Defeat Adobe’s “Save for Web” Bug
Several months ago, I wrote on my personal blog of a workaround discovered by my husband for Adobe web color shifting issues. It remains one of my most read posts, and I’ve chosen to repost it here where it better belongs.
The Issue
It’s no secret that I (and many others) have a love/hate relationship with Adobe products. In some ways, they simplify my life as a designer and give me previously nonexistent creative options. But every good gift from Adobe is imperfect, so imperfect that my work is often interrupted by endless troubleshooting.
When I previously posted this fix, I had spent a good deal of the previous night and the next afternoon trying to figure out why when I attempted to use the “Save for Web” feature in both Photoshop and Illustrator CS3, the colors in my image came out horribly desaturated.
I had done quite a bit of research on the web and discovered several fixes, but none solved my problem. My monitor was calibrated with a colorimeter, I used an sRGB profile, unchecked the “Convert to sRGB” option and checked “Use Document Color Profile” in the SFW dialog. Nothing worked.
The Fix
Then my husband, who built a website when he was 13 without using any Adobe apps, suggested that I try his old image-saving method (which I admittedly felt was very unprofessional). I tried it, and the color shift vanished.
So, without further ado, the uncivilized, no-frills Dave Method.
- Open the original image you want to save for the web (uncompressed), and choose View > Actual Pixels. (The image should fit into your monitor’s resolution, or this will not work.)
- Move all toolbars and windows so that nothing is covering your image.
- Use the shortcut Command-Shift-3 to make a screenshot of your entire screen (if using a Mac).
- Use Crop to cut out your image.
- Choose File > Save for Web & Devices… and choose the settings with which you want to export your image before hitting Save.
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