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While working on my new blog theme I ran into some color rendering issues with Safari. The background color set with CSS did not match the color used in the background image.The background color was set in CSS as #333333, the color in the .gif was shown as #424242. The problem only occurs in Safari not in Firefox and not in Internet Explorer. The problem is also not .gif related it also occurs with .png or .jpg images.

At first I thought it was a bug in Safari but it actually turned out that Safari is one of the browsers that is somewhat ahead of its “competitors”. It reads and renders images according to the color profile stored in the image. How the color profiles are rendered is described with a ICC level indicator.

After reading several articles and being pointed in the direction of the color profile it was time to examine the images. It turned out that the image was saved with a "Generic RGB Profile".

There are several ways to solve this problem so far I found three:

• Use an image for the background instead of the CSS style
• Set the color profile to sRGB
• Remove the color profile

The first solution uses a background image instead of the background color in the CSS. It works but it feels more like a workaround than a solution. The color is defined in images, not really flexible. On top of that it looks different across browsers.

Setting the color profile to sRGB did solve my problem but it depends on the color profile of the local system. If the system uses a different color profile it could again cause color mismatches.

Removing the color profile seems to be the best out of the three options. No need to change the CSS and no system dependency. The only extra work you have is to save the images without the default color profile or strip it afterwards. Another advantage is that he size of the image is also reduced.Relevant links:
How to Avoid Background Color Matching Problems with Safari
Color Rendering Difference: Firefox vs. Safari
Fixing JPG And PNG Colour Matching In Safari
This is your Mac on drugs
Color Spaces
Why your Web content will look darker on Snow Leopard
Is your system ICC Version 4 ready?

Connecting to a Remote Desktop can be a rude awakening when you are confronted with jagged edges on the otherwise smooth icons. If you use it remote administration this is not a problem. On the other hand if you want to use it for developing software or as a regular desktop, you really want 32-bit color on your remote desktop.

Without the 32-bit color depth you do not have Clear Type fonts you do not see the icons as they were meant and Aero is also out of the question. What you do get is extra strain on the eyes while reading the screen.

When I first encountered the 16-bit limitation I was looking at the client-side to bypass the limitation. No luck there. Until I ran into an blog post that talked about enabling Aero in a remote Windows 2008 session. The solution was not on the client but was on the server.

The 16-bit limitation is set on the server side and can be changed in the Terminal Server Configuration:

• Open the Terminal Server Configuration on the remote host.
• Select the RDP-Tcp connection, right click on it and select “Properties”.
• Select the “Client Settings” tab.

The screen below shows the default 16-bit limitation.

• Select the “32 bits per pixel” option in the dropdown menu.
• Click on OK and close the Terminal Services Configuration.

The only thing left to do is to set the color depth in the Remote Desktop Connection. If you want to set this up for Windows 2008 R2 you first have to add the “Remote Desktop Services” role and enable option “Desktop composition”. Read the previously mentioned post “Aero Glass Remoting in Windows Server 2008 R2” for more detailed instructions.