Blog Archive
What the HEX is going on?
I figured plenty of web designers are floating around Humzoo these days, so I thought I would throw out a call for help. I am responsible for maintaining my company's website. Mainly, I am just updating text and images. Nothing too complicated.
Here's my problem. At home, I am a Mac user. I am using the original Adobe Creative Suite. At work, I have a Windows machine, but I have CS3. When we redesigned the website, we developed a template for images. Standard stuff. For the background, I have a hex color to match the page's background - specifically 1C2D40.
When I export the images as a GIF at work on my Windows machine, the background color appears too light. When I export the same image at home on my Mac, I have a perfect match. It seems like there must be a quick fix, but I haven't found one yet.
Any thoughts?
I've come across an article about this before, something about the color libraries Adobe uses. Mac defaults to one; Windows another. I'll see if I can't find the article again.
Hi Bill,
Before I get into color settings, I would recommend just giving that GIF a transparent background (make the blue at the bottom corners the transparent color). That way even if the shadow doesn't blend in perfectly, it won't be an obvious box.
One other thing that I'll mention. Many times I'll find it easier to make a 10x10 color square that is the background color that you want, and use that image as the background (it's also good to specify the HEX background color in case the background image doesn't load right away). That way you are not trying to match your images to a HEX color - you will be exporting them from the same program, using the same settings, that you exported your background color square from. Most of the time this will be a perfect match.
Ok, so those aren't options and you need an actual answer. Shoo was right about color profiles. In CS3, you can set default profiles per application, or you can set them in Bridge and have those settings used throughout the whole Adobe suite. I recommend setting them with Bridge - I think the interface is a little more user-friendly.
That's only part of the issue though. Your document has a color profile embedded in it too, and it's likely that even after changing your CS3 settings that your colors won't match. You will probably need to convert your pre-existing document to a different color profile, or start a new one from scratch.
Also if you use the Save for Web export dialog, there's an option in there somewhere to convert your images to sRGB (which I guess is the standard for web). Try playing around with that option (if applicable) to see if that helps.
I still struggle with color settings. I have three computers that have different versions of CS, and its a mess.