IMac 24" with washed out colours - Help!

My iMac 24" Aluminium (June 2008) running 10.5.8 has behaved impeccably for almost two years. I use it for graphics and photographic work, so colour fidelity is very important.
A few days ago, in the morning, the machine was still "perfect". By lunchtime I realised something was not right. The Photoshop file I had been working on looked different. I could not see details in highlights, transparency in layers that was clearly there in the morning had suddenly vanished. Looking closer at the whole screen I realised the whole environment was washed out - not just in Photoshop files.
I tried:
Calibrating the monitor - no difference.
ColorSync Utility: Verify/repair - reported loads of errors but fixed nothing.
Took the mac to authorised Apple repair shop in Hove (UK). Spent time with the engineers trying to sort it out. They had not experienced this before.
We connected 2nd monitor. Strangest thing: The same moment the 2nd monitor was connected, the native screen instantly looked fine. Both monitors fine.
Disconnecting 2nd monitor, and the native screen went bad again.
Booted up the iMac with their external drive and system (sorry, not sure which system but probably the same 10.5.8). The screen looked fine, even without a 2nd monitor. Rebooting with native OS and the screen went bad again.
Conclusion: Corrupt file in the system somewhere. Advice: Reinstall system (archive/install).
I did this today. Screen is the same bad screen, so reinstalling 10.5.2 and upgrading to 10.5.8 did NOT solve the problem. Erase and install is my VERY LAST resort. I really don't want to start from scratch with new system, new installation of applications, updates, settings etc.
I would rather buy a small 2nd monitor, watch the screen look good again, having another screen to use and PRETEND I DON'T HAVE A PROBLEM!
I also ran an extended hardware test (from OSX 10.5.2 install DVD) without reporting any problems.
Questions:
Has anyone any idea what this can be?
Is it possible that upgrading to Snow Leopard can solve the problem (but that is also just an upgrade and not a clean start?)
One way of describing it is that a finder window has no contrast in highlights (blue and white horizontal stripes are only visible when another window's drop shadow multiplies with the background. Everything is too bright, banding appears in visible highlights.
Someone suggested moving the file /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist to trash, without deleting yet. Then reboot.
It didn't work.
Thanks for any help!

My problem was purely about screen contrast, not the colours. It was in fact me accidentally keying the shortcut (key command was unknown to me then) for contrast settings that are found in System Preferences -> Universal Access > Seeing, Display: Enhance Contrast. The key command is also shown there.
I now realize that I did this key command when working in Quark XPress which has a very similar command: "Shift-Option-Command" and then "," or "." I accidentally keyed "Control-Option-Command" and then "." Worth being aware of if you're working with Quark.
Glad your problem was solved by calibrating your monitor.

Similar Messages

  • Extremely bright iMac display with Washed-out colors

    I recently purchased a 20" iMac and am having problems with the display. The colors are extremely washed-out and faded even at the lowest brightness settings. Although recalibrating helps, I have been unable to get acceptable color by doing so, and the only way I have found to reduce the brightness of the whites is to use a third party utility that reduces the brightness below Apple's default specs, but at the cost of making everything else darker.I have been unable to find an acceptable balance where the colors look reasonably accurate for home use.I would have preferred to get a refund on this machine, but I bought it from an Apple reseller which has a no-refund policy on Apple products.
    Has anybody managed to find a workaround for this issue or has a custom calibration that works reasonably well to address it? Also, is there any way to disable the iMac's internal display so that I can hook it up to an external CRT and just use that? If not, I am wondering if using an external display will degrade the graphics performance overall, as the card is powering two displays.If not I would be happy just to do that for now. Because of the glare coming off the screen and inability to control the brightness, I am finding it extremely difficult to use this display. Does anybody know of an anti-glare screen for the iMac or any tips on reducing glare, as it is a serious issue for me.

