I just bought a used 24" Apple Cinema Display to use with my MBP for editing. I love the screen already, however, I noticed that the colors I had open in LR3 were wayyyy different than what I saw on Google Chrome (it was my main web browser at home); looking at the same picture from my Smugmug. The colors in Chrome were a yellow/orange tint. I opened up my Smugmug in Safari and Firefox and the colors matched what I saw in LR3...
Chrome will not translate non-sRGB colorspaces to sRGB or your monitor profile. If you post an AdobeRGB or ProPhoto image to the web, it will look off independent of whether you embedded the proper ICC profile or not.
What I am less sure about:
If you are running Windows and use the "- enable-monitor-profile" switch, Chrome MAY map what it assumes is an sRGB image to your monitor using your monitor profile. I use the switch but honestly I'm not sure if it does anything or not. My monitor is not wide-gamut so I have to do detailed testing to find out and I just haven't taken the time.
If you are running Mac, then I think you are currently out of luck. I see people claiming that the Mac OS takes care of this for you but I find that hard to believe. Many people get confused on color management matters (including me ). On Windows, for example, the OS will pick up things like gamma adjustment and white point but it will not use the detailed profile mapping unless the application is color managed. I highly suspect that is also the case for the Mac but someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
Based on what I've read, the Chrome team has never paid much attention to the needs of photographers and graphic designers for things like color management. They seem to give a higher priority to speed (and color management can have an impact there) and trying to convert Chrome into an operating system. It's a shame, really, because there are a lot of things to like about Chrome.
Therefore, my recommendation would be to either use Firefox or Safari. My preference is Firefox since you can configure it to color manage images with missing profiles (essentially, it assumes they are sRGB) and also I get the feeling that Firefox may be slightly better than Safari in the security department.
Regarding your posted image, I don't see much difference between FF and Chrome, although I am on Windows and I don't have a wide-gamut monitor.
Thanks for the info! It sounds like Google isn't set up for color management... which is a shame. I use Mac, so that could explain why I am seeing it more than you are.
I think the latest beta of chrome is finally color managed. I downloaded it and have been viewing images side by side with firefox and it seems like it's identical. BTW, I'm using 17.0.963.38 beta
). On Windows, for example, the OS will pick up things like gamma adjustment and white point but it will not use the detailed profile mapping unless the application is color managed. I highly suspect that is also the case for the Mac but someone please correct me if I'm wrong.