looks uncalibrated, so I leave it uncalibrated. Rounded to the nearest percent, 0% of users have calibration tools, nor are they running their monitor in a meaningfully calibrated state from the factory. It's all running at higher brightness and saturation because that's what users think looks better. If most users are running super-saturated and super-bright, and color matching to what those users are seeing is important, it would be better to use that as the baseline instead of a calibrated monitor.

jacobolus 2y ago

Consumer displays can do quite a good job matching colors if either (a) they have been characterized (either by a color measurement device or by eye by a careful human observer with normal color vision) and the OS is set up to do proper color management using the resulting profile, or (b) the company producing them buys consistent parts and does careful Q/C. If you get a recent model iPhone, as an example, you are likely to get very close to the same output as every other iPhone, assuming you are in similar lighting conditions. Of course, human vision is quite sophisticated at adapting to various conditions, so the colors will not be precisely perceptually matching unless the observations take place in a standard setting. If one observer is sitting under a fluorescent bulb, another is in a dark room, and a third is sitting outside on a sunny day, all bets are off. There's also nontrivial inter-observer variation, even among people with normal color vision.

harrall 2y ago

I own a monitor color calibration tool and my Apple devices have fairly been well calibrated out of the box. And even if your users may not use color calibrated monitors, you’re still better off picking the correct color on a calibrated monitor rather than doubling up on the error. Also, none of this is new. Even if you used #aabbcc color codes, you were implicitly choosing the sRGB colorspace even if you had no idea about colorspaces. There isn’t a solution that gets rid of colorspaces… it’s like suggesting that it’s possible to specify length without a unit like meters or inches. The colorspace is the unit.

cosmotic 2y ago
I own a calibration tool too, but I prefer the way the screen looks uncalibrated, so I leave it uncalibrated. Rounded to the nearest percent, 0% of users have calibration tools, nor are they running their monitor in a meaningfully calibrated state from the factory. It's all running at higher brightness and saturation because that's what users think looks better. If most users are running super-saturated and super-bright, and color matching to what those users are seeing is important, it would be better to use that as the baseline instead of a calibrated monitor.