JPG will not display in IE8

I had a client contact me with the problem that on his site a jpg will not display in IE8, but is showing up in other browsers. After checking the code and viewing the image in multiple browsers, including IE8 mode (using IE10’s web developer tools), I was convinced it was a problem with the client’s machine.

I went to http://www.browserstack.com/screenshots to get an official IE8 screenshot that I could show the client was working for everyone else.  Of course I was wrong, the image did not display in true IE8 (rather than IE10’s web developer tools).

Why would the JPG not display in IE8?

After I finally figured out it was a problem with the image, I viewed the image meta data ( using COMMAND+i on a Mac ) and low and behold, the color space was CMYK (rather than RGB). Turns out IE8 does NOT display jpg’s with color space CMYK.

Here is an example CMYK jpg, which will not display in IE8.

Sal Ferrarello (@salcode)

Sal is a PHP developer with a focus on the WordPress platform. He is a conference speaker with a background including Piano Player, Radio DJ, Magician/Juggler, Beach Photographer, and High School Math Teacher. Sal can be found professionally at WebDevStudios, where he works as a senior backend engineer.