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Can web designers use Firefox when it renders colors incorrectly?

over 4 years ago from , http://mattaningram.com

https://twitter.com/karrisaarinen/status/1000078301061300224?lang=en

I know color management has been discussed a lot here, but I had completely forgotten that Firefox doesn't color manage by default and therefore renders colors incorrectly on wide-gamut displays (any recent MacBook).

Essentially colors look correct in Chrome and Safari, and don't in Firefox. How am I supposed to use Firefox as a web designer while this is the case?

6 comments

  • Maiken v V., over 4 years ago

    Why can't you use firefox? Brands often have color values set as RGB or HEX. It doesn't matter that it appear different, unless you are using firefox to determine which colors to use?

    0 points
    • Mattan IngramMattan Ingram, over 4 years ago

      Chrome and Safari render much more closely to what I see in my design tools than Firefox does. Considering the majority of people use Chrome or Safari over Firefox, using Firefox as the browser you build sites in means you are not seeing what most people will see. I think that would be an issue for most designers.

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      • Brian HintonBrian Hinton, over 4 years ago

        Again what Maiken said. If you are using RGB or HEX values I don't understand the issue. Unless you are using Firefox so determine your color values I don't see the problem.

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        • Mattan IngramMattan Ingram, over 4 years ago

          When I design and code something I want to see how it looks in practice not just in my design tool. If I render that site in Firefox I’m judging color usage inaccurately. This doesn’t impact me so much because I primarily use Chrome and Safari, but considering the recent new popularity of Firefox I’m surprised this issue isn’t more widely discussed. Imagine a whole line of monitors had inaccurate color, would you buy one?

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          • Brian HintonBrian Hinton, over 4 years ago

            I look at it from a different perspective. As designers we are designing for all scenarios. You speak of color accurate monitors, and I can tell you that the average person does not have a display that is highly accurate. Look at Samsung Phones that are over saturated, or a low cost display someone picks up on sale at their local big box store. My work has developers coding with nice displays, but they aren’t color calibrated. 2 of our Front End developers are colorblind. Since many people will see your designs in Firefox this way, because of its default config, well you can use it as a tool. OR...

            Now the scenario in question is related to a wide color gamut. The average monitor will not see the difference as drastic as you are seeing it.

            Now regarding what Firefox does is that it only uses accurate color profiles if it’s an image with a profile assigned. Firefox is structured to be built for the web, and I almost feel it’s more accurate in some regards. Images are rendered exactly as configured (if they have color profiles defined) while every other browser is using the system configured color profile resulting in images that may not match the photographers color profile. You can get Firefox to more uniformly interpret color outside of imagery by switching its color management to mode 1. This forces it to use sRGB for color management on everything.

            0 points
            • Mattan IngramMattan Ingram, over 4 years ago

              You make excellent points, but personally I would like to start from a point of accuracy and maybe test on inaccurate displays/browsers/etc. Also just as a personal user I want to see what the designer intended so I won't be using Firefox until this is fixed. I know I can change the default myself, but oddly enough I won't in principle just so I can see what Firefox users will get when they go to one of my sites.

              0 points