MacOS – Did Mavericks change the Mac’s color profiles

colormacos

I just updated to Mavericks and noticed that the Skype icon in my dock is a deeper blue than it was before, and it looks like there's more contrast in general. Did the new version of OS X modify the color profiles?

I do web design work, so color accuracy is pretty important for me. I got used to the old colors, so this change might be problematic for me.

Did OS X change the color profiles? Is there a way to turn them back?

Best Answer

Looking at the standard profiles included with Mac OS X suggests two profiles have changed:

  • Generic Gray Gamma 2.2 Profile.icc
  • Generic Gray Profile.icc

Profile md5 Signatures

The profiles were compared using a simple file content check using md5:

cd /System/Library/ColorSync/Profiles
md5 *

OS X 10.8

MD5 (AdobeRGB1998.icc) = dea88382d899d5f6e573b432473ae138
MD5 (Generic CMYK Profile.icc) = 25352f2fbfee39fe64c943b6fb0c8c4e
MD5 (Generic Gray Gamma 2.2 Profile.icc) = ad1250d8b778217110effe8e3423a9fb
MD5 (Generic Gray Profile.icc) = 38b0f5b73c0e2eb5beca4d8deef9cde9
MD5 (Generic Lab Profile.icc) = f7d68a979692ff32180a87a4b6837a70
MD5 (Generic RGB Profile.icc) = 0d258bad36b64cebfb9e6826c3ed5037
MD5 (Generic XYZ Profile.icc) = aad1e8dbdf81721d9e983f0b0ffcb046
MD5 (sRGB Profile.icc) = 1d3fda2edb4a89ab60a23c5f7c7d81dd

OS X 10.9

MD5 (AdobeRGB1998.icc) = dea88382d899d5f6e573b432473ae138
MD5 (Generic CMYK Profile.icc) = 25352f2fbfee39fe64c943b6fb0c8c4e
MD5 (Generic Gray Gamma 2.2 Profile.icc) = 242a41879c1d88202a6863d14fa729b2
MD5 (Generic Gray Profile.icc) = 475ffd27e43ca94bd4bf997990076e0a
MD5 (Generic Lab Profile.icc) = f7d68a979692ff32180a87a4b6837a70
MD5 (Generic RGB Profile.icc) = 0d258bad36b64cebfb9e6826c3ed5037
MD5 (Generic XYZ Profile.icc) = aad1e8dbdf81721d9e983f0b0ffcb046
MD5 (sRGB Profile.icc) = 1d3fda2edb4a89ab60a23c5f7c7d81dd

ColorSync Utility

You can use the included ColorSync Utility to examine the ColorSync profile in use by your displays.

Applications > Utilities > ColorSync Utility.app

Using this utility you can compare profiles with your last OS X 10.8 back-up and, optionally, restore any custom profiles you created. Restore easy access to prior profile by placing them within the /Library/ColorSync/Profiles folder.

ColorSync Utility.app

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