    Well I run a program DarkAdapted http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/12134 to correct the brightness of whites, it even improves the viewing angle a lot, color shifts are almost non-existant.
    Shades works just as well, but eats a bit more CPU.
    http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/shades
    A warning though when using Shades: you can darken the screen with it to a level you no longer can control the desktop/system, so I recommend you to memorize the short key to quit Shades, I think it is Command-Enter, so if you accidentily dim the screen just to see how far you can go (like I did) you don't have to panic

  • Uneven brightness + washed out colours

    I got a new iBook G4 12in a week ago. Love everything about it apart from the screen. As soon as I booted it for the first time I noticed the screen wasn't particularly bright and that the colours were washed out. It's usable but not of a level I'd expect from Apple. It's bad even under standard office fluorescent lighting.
    A colleague with an identical iBook noticed my screen was a bit dim and said he usually runs his iBook at a low brightness level (two notches off bottom). If I did that on mine, I'd struggle to see anything! It has to be run at full or just below full brightness to be usable.
    I've also noticed that the bottom of the screen is brighter than the top. This took me a week to notice so isn't a huge problem. At the bottom corners there are very light streaks - it's a bit like the screen is being run from two halogen spotlights placed underneath the plastic surround!
    Should I phone Apple's support and get this fixed, or is it to be expected? Research online shows half the people have a similar problem with washed out colours, while half claim their screens are bright and vibrant.

    I called AppleCare last night. First, the guy asked me to do a couple of adjustments. He suspected that the display was damp. So he asked me to turn off the system, take out the battery, and then discharge the whole machine completely by pressing Shift, Ctrl, Alt, and the power button at the same time. But this trick didn't solve the problem. Second, he asked me to put the installer cd in and adjust something. It didn't work either. After this, he got me a system engineer on the phone, and he said there were two options: I could either send it in for repair, which would be quicker, or exchange it for a new unit, which would be slower, about 10-12 days. So I decided to exchange it for a new one. They are sending me the packing labels. Then I will send this one back. They will send a new one to me.
    I suspect that displays with such problems are recycled ones. I mean they are taken from junk ones with an okay display. I hope this is not true. The display on my three-year-old Compaq still looks better than this one.
    Apart from this small defect, my new computer works really well, and I love it. I am just a little disappointed with the product quality of Apple computers. It seems that they have put a lot of effort in the design of the appearance of their computers. But there is some degree of negligience on other aspects of their computers. That's why this forum is full of complaints.
    Personally I think it is better to buy a computer directly in a store. It is easier to return or get a new one.

  • Washed out colour

    Hi Everyone
        When i try to alter washed out colour in my footage using Shadow/Highlight or Gamma ,i get a comb effect on the edge of the subject and if i use auto colour or auto levels ,the colour isn't stable.I need a really good solution to the problem if anyone can help.Thanks

    SpeedGrade is the best solution.
    http://tv.adobe.com/watch/adobe-at-ibc-2013/adobe-premiere-pro-cc-speedgrade-cc-direct-lin k/

  • My 2009 imac display looks washed out

    can anyone help me my mid 2009 imac color looks washed out take a look for your self
    if anyone knows how to fix please tell me

    Hi jono from opunake,
    Thanks for the question. Let’s take a look at your accessibility preferences to see if the Display contrast has been increased at all:
    OS X Yosemite: Display pane of Accessibility preferences
    http://support.apple.com/kb/PH18394
    - Matt M.

  • Washed out colours in DVD SP, but not in iDVD?

    I was using iDVD to burn my projects and decided to go pro and use DVD SP 4 at work. I had some help putting the project together and burnt off a DVD. All works fine, but the colours are definately more washed than when I burnt the same quicktime through iDVD 6.
    The footage was captured from PAL DIGI Beta, using the blackmagic capture card and codec and used uncompressed in both projects.
    Even the title screen of the DVD SP project is washed out compared to the iDVD one. I've viewed both DVDs on an LCD imac and a CRT sony trinitron.
    Any ideas?
    Powerbook G4   Mac OS X (10.4.9)  

    I am not sure if the two applications encode the same - iDVD may use different settings to encode the video when compared to the settings in DVD SP or using Compressor which can change the output/how it looks - that may be what is happening.
    You can take the exact same movie and place it in different encoders, or the same encoders with different settings, and the end result will look different.
    Compressor overview
    http://dvdstepbystep.com/qc.php
    http://dvdstepbystep.com/fasttrackover.php

