Washed-out colors in your web browser?

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2 Comments

Try turning off hardware acceleration

Are you getting washed-out colors in your web browser? Does the same website seem a different color when using a different web browser? Are you seeing this website in the colors it was designed to show?

There are many web browsers for Windows, and depending on your browser’s settings and your hardware, some of them might not show color exactly the same way – when installed on your system.

Below you can see an image of the same logo in 4 different browsers on my PC – Edge, Chrome, Firefox, and Opera.

In my case, Edge and Firefox showed the same correct colors, while Chrome and Opera shared a different, more washed-out color than Edge and Firefox.

Washed-out colors showing in different browsers

If you think you might have this issue on your system, you can test this by sampling different colors online in different web browsers, using a color picker tool. I used Snipaste.

Going to YouTube.com and sampling the YouTube logo with the color picker, produced a proper red color in Edge, but a washed-out red color in Chrome.

Sampling colour in Chrome and Edge with a colour picker

How do you fix this?

Washed-out colors in your web browser? In my case, there was a simple fix. If you are getting washed-out colors or different colors showing in different browsers, go to the browser’s settings and try turning off `Hardware Acceleration’.

Google Chrome:

In Google Chrome, go to Settings, and then switch off `Use hardware acceleration when available’.

Turn off Hardware Accleration in Chrome settings

Opera:

In Opera, go to Settings, and make sure `Use hardware acceleration when available’ is toggled off.

Turn off Hardware Accleration in Opera settings

So for me, turning off Hardware Acceleration in Chrome and Opera, made both of these browsers show colors as they are supposed to show. Here it is now in Chrome:

Colors are no longer washed-out

As you can see, compared to the image further up the page, Chrome now shows color correctly and similar to Microsoft Edge.

It all depends on your browser’s settings, coupled with your system’s video card or video driver. I use an NVIDIA GTX 970 video card, and I always keep the driver up to date.

Are you seeing washed-out colors in your web browser?

Edit: Microsoft Edge is now based on the Chromium engine (the same as Google Chrome)

2 Comments

  1. YES! Thank you! I’ve been having issues with Chrome recently and after hours of searching this worked and fixed the issue – colours look great again!
    Thank you for sharing this!

    1. Author

      Thanks, Adam!
      You have some cool photos on your site.
      People can visit you by clicking on your name.
      Cheers.

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