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.

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

Typeface in pdf looks washed out/light

When I convert a document to PDF the typeface looks washed out. Recently I was looking at a document on line and wanted to copy a paragraph. When I tried it a window came up saying that the page needed to be scanned/converted before i could copy from this document. I said "Ok". Ever since then, instead of the typeface being clear and solid, it's washed out and lighter looking. What happened, and how do I correct this problem?
I have AA XI

Hello,
Yes, the iMac's monitors are very good. They are among the best in the Apple LCD line.
But, Macs have a very distinctive difference in their video appearance. They will look less sharp when compared to a PC.
The difference is in how the Mac displays it's video. Basically, as I understand it, this is a visual perception based on the Mac's use of Anti-Aliased screens / fonts.
So, it does take some getting used to if you are new to Macs.
I've gotten accustomed to it. But, there is a noticeable difference in how the Mac displays video and how the PC displays it.
I have connected a number of PC monitors to my Macs, and the visual perception is the same as it is using a built-in Mac monitor. The PC monitor looks sharper and more defined on the PC than it does when connected to a Mac.
The difference is in the Mac OS and how it displays or renders it's screen and fonts. So, it's not the monitor.
Now, you can go into System Preferences (under the  menu) and then go into displays and tinker with the calibration settings and such.
Also in System Preferences is the "Appearance" pane. You can go in there, and towards the bottom is the "Smoothing" option. You can adjust those options as well. Note that the smoothing options don't take effect until after you restart.
So, there's a couple of places you can tinker to try and tailor it to look closer to your preferences.
I hope this helps.
Let us know if you have other questions.
P.S., if you'd like, go ahead and click the "Helpful" or "Solved" buttons on any of the posts / replies above if you feel they were helpful or adequately answered your question.

MBP and LED Cinema Display Color Washed Out After Screen Saver

When coming out of screen saver, often the color profile on either my LED Cinema Display or the MBP LCD is messed up. The color looks washed out. Simply going to the Color tab in the Displays preference pane fixes this.
How do I get this to stop?
Thanks,
Bobby

My 13" MBP has now started to do the same thing as described. The thing is, it has never done this since I bought it in late July 2009. I have iWork installed, Firefox, Skype, and Pixelmator. I may have a clue, however, for the Apple people: my MBP never did this until last night and this morning. The only thing I changed yesterday was removing the 2 gig of memory and installing 4 gig. I also tried the translation widget for the first time.

Photos looked washed out when played through a TV....

I have a new G5 iPod and a 60gig Photo. When plug then into the same TV with the same cable (s-video and audio) the pictures from the G5 look washed out. The iPod Photo colours look "brilliant" and are all but identical to the original digital pictures and when shown on my iMac 20" screen.
Is this because of the video aspects of the G5 and the "corners" cut to get the unit size down (hence no fire wire).
Please advise, I feel like returning this and sticking to the Photo.
Thank in advance.
David

Got a refund today
Will wait for better resolution iPod to be released. The Photo still rox

Icons/Folders/Thumbnails look "washed-out" in Tiger. Is there a setting?

Hello.
After installing Tiger I notice that the icons for the folders and the picture thumbnails look washed-out or grayed-out, not fully colorful as usual. I looked at all the Finder preferences but can find nothing to change it.
It's not so bad for the folders on the desktop but I really need to be able to see picture thumbnails clearly.
What setting am I not setting??
Thanks!!

From your description, it sounds like the "Finder" setting to display all items including those that are invisible has been enabled. In earlier versions of OS X, the behaviour was that only normally invisible items would appear "grayed out" (a useful indicator of its status), whereas normally visible items would have the regular appearance. This changed in "Tiger", where everything appears faded with that setting, something I would consider to be yet another example of the trend in erosion of usability of the OS X "Finder" that seems to accompany every revision.
As far as I know, there is no built in GUI way to change that setting - it likely became enabled through the use of some third party utility. Such utilities are an annoyance because, while they generally do no harm, they do nothing more than set "hidden" settings that are a part of OS X. As such, the effects of the utilities may persist, even after they themselves have been completely removed from the system. Then it is left to the user to try to figure out what setting was modified, or to remember what app they may have downloaded then uninstalled months in the past.
Your options are unfortunately limited, you presumably had chosen to display hidden files in the past for a reason - under 10.4, normally visible items will appear "washed out" when showing invisible items and I'm not aware of a way to change that. On the other hand, disabling the setting should cause visible items to appear with full opacity, but you would no longer be able to see the "invisible" items. The setting can be stored in a number of places, but for starters, to disable it, try launching "/Applications" > "Utilities" > "Terminal.app" and entering these commands:<pre>defaults delete -g AppleShowAllFiles
defaults delete com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles
osascript -e 'tell application "Finder" to quit'</pre>After entering the commands, restart the "Finder" by clicking on its "Dock" icon.

