Comments on: Color is the main Mac web design problem

By: son of a bit .org » Gamma colors on mac

son of a bit .org » Gamma colors on mac — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 08:02:13 +0000

[...] More info: mactheweb.com [...]

By: unseen » Blog Archive » Dark Designs and the Gamma Wars

unseen » Blog Archive » Dark Designs and the Gamma Wars — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 05:19:47 +0000

[...] A little poking around the net revealed I’m not the only one to have had this epiphany. http://mactheweb.com/design-theory/color-is-the-main-mac-web-design-problem/ [...]

By: michael

michael — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 17:10:00 +0000

I agree that for many people the small gamma difference isn’t important. But its still helpful to be a bit closer to seeing what your visitors see.

As to the 72/96 dpi idea. That’s not a concern for modern web visitors. According to Dave Hyatt, the lead developer on the Safari team, Apple is using the 96 dpi standard for Safari. And all the Mozilla based browsers do too. The only people affected by this are those still on OS 9 or earlier. That’s such a small market and those people are so used to seeing tiny text anyway that it’s a non-issue.

By: joe

joe — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 08:01:35 +0000

In real life, the visual difference between 1.8 and 2,2 is not all that great. If you compare half a dozen monitors running off the same computer as I have often done for exhibitions, each monitor will look different anyway and more different than simply toggling between ‘Mac’ and ‘PC’ gammas. The other factors are screen brightness, screen colour temperature, screen age, brand, model, backlight and type of LCD or CRT. Even Mac monitors that have been calibrated with the same hardware calibration device will ‘look’ different side by side. A dark blue background on my old site was variously described by viewers as black, purple and maroon. You have no control over what other people’s monitors are showing and most of the time, it doesn’t matter.

By: Poster

Poster — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 16:45:14 +0000

Interesting point. When I look at web sites I’ve designed on other monitors, it’s usually the brightness and the contrast that stick out the most. I’d never thought about gamma before.

By: Wil

Wil — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 16:30:51 +0000

This has been a well-known problem since the dawn of the Internet. Another PC-Mac difference was the 72 dpi versus the 96 dpi. As always, design on a Mac, test on/for a PC

By: Jack

Jack — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 16:18:27 +0000

– I donâ€™t know if it was Apple or Microsoft that chose to use a different standard for displays but Windows computers display a darker and more saturated screen than do Macs.

The reason for the difference in Gamma has to do with the publishing world. Apple chose to use a Gamma that most publishing/print houses use (1.8), where as Microsoft chose 2.2 for video purpose – which, btw, is what televisions use. With the popularity of video editing on the rise, or even the fact that Apple is starting to cater to Microsoft clients, they may choose 2.2 in the future – or at least, change it based on some setup questions…