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Why do Firefox 5 UI Colors/Brightness change across monitors?

  • 1 reply
  • 4 have this problem
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  • Last reply by javert03

javert03
javert03
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I have a Macbook + 1 external monitor. I'm running OS X 10.6. I don't have any special calibration tools, but I have calibrated my external monitor to roughly match the colors and brightness of my Macbook's monitor. Normally, applications/pictures etc dragged from one screen to the other look approximately the same.

Before yesterday, I was still using Firefox 3.6 which, like Chrome and Safari, looked the same on both monitors. Now I've upgraded to Firefox 5 which looks horribly washed-out on my external monitor. I think it's somehow messing with color profiles because there's a distinct point during the move between monitors at which its color and brightness change.

I don't mean simply that the images displayed in the browser are somewhat different. I mean the Firefox UI itself changes. Please take a look at the full-screen recording of what I mean: http://optimizationbureau.com/color_change.mov (warning: 1280x800).

Thanks.

I have a Macbook + 1 external monitor. I'm running OS X 10.6. I don't have any special calibration tools, but I have calibrated my external monitor to roughly match the colors and brightness of my Macbook's monitor. Normally, applications/pictures etc dragged from one screen to the other look approximately the same. Before yesterday, I was still using Firefox 3.6 which, like Chrome and Safari, looked the same on both monitors. Now I've upgraded to Firefox 5 which looks horribly washed-out on my external monitor. I think it's somehow messing with color profiles because there's a distinct point during the move between monitors at which its color and brightness change. I don't mean simply that the images displayed in the browser are somewhat different. I mean the Firefox UI itself changes. Please take a look at the full-screen recording of what I mean: http://optimizationbureau.com/color_change.mov (warning: 1280x800). Thanks.

All Replies (1)

javert03
javert03 Question owner
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I did some more digging and here's what I found:

The problem does not appear when Firefox is run in safe mode, but it does appear in a newly-created profile with no extensions and with all plugins disabled and using the default theme. Therefore pretty much the only other thing to check is hardware acceleration.

Sure enough, disabling hardware acceleration fixes the problem. Go to Preferences->Advanced->General and uncheck "Use hardware acceleration when available". Restart your browser and everything should be fine.

Modified by javert03