Possible solution to PDFs looking washed out/colors faded

I decided it would be easier to post this as a new thread in itself than to reply to each and every thread related to this problem.
I searched the forums to try and find a solution to images looking washed out/colours looking faded after exporting from InDesign CS3 to PDF.
After looking through the forums I came to the conclusion that the reason the images looked faded was because I have objects with less than 100% opacity in InDesign so if you also have similar settings this may work for you also.
When exporting from InDesign, under the Output tab I changed the Colour Conversion setting to Convert to Destination.
Other than that I left everything else as it was.
This solved my blacks looking washed out, particularly my fonts which had become a sort of grey/brown colour.
However I noticed that on the pages with images after the pages that had objects with varying transparencies, they still suffered from looking washed out.
The next step I came across purely by chance: Opening the PDF using Acrobat, under the Advanced tab I chose PDF Optimiser and noticed that the Transparency option in the sidebar hadn't been checked like the Fonts and Image options had.
So I checked the box and set the Preset to High Resolution and clicked OK.
It took a minute or so to Save the new file and once I opened it, the richness and contrast of the images had returned, if anything slightly over saturated but a lot better than the washed out/faded appearance of the previous document.
Hopefully this will work for a few people out there having the same problem.

I've actually responded a few times to others on the forums regarding images looking washed out/faded in Acrobat 8. I thought I'd pass that information to you here just in case it helps. In those cases, the images that had that appearance either had transparency applied or interacted with it in some way. However, if the file was viewed with the Output Preview dialog open (under Print Production tools) the colors appeared correctly. They would also be correct if the transparency was flattened. As it turns out, there was a bug in Acrobat 8 that affected the onscreen display of those images that interacted with transparency or had it directly applied and the transparency was still "live" (not flattened). This was fixed in the update to 8.1. If you are running 8.0 you might want to try updating to 8.1 and see if that helps?

MBP display is washed out blue, until I open display prefs

My MacBook Pro is just a few days old, but I've noticed a strange problem. On startup, the display is washed out, with a blue tint. But as soon as I open System preferences and click on Display prefs, it snaps back into its proper rich color.
I don't have to adjust anything, it just changes automatically. But it's a pain to have to keep opening system prefs just to get the screen to look right.
The washed out color is easy to notice, because I have the MBP hooked up to an external 20" cinema display, which looks normal.
Is this a hardware or a software problem? Should I take it back to the Apple Store?

I get this on my non primary account when returning to my computer after the screensaver was active (with password).
I believe this isn't specific to MBP. I had this same issue on my old powerbook G4 except that it was when I was switching users.
The issue I believe is related to having a custom colorsync profile. Pre-leopard the bug would not get fixed by opening Displays preference, but required the running of /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/ CoreGraphics.framework/Versions/A/Resources/DMProxy which fixed the screen.

My RAW files look washed out jpegs are OK

My RAW files look washed out, in camera I introduced warm colours by setting it on cloudy and set to vivid. They look great in other programs, how do I retain the original colors?

Buddy, the issue is that Photoshop Camera Raw / Bridge don't use the parameters you set in-camera at all. It may seem odd that it doesn't, but that's the way it works.
The idea is that these software tools give you full control over literally hundreds of factors that go into your raw conversions, and trying to emulate the presets on the camera just doesn't make sense.
You need to save new Camera Raw Defaults to deliver color you like in new exposures you haven't opened before. Check especially the Camera Profile setting in the Camera Calibration tab in Camera Raw. Adobe does provide some options that will get you close to what the camera does, then you can tweak the settings further.
For what it's worth, it's not wrong to want the color to match, especially if you like the color the camera delivers. I've created Camera Raw Defaults for my own cameras that provide a very good match between the in-camera color and what a new exposure looks like when first opened in Camera Raw... I don't always leave it that way, though.
-Noel

Why do my images look washed out...

Why do my images look washed out after I have worked in Photoshop CS6 and saved them in Finder? I have been a Photoshop user for a while now and have never experienced this problem. It started 2 months ago and no one can seem to tell me why or how to fix it. I am a professional photographer and I have clients waiting on their images but I can't send them looking as horrible as they do. My workflow is: drag and drop an image from iPhoto or Finder to Photoshop. I change things like levels, contrast, image size and use the healing too. Then I save to Finder so I can upload to dropbox or to website or burn to a DVD. Now when I save the image the thumbnail looks washed out, without color and looks horrible!!! I don't know if my photo files are corrupted or ? If I open the image in Photoshop or Bridge it looks fine. I would be grateful for any suggestions or explanation. Things were working just fine, but not now.

Examining the image direct from the camera of the child on the beach, using http://regex.info/exif.cgi there is a small embedded thumbnail (with black bars top-and-bottom to letterbox it to the LCD aspect ratio), and a small preview probably used for zooming in on the camera LCD screen, and the fullsize jpg image all contained in the one JPG file. All three of these seem to have identical histograms other than the black-bars causing a dark peak on the thumbnail image, but otherwise the shapes of the histograms and the position of the peaks from light to dark are the same.
In other words the full-size JPG and the embedded preview and thumbnail all seem the same other than size so the darkened version seen in Finder is not coming from the camera. The one issue the above website reports is that the camera JPG has a color-profile tag (name of the profile) but does not actually contain the color profile, itself. All other versions of the image have an actual embedded profile not just the name in a tag. It is possible that this is confusing Finder into assuming a different profile or gamma curve for the image that sRGB warrants, but most all camera images have this issue so I wouldn't expect a Mac to show images from all cameras as too dark.
It is a mystery to me why the Finder preview looks darker, but at least in the one side-by-side provided, it does, and is different-looking than all other representations of the image from what I can see.
At the beginning of this thread you said you were worried the photos coming out of Photoshop were washed out and had bad colors. From my perspective, what comes out of Photoshop looks the same as what comes out of the camera, so only Finder has it wrong. Are you seeing the darker image anywhere else besides Finder (and perhaps iPhoto which we don't have a screenshot of)?
Most importantly does the image you see on screen in Photoshop, while you're making adjustments, look dark like the pre-PS Finder thumbnail or does it look lighter, like the post-PS Finder thumbnail and all the images on DropBox?
If more than just the pre-PS Finder thumbnail is darker then you may have a monitor calibration issue that needs to be addressed, otherwise just ignore the pre-PS Finder thumbnail when evaluating if the image needs any adjustments and assume they are all ligher than the Finder image.
BTW, I tested for a sRGB vs AdobeRGB mismatch, and if an sRGB image is assigned an Adobe profile then the colors become more intense but the whole image does not become darker so that can't explain what is happening.

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.

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

How come start up screen colors look washed out.

Hi,
I tried to change the background for the login startup screen on my iMac. I noticed that the colors from my image appears faded.
When I look at the image in other origram(ie. preview) the colors are what they should be.
So what is OS X(Lion) doing to cause the colrs to look this way? And is there a way to fix it?
Thanks and I look forward to your reply.
...Bruce

I had this problem with my R705 too. It has to do with one of the bloatware that is already installed from the factory. The reason that I say this is because after I put in a ssd and did a clean install without any of the bloatware, I don't get the washed out screen effect anymore. Now which one of the bloatware is responsible for this, i couldn't tell you.

20" Intel iMac - DISPLAY LOOKS YELLOWISH WHEN VIEWED FROM AN ANGLE?

Just got a brand new 20" iMac and the display looks great when looking at it 'straight on', however when viewing the display from an angle (and just a slight angle) all of the white and lighter colors in a photo change to an annoying 'yellowish' color...go figure?
Is this normal or ???
Are there any settings to adjust in the System Preferences / Display?

Thanks George for the link...
Wow...little did I know about the dreaded viewing angle of a TN display. In fact, I went to an Apple Store yesterday and checked out several 20" and 24" iMacs and every 20" iMac had the viewing angle problem while the 24" iMacs showed no signs of this issue.
I plan to return the 20" unit and upgrade to the 24" iMac...thank goodness for the 14 day return policy, however with the 10% restocking fee...ugh!

IMac Display stretched and out of focus

My iMac display is not right. It is slightly enlarged and out of focus. I have already tried the display settings and holding the control key and scrolling down. I also tried restarting. Nothing is working. Last night I tried configuring my router for wireless. I supposedly made it secure with a password, which I had to use to connect to my network. The screen thing happened after that. This morning I checked the connection again and the little lock icon was no longer there. Could the two be related? Please help! I am obviously not very apt with computers, but I'm trying.

This resolved my issues:
Preferrences > Accessibility > Zoom
then, uncheck Zoom and uncheck Zoom follows keboard focus.
Wait a few minutes. You can rechec them again but it won't go back to the stretched and out of focus look. I don't know why.

My 2009 imac display looks washed out

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for