  • Lightroom's interpretation of camera raw data washes out colours

    After I import images from my Canon 5D, they look different when I go into the develop module. I read the FAQ and I understand that this is caused by the difference between the stored thumbnail on the camera and the way lightroom interprets the raw image data.
    The problem is, the tone and colour are always far superior in the camera thumbnail interpretation, and I spend considerable time on Lightroom to try and get the image back to how it originally looked on the camera thumbnail, usually unsucsessfully.
    Is there a way I can get lightroom to match exactly the look of the previews stored with the raw file on the camera?
    It is a big problem, because after lightroom interprets the data, skin tones look washed out and the colours are not as rich or natural looking.
    I don't have this problem on other raw converters, and it is making me look for another software solution if I can't resolve the problem.
    Help!

    Well, my eyes must be doing some wonky things then... because in my experience its LR that is cheating me on the colors.
    Yes... Canon many times oversaturates the colors... but I'm pretty sure that those red cherries I took a picture of were not pumpkin orange as LR shows them. ACR has some serious hue shift problems, yet not for everyone... it varies from camera model to camera model, and even within camera model from camera to camera.
    The best we can do, since ACR isn't intelligent enough, is to fiddle with the calibration settings, and save that as the new default for the camera. (There are scripts that help do this if you have a Color-checker and CS2/CS3... but are of no help if you use only LR or Elements.)
    Never expect the default settings in RAW (for ANY converter... Canon's included (with execption, perhaps of Zoombrowser)) to match the preview you see on the camera, or the out-of-camera jpeg. Adjustments will need to be made. Unfortunately in ACR, this means hours of messing the calibration sliders, much trial and error, and perhaps multiple presets to help with different lighting conditions.
    That said... I too would like to see ACR improve in this area... but for the mean-time this is the best we can do.
    edit: (I'm (slightly) exagerrating the extent of the shift above... but its VERY noticable... and can be very frustrating.
    This site: http://www.photoactivity.com/Pagine/Articoli/023%20Calibratori%20al%20sole/Calibratori%20 al%20sole_en.asp explains in more detail than I understand some of the calibration scripts... and even has some screenshots of a color-checker comparing ACR defaults and various scripts to the color-checker. I'd guess the shifts I see are comparable to some of those shifts seen on that page.)

  • H.264 gamma shift/washed out colours on export

    I know this has been discussed before but I've been researching this topic for the past two hours and still can't find a solution.
    I have .mov source files from a Canon 7D. Exporting them from PP CS5.5 (Mac OS X - Lion, 10.7.4) in h.264 or by 'matching sequence settings' results in a gamma shift/desaturated colours. Playing the resulting h.264 file in QuickTime Player, VLC, Elmedia all result in the same colour shift so this is not an issue with QT simply interpreting the gamma incorrectly.
    Uploading to Vimeo and Youtube results in the same gamma shift. The monitor I'm using is not calibrated but when puling up a VLC window of the exported file next to the Program Monitor (on the same monitor) shows that there is a definite difference. Below is a screenshot.
    Is there any way to produce an exported file for Vimeo use that reproduces the gamma as I see it in the Program Monitor?
    Any help would be massively appreciated.
    Thanks.

    Did you use Quicktime's H.264 export option? Or just standard h.264 using the .mp4 container? If you used the Quicktime h.264 the option itself is flawed. Here are some links regarding the issue.
    http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/cmg_blogs/story/brightness_issues_with_h264_quickti me_movies/
    http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/2008/06/fix-quicktime-gamma-shift/
    http://imnotbruce.blogspot.com/2011/07/fixing-quicktimes-gamma-export-problem.html
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1358418?start=0&tstart=0
    http://byteful.com/blog/2010/07/how-to-fix-the-h264-gamma-brightness-bug-in-quicktime/
    https://discussions.apple.com/message/8551140?messageID=8551140#8551140?messageID=8551140
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2292530?start=0&tstart=0
    If you read around the net a lot of people have had this issue with h264. A couple of the articles I posted are supposed to "fix" the problem although I haven't ever tried any of them myself. I've never experinced a gamma shift when using the standard h.264 format option in Premiere, however if you have already used that option and you're still having issues then I have no clue what is going on. However when I import ProRes files into Premiere they don't appear washed out, but when I play them in Quicktime or VLC they do appear washed out. I've always just assumed Premiere was somehow correcting it, because when I export my video to mpeg-2 for playback on our server it looks like it looked in Premiere.
    From what I have read though the reason the Quicktime format does this when using the h.264 codec looks and looks washed  out is because of a incorrect gamma tag. But Premiere isn't affected/fooled by this like most media players are. According from how they made it sound on provideo and the one other site I read it on anyways.

