Same monitor, same image, different colors

[Charles2]

There is a noticeable difference between the colors that PWP displays and the colors of the same image file when displayed in FastStone, a free image viewer of good quality (better than Irfanview, for example). FastStone shows more red. This happens with TIF and JPG files. The family views finished images in FastStone. While editing, I sometimes open PWP's working file pw_image_nn.tif in FastStone to check what we will be viewing if I finish the edits at this point. The monitor is S-IPS.

I do not have Photoshop. I wonder whether there is a similar discrepancy.

[afx]

Do you have a calibrated/profiled screen?
Is CM switched on in Faststone (by default it is off)?
Are both programs using the same monitor profile?

cheers
afx

[Charles2]

Do you have a calibrated/profiled screen?
Only by eye, using HP Display Assistant adjustments
Is CM switched on in Faststone (by default it is off)?
Yes, color management is on
Are both programs using the same monitor profile?
PWP is set to use the HP monitor profile

[afx]

Sounds very much messed up.
If you use the HP profile then the monitor should be left at defaults....
Best is turn off all CM in PWP and Faststone for now.

Invest a few €/$/Whatever and get yourself a calibration/profiling device, otherwise you will always have a mess.

cheers
afx

[Charles2]

Thank you, I changed PWP's File | Color Management | monitor profile back to None. That helped. I'd set PWP to use a monitor profile bearing the name of the monitor. I guess that consists of the settings I'd chosen in HP Display Assistant, so they were applied by PWP then again in the monitor or its software. Those settings downplay red relative to blue and green.

As far as I can find, FastStone color management only uses a profile embedded in a JPG, not a monitor profile.

[jsachs]

I don't know if Faststone is color managed or not, but it sounds like it may not be.

One experiment to try is to turn off CM in PWP and see how closely images match.

Also it is possible Faststone is getting its monitor profile setting from Windows (see advanced settings in Display control panel) and using a different profile from the one PWP is set to.

Using a manufacturer-supplied profile is not always a good idea. Unless you profile your display with a hardware device, using sRGB may be the best approach.