Images on the official website look wrong in color, and in many cases it's not a matter of image quality, but of using the wrong color mode. This kind of problem is especially common in companies that produce both online and offline materials.
Scope of Application of the Two Modes
The screen-display-oriented mode is based on the mixing of red, green, and blue light. It is suitable for web pages, apps, videos, and other scenarios, and can represent a wider color range. The print-oriented mode is based on the overlay of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black inks, and is suitable for physical printed materials such as brochures, packaging, and business cards.
The two are not different expressions of the same color space, but two different ways of generating color. When a file in print mode is displayed on screen, the colors lose saturation and appear overall grayish and dark—this is the most common "website images looking gray" phenomenon.
An Easily Overlooked Step
The problem often arises during the image workflow. If product photography directly reuses design files for printed materials, and website production then exports assets from those files, the images unknowingly carry the color profile of print mode. Because the difference on screen is sometimes not glaring, this problem is often discovered only after the site goes live.
In addition, the resolution of images used for printing is usually far higher than what web pages need. Uploading them directly not only causes color problems, but the file size is also too large, which slows down page loading.
How to Check and Handle It
The first step is to confirm the image's color profile information. Images for web use should be tagged with the standard screen-oriented color space. The second step is conversion and export: in image processing software, perform a color profile conversion, convert the image to the standard color space, and preserve the color profile information when exporting, so that display on different devices will be more consistent.
The third step is to control dimensions and file size. Export according to the actual display size of the image on the page; there is no need to use the high resolution required for printing. This step solves both clarity and loading speed issues at the same time.
If there are many images from mixed sources, you can add a check at the asset intake stage, making color profile information and file size fixed acceptance items, rather than relying on manual suspicion every time.
Treat It as Part of the Process
Color deviation may not seem like a big problem when looking at a single image, but if all the images on a website are grayish, users' perception of the brand will be dragged down. The easier approach is to write the requirements for color mode, dimensions, and format into the image asset specification, so that online and offline assets are handled separately from the source. This is basic work, yet it rarely requires rework.