PHOTOSHOP TIP: Preparing photos for the web without losing saturation
by Susan Seiling

If you use Photoshop to prepare your files or to create online portfolios, you may have noticed that when you use the "save for web" function, it sometimes flattens out the colors and saturation of the images. Here is a simple way to fix this annoying problem.

File prepared for the web
in Ekta Space PS 5

File prepared for the web
in sRGB


1. Open your file in your standard working space
My files generally open into Ekta Space PS 5, the default colorspace for all of our images at West Coast Imaging.

2. Go to Image/Mode/Convert to Profile and choose sRGB
While I do not recommend using sRGB for print making, this is a fairly universal color space that most people use for web images. You may notice a shift in color as Photoshop applies the different color space to your image.

 

3. Go to File/Save for Web
Choose whether you want the file to save as a JPEG or a GIF. For photographs, I usually choose JPEG and Maximum quality.


4. Check the "ICC Profile" box
By doing this, your image will display accurately on systems that are setup to work with ICC profiles (see illustration on the left).


5. Click "Save"

Photoshop will create a new web-ready file that should reflect the colors of your original file quite accurately. You're now ready to plug the image into a web page.

 

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