Some images seem to be automatically modified by preview when you open them – in particular, the color saturation changes.
For example, I see an image with a certain shade of red in Finder's cover flow, but when I open it in preview, that red is now slightly desaturated. If I save the image, cover flow now shows the desaturated red – so Preview.app is certainly doing something.
Why is it doing this and how do I make it stop?
Best Answer
This seems to have something to do with the color profile. You can change the used profile to display an image in preview by using View -> Soft Proof with Profile.
Finder uses your displays calibration-profile by default
reference: http://photo.net/digital-darkroom-forum/00TmxN