A Color Managed Browser for...(drum roll)... PC!

[Noel_Carboni]

I've just been told that Apple's Safari web browser is now in public beta test for the PC (XP and Vista), and that for the first time a browser that can be run in Windows supports color management.

Apple - Safari 3 Public Beta

Up to now no other browser for the PC has displayed images tagged with anything other than the sRGB color profile properly. Everything has been displayed as sRGB, regardless of any embedded profile. Check here:

WEB BROWSER COLOR MANAGEMENT Tutorial - Test Page Safari - FILES have embedded ICC profiles Photoshop Color Management

We all know that many folks accidentally publish images with an embedded color profile other than sRGB for web display (hey, there are even some like that in the current image processing contest thread), so this should help ensure we'll see what was intended by the publisher.

This may herald a new era in color managed browsers, as I'm sure Microsoft will sooner or later want to follow suit.

Bravo to Apple for increasing the level of technology to the masses, even those of us on the "dark side" using PCs.

I'm off to try this one out...

-Noel

[Noel_Carboni]

Well, Safari 3 may be color-managed, but it does have a few downsides...

1. It always seems to want to open on my first monitor, despite my having moved it to my second monitor.

2. It's locked up twice so far. Once it also locked up my Start bar (Explorer) in the process - something which almost never happens to me otherwise. I'm continuing to test it. I think it has to do with me using my mouse scroll wheel. Not good.

3. Fonts all seem rather too bold by default, as though its font smoothing algorithm is being a bit overzealous. This is as compared to ClearType in Windows. Notably it's possible to tone this down in Edit - Preferences.

4. I like my bookmarks to be available via menu, and it doesn't seem doable in Safari. Instead one has to open the collections bar along the left side to use it. More mouse clicks than IE to do the same thing.

5. They seem to want to import at least some of the Apple GUI functionality into Windows. For example, one can't stretch the window without grabbing the bottom right corner, and the window doesn't have the look and feel that the other windows do per the desktop settings. Sorry, Apple, but some PC users actually LIKE the way the PC GUI works.

More as I discover it!

-Noel

[Noel_Carboni]

Bleh, it's locked up 4 times in this thread, all while scrolling.

June Photo Processing Contest

Guess we'll have to wait for the release on this one.

-Noel

[Jerry Skrocki]

Noel,

With Safari you have the option of adding bookmarks to the bookmark menu or bookmark bar which will give you one click access to your favorite websites.

[Noel_Carboni]

I'll have to see what's required to reorganize them into the main bookmark menu; the auto-import from IE certainly didn't put them there. Personally, I don't see any way to put something like "ProPhoto Home" right under the Bookmarks menu; from what I can see one still has to open the Collections bar to see them.

Personally I don't prefer a bookmark bar right on the main browser window. IMO the browser app interface should be clean (which Safari generally is) without stuff like "Yahoo" and such on the main skin. I deleted everything showing from the bookmark bar.

The closest I've been able to get is to move Imported IE Favorites to the Bookmarks Bar and renamed it to "Favorites", which clutters up the screen a hair but at least gives quicker access.

-Noel

[Jerry Skrocki]

It took me a while to get used to a new interface when I switched from PC to Mac about a year ago.
But I really prefer the bookmark bar for quick access. Here is a screenshot of my bookmark bar:

[diglloyd]

Originally Posted by Noel_Carboni

I've just been told that Apple's Safari web browser is now in public beta test for the PC (XP and Vista), and that for the first time a browser that can be run in Windows supports color management.

Apple - Safari 3 Public Beta

Up to now no other browser for the PC has displayed images tagged with anything other than the sRGB color profile properly.

I posted an article 18 months ago on Web Browser Color Management which clearly shows the benefits. Read it with Safari and Firefox (or something else). It's not a long article, but the benefits will be obvious if you are using Safari.

Perhaps Apple’s offering will prod other vendors to also support embedded profiles. It is always a bit annoying to have to convert images to sRGB for web use, especially those intended to show image quality.