  • IMac 20" vs iMac 24" : screen WASHED OUT on 20"

    I went to two Apple stores and I noticed that the new Aluminum iMac 20" SCREEN CONTRAST is set different from the 24".
    I tried using two side by side 20" and 24" and I set the screen settings the same. But not matter what I did the contrast on the 20" was pretty bad. 24" was normal but the 20" was Washed out (when viewing photos, there's no detail in the highlight areas).
    Anyone else notice this? Or it just me? I foun this at two stores I went to.

    GREAT! I thought I'd read all of the down sides to the new 20" iMacs. How'd I miss this? Well, I knew that with the minor CUP speed bump made to the new iMacs and no "Extreme" option on the 20" I was about to take a beating down the road here...very shortly. That "shortly" is already NOW, I guess. My 20" screen was washed out using the iMac's display color setting, so I went into Preferences/Display/Color and played with the RGB profile settings. This helped a lot, but it made me wonder why Apple would have let it be shipped with their poor "iMac" color profile. Geez, I hope changing the setting, making the screen colors pop, won't burn out this monitor!!! GULP!!! If only our old Mac G4 tower hadn't died a few months back, we'd been waiting so long already and a 20" monitor looked big enough to us.
    BTW, where are all of my Apple Loops in the preinstalled iLife '08 GarageBand? I just got this iMac yesterday. Time to do more digging!
    Kat

  • Bright Screen/Washed out colour!!!

    I have an imac g4 which has the same symptoms as an earlier post, ie. an overly bright and washed out display. My hunch is that it could be a loose wire somewhere. The fault developed after it was in transit, it was in all its original packaging.
    Has anybody else had this problem? If so what is the remedy???
    I'd rather have a go myself than get ripped off!!
    Imac g4   Mac OS X (10.2.x)  

    Hi guys,
    Thanks for your input!
    Here's and update... i downloaded the service manual on the page you directed me to a few days ago, it's very interesting. I've formatted the harddrive and re-installed OS 10.1.
    I still have the same problem!
    I reset the PMU, this had no effect.
    I took the bottom off and checked the video cable, i also checked the cables in the monitor. I did this a couple of times to make sure, powering on and checking each time! Still the same problem!!!!
    The universal access has no contrast setting, altering the colorsync profiles hasn't had any effect.
    The next step in the manual is to replace the inverter, could this be the cause??
    Not sure what happens when the inverter malfunctions, does anyone know?
    Are Apple parts expensive? I should have stuck with my trusty PC!
    Imac g4 Mac OS X (10.1.x)

  • N73 viewfinder washed out colours

    Hi, just got my N73 with 3 X-Series silver.
    Great phone but I'm finding that the viewfinder display seems to be washed out. It's fine for a split second when I first slide back the lens cover but then instantly appears washed out. It's almost like the N73 applies some sort of filter to the image. This behaviour is also evident when I flick through the white balance options - ie looks fine for a split second, then reverts to washed out look.
    Incidently, if I preview a photo that I take, it appears fine. It just seems to be the "LIVE" display in the viewfinder.
    Can anyone tell me if this is a fault or if it's a setting somewhere I can change.
    For info I modified the light sensor setting and it didn't have any affect.
    regards,
    Shaka

    Sounds to me as if your color profile (system preferences/displays/color) is off. Reset it to: lcd screen and see if that takes care of it. Not sure why your macbook doesn't remember that setting, though. In any case, it's less hassle to change it there than to reset the PRAM every time.
    Hope this helps,

  • Washed out colours

    Can anyone please tell me why the colours on this image look completely washed out. Taken with Canon 30D set on sRGB, original RAW imported into LR with ProPhoto set as working space. Exported as jpeg and resized in Photoshop. Note: the colours were washed out upon Export and appeared so whether later Imported back into LR and viewed, or viewed with other applications. The yellow alone should be very vivid and bright as Rape seed is and not a dull green as shown here :-(
    http://community.dcmag.co.uk/photos/alan_inghams_gallery/images/420895/original.aspx

