What Color Profile should I chose (Calibrated iMac Display)

[UnbreakableAlex]

Hi Guys!

I colorcalibrated my iMac 2020 17" display with Spyder Elite and wonder if I should chose that profile or if I should leave it on sRGB.

Intuitively I think