PSP X8 Colors Not Accurate & Dropper Tool Not Working

[EchoChrist]

I hope some of you might have some idea how I can correct this.

Just upgraded to Paint Shop Pro X8 from X7. On screen colors do not appear the same in X8 as they do in X7. Colors are much darker and tinted differently. Same images on same computer and same monitor. Something I noticed for instance, if I create a new image and flood fill with foreground color #808080 it has a greenish tint. Should just be Gray. If I use the dropper tool to left click the color I just filled with, it changes the foreground color to #595e41. If I change the foreground color to #808080 and use the sampling tool from the materials toolbar to select the foreground color in the materials toolbar, it will change my foreground color to #595e41. If I use the sampling tool to choose the default PSP X8 background color and floodfill a new image with that color, it is not even close. It should be #787878 it is actually #50563b. All of this work fine in X7.

Any ideas?

Thanks for your time.

lbp

[JoeB]

The first thing to check would be your Color Management settings. Go to File>Color Management in your previous PSP and see what settings you have chosen there. Then go to the same place in X8 and make sure those settings are the same.

[EchoChrist]

JoeB,

Thanks for your response.. You help and time are very much appreciated.

You are definitely on to something with your idea of where to start. I opened X7 on one monitor and X8 on my other monitor. I pulled up the Color Management profile and they were identical on both. An odd thing happened however. I closed the Color management profile in X7 and immediately the colors on an image I had opened in both versions changed. X7 now has the same issues the new installation of X8 has.

Further testing has revealed this clue that may help. Setting the foreground color to #787878 and clicking on the foreground color in the materials toolbar with the sampling tool several times in a row causes the color to become greener and greener until it finally stops at #000400.

If you have any ideas please let me know.

Thanks
lbp

[JoeB]

I do not know how Color Management in Windows works when you are using two different monitors on the same computer system or why closing a program's color profile on one monitor would cause that monitor to behave (colorwise) like the second monitor. And I'm not sure what you mean by saying you closed the profile on X7. Does that mean you closed the File>Color Management dialogue or that you disabled color management. I hadn't expected you to open the two programs on 2 different monitors. So somebody else will likely have to chime in.

However, while you're waiting, you can always start from square one. That is, start by opening only X7 on your usual monitor and confirm that the colors are correct (i.e., that they look the way you have always expected them to look). If so, what is the color management profile you have chosen? Generally it should show the sRGB color profile and you can untick Enable Color Management. Then close X7 and open X8. If the colors are different do the same thing by unticking Enable Color Management and see if the colors revert to the same as they looked on X7. IMHO, if disabling Color Management makes both programs present the same colors then I would think it really is a color management settings issue. If they still show different colors with color management disabled and on the same monitor then I wouldn't have a clue what's happening I'm afraid.