    First off - many thanks to all those who have taken the time to view this post and likewise have offered many many suggestions - I am indeed beholding to you all.
    Jeff - my monitor was in fact calibrated only this morning in my efforts to eliminate every possible problem area.
    Tonight I have done what many have done - I 'Exported' the RAW file using the Export function in LR. In fact I exported twice, once as a jpeg and once as a tiff. I then 'Imported' both back into LR and as others have observed, when compared to the original RAW file the tiff and jpeg look almost identical. Exercise also repeated in CS2 with same results.
    However, has anyone tried viewing the tiff/jpeg image OUTSIDE of LR e.g. I have viewed them using Windows Explorer, Windows Picture and Fax Viewer and Fastone Max Viewer. It is when viewed in these applications that the images (jpeg and tiff) looked flat and washed out.
    So my concern is plainly obvious. I know that I can upon Import always see favourable results of all the images (RAW, TIFF and JPEG) within LR itself. But I do not want always to view them in LR - I also want to sent the resultant TIFFs and JPEGs to a web situated printing company. I am concerned that the prints will be returned flat and lifeless as they appear in other applications. This is something I won't know of course until I actually send a print away for printing.
    Could those kind people who have taken the trouble thus far and 'Re-Imported the tiff/jpeg back into LR please have a look at it OUTSIDE of LR e.g. using Windows Explorer if approriate and tell me do they still see the same results as when the images are in LR or CR3. I might be labouring this point, but it is not enough that they all appear colourful and pretty etc whilst in LR or CS3 - they actually have to leave the applications at some time or other. The only good news in this story so far is that when I printed out the original RAW image from within LR the print did in fact turn out OK :-)

  • Switched to Mac & CS6 and photos washed out - Please Help

    Hello,
    I'm new to photography but taking every chance I can to learn and slowly upgrade my tools.  I recently switched from a PC(CS3) to Macbook Pro(CS6).  Since doing so, I am having a huge problem. My photos show up exactly as I want them to on my Mac, in and out of Photoshop, but look washed out almost everywhere else, including the web, on PC's and in print(Shutterfly).  There are a few exceptions like facebook, but still not all of the photos show up the same quality as what I saw on my Mac.
    I thought I did a good job of calibrating my Mac and I'm not doing anything different in PS, but I'm completely lost on what could be causing this.  Any guidance would be greatly appreciated because all my PS books and google searches have left me with no answer.
    I can upload one of my jpg's so you can see what I'm seeing off my Mac if needed.
    Thanks,
    Rachel

    Hi Trevor,
    Thank you for coming to my rescue.
    I couldn't upload my original jpg because they are 5mb+, so I took printscreens off of one of the PC's that look awful, but once I moved them over to this Mac, they looked fine.  I know the PC is not the best and is pretty old, but other photographer's pictures look fine on it, especially compared to mine.  So I'm not sure how these will come out on your screen, but on my Mac they look the same as my originals.
    To answer your questions, I use RAW files as Adobe RGB and convert them to sRGB before saving as jpg for end use.  I have also tried using RAW as sRGB right off the bat and then saving as jpg for end use.  I do not edit from jpg's, only RAW normally.
    Could explain your last sentence further: "If your histogram has a flat line at the begining and/or its end, then that would result in a flat looking image, and is easily fixed in ACR."
    Thank you,
    Rachel

  • Making a washed out background - help!

    Hi,
    I'm REALLY new to Fireworks and I'm not sure where to start!
    I want to make a background for a web page like the
    background at this
    site - www.patricehaan.com
    It's washed out ferns with a hint of color - I'd like to do
    something
    similar but with a pink effect - how do I do this?
    Can anyone point me at a tutorial or something?
    Thank you!
    Mark

    Thanks Linda!
    Regards
    Mark
    "Linda Rathgeber **Adobe Community Expert - Fireworks**"
    <[email protected]>
    wrote in message news:e6vkn1$4l2$[email protected]..
    > Mark wrote:
    >
    >
    > > It's washed out ferns with a hint of color - I'd
    like to do something
    > > similar but with a pink effect - how do I do this?
    > > Can anyone point me at a tutorial or something?
    > >
    > > Thank you!
    > > Mark
    > >
    > >
    >
    > Hi Mark,
    >
    > There are a number of approaches you could take. The
    simplest is to
    > click on the add Live filters button in the Property
    inspector [+] and
    > choose Adjust Color > Hue/Saturation. Click the
    Colorize box and move
    > the Hue slider until you get the color you want. Use the
    Saturation and
    > Lightness slider to adjust the amount of color and
    lightness of the
    > image.
    >
    >
    > --
    > Linda Rathgeber [PVII] **Adobe Community
    Expert-Fireworks**
    >
    >
    http://www.projectseven.com
    > Fireworks Newsgroup:
    news://forums.projectseven.com/fireworks/
    > CSS Newsgroup: news://forums.projectseven.com/css/
    > Design Aid Kits:
    http://www.webdevbiz.com/pwf/index.cfm
    >

  • IBook G4 with washed-out screen, vertical lines, won't boot

    My father's 1.33 Ghz iBook G4 with 1GB RAM was working fine when it suddenly froze. Upon restarting, it displayed very colorful, vertical lines on a washed-out screen, almost like it was slowly dissolving into a white blob. It does nothing beyond this. However, I do get a start-up chime.
    I can access the drive via target disk mode and was able to pull all of his information off the drive. Attempting to boot from the install disc does nothing but give me the same white-ish screen. I tried zapping the PRAM (allowing four bongs) and booting from the install disc. This yields the Mac boot screen for a few seconds then the logo shift down and to the left a few pixels and a couple of short, stray black lines appear where the logo originally was. I need to zap the PRAM again to at least get to this point again, otherwise it immediately get the washed-out screen. I can replicate these results every time.
    Any suggestions?
    Thanks.

    My son's iBook G4 showed similar symptoms. After searching the web, it looked like the symptoms fit the solder connecting the gpu to the motherboard was cracked from stress/heat. The conventional solution is to replace the logic board at a cost of $300-$400; more than the iBook is worth.
    A couple of sites suggested "reballing" the gpu which essentially means resoldering the gpu to the motherboard. GPUMEDICS (http://tinyurl.com/ycul2xu) will reball a bare motherboard for $30 or $75 if you send them the computer. Their repair fees include a 12 month warranty and return shipping.
    It seemed worth the risk... I sent them the computer on Sat, they received it on Mon. (fast USPS service!), it was repaired by Wed, and I received it on Fri. According to my son, it seems to work fine. 2 minor problems: they didn't call when they received the iBook and I haven't received a receipt yet.
    Granted, we've only had the repaired iBook back for a couple of days. But so far, I would recommend gpumedics if your iBook shows signs of gpu failure.

Maybe you are looking for

  • Changing the display name of project file folders for TOC

    I'm interested in changing the display names of the project file folders for my TOC. For example, I want to name the folder "01-intro" so that it is short and lowercase. But I'd like the TOC to say "Introduction to the System." I know I can manually

  • Help me! AWM "maintain cube ... " performance: too slow with a small cube

    Hi all, I have 3 dimensions: TIMES, PRODUCTS, STORES The hierarchy of TIMES, is in the order: year, quarter, month, week, day The hierarchy of Products is in the order: sector, family, sub-family, product The hierarchy of STORES is in the order: area

  • Linking a SP calendar view to Outlook

    Is there a way to link a calendar view - not the entire calendar- to Outlook. I have a column in my SP 2007 calendar that includes a drop-down list of our 5 business units and a foltered view corresponding to each. If employees in business unit A onl

  • What is Virtual Key Figure ?

    Hello, I would like to know about Virtual Key Figure. What is Virtual Key Figure ? How to we created ? what is use of Virtual Key Figure? Thank you Anup G shah

  • [6140] Failover does not change owning controller

    Hello! We connected our 6140 to one host with two HBAs. Each HBA is connected to one of both controllers. I can see the volumes and create a filesystem there. When I pull out one cable, I get this message: qla2x00: FAILBACK device 0 -> xxxxxxxxxxxxxx