[WinMac] Darker PC graphics than Mac graphics?

Alex Dearden(pata[at]tampabay.rr.com)
Tue, 23 Feb 1999 23:10:51 -0500

> About halfway down, there was a paragraph that I'm quoting below; but the
>issue merits discussion here - Mainly that games created on the Mac and
>ported to the PC appear too dark. The default Mac settings are for a gamma
>of 1.8, and a 9300 degree white point.
>
> What am I missing here?

PCs use a gamma of 2.2 (much darker) and a white point that ranges all
over the scale, from 9300 (very few of them) bluer whites to 5000 (again
few) very yellow-reddish whites.

So when you develop graphics on a Mac and they look fine on a 1.8 gamma
9300K white point, as soon as you see them on a PC with 2.2 gamma they
appear darker.

This is a problem that every cross-platform designer faces and you have
to compromise on a graphic that looks good on both (web masters will know
what I'm talking about) or make one version for each.

Font size is another big issue but a different can of worms.

Some software now actually simulates the way a graphic will look on a Mac
and a PC so you can see the difference.

In a perfect world, wher Colorsync would be available cross-platform
(soon!) or if color management worked on the PC side, you could attenuate
this problem a little bit...

Alex Dearden
pata@doglover.com

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