IWeb 08 screws my photos color profile

Question

Anyone has this problem with the new iWeb 08?
I installed the new version, ran it without any problems, did some rearranging of my site, created a new page etc.. And then published the whole site all over again.
But now, all my images are tagged with the sRGB profile instead of the profile that was in the images.. now all my images have become very saturated and dark. The thumbnails are fine, but when you click in to see the photos in slideshow or not, the images are loaded and it looks horrible.
I've went into my iDisk to check the images and found that all my photos are tagged with the sRGB profile instead of my normal AdobeRGB profile or Nikon sRGB profile or no profile...
ARGH!!!!

Answer 1

iWEB 08 is a fully color confused application, whilst iPhoto is only partly color confused.
The following applies when dragging images from iPhoto library, with the "Optimize Images on Import" option on. According to the manual, this option only changes the size, but I would not be surprised if it changes something else also. Then after, exporting from iWEB to files on the hard drive.
Having spent 8 hours analyzing the problem, I am beginning to understand what is happening but certainly not WHY???
iWEB appear to convert the images 2 times (when importing and when exporting I wonder), both times incorrectly, and to top it off, it exports images without a color profile BUT with the EXIF data of the original, which at this point is incorrect. HOWEVER, it appears that thumbnails are only converted incorrectly once, adding to the confusion.
Before going into some remedies let me answer the question: What color space etc. is "correct" for the WEB?
There are three rules to publishing photos on the WEB (files for download is a different story):
a) Image, including thumbnails should be in sRGB color space (Otherwise it will NOT display correctly on MicroSoft systems, where browsers happily ignores color profiles and sRGB is ASSUMED for all images)
b) There should be an sRGB color profile in the image file, including thumbnails (Otherwise it will NOT display correctly on MacOS, where browsers assume AppleRGB, but will happily adjust to any color profile)
c) Discard unnecessary information in the file to reduce size, such as EXIF information, thumbnails etc (optional rule)
Having said that, you may ask yourself, who do that? Well to tell the truth, not many. A quick check on Apples website reveals that there is a mix of color "strategies". For instance, the pictures demonstrating the cool features of iLife08, appear to be in sRGB but without color profile. Thus, they will be displayed correctly on a MicroSoft system but not on a Mac.
Well, back to iWEB - To try to fix the color problem, do one or both of the following:
1) Keep calling Apple Cupertino until they fix the problem (really, I am not joking, I am tired)
2) Convert images after they have been exported. This seems to work also, almost. However, converting a pictures color space is not exactly reversible, thus result is not perfect. Use for instance Photoshop CS1 or later (make sure color settings is such that there are no conversions when you open files and use the colorimetric conversion option in advanced settings) and:
a) Open picture
b) Assign AppleRGB profile
c) Convert to sRGB
d) Assign the original profile (usually sRGB or AdobeRGB or the cameras RGB)
e) Convert to sRGB
f) Save (with option: include color profile)
File is now about 2 times the original
g) Open graphics converter
h) Choose convert...
i) Choose file(s), hold Cmd-key and choose remove resources (which does not remove the color profile)
File is now ok for publishing on the WEB
TIP, if it seems like a daunting task to manually convert all of the exported images (and do not forget the thumbnails), make an Action-script in Photoshop, then use the Batch feature with sub-folders etc .... . Also the graphics converter operation can be applied to include subfolders. I did this, and it works ok, but be sure to only convert YOUR images, not the other files in the structure. I also applied the same conversion to the thumbnails to simpify things and it turned out not to bad. (Can somebody make an AppleScript maybe?)
And finally, how about iPhoto? Well, iPhoto will always export images in the color space and profile it happens to be imported with, unless you edit the image in some external editor. If you are WEB publishing "lucky", the image will come out in sRGB color space and with an sRGB color profile. And yes, I have also tried various iPhoto-WEB export plug-ins, and they also all do it wrong.
If you read all of this, you are a patient person. Thanks for the attention.
Tomas Jonsson, Genicore Embedded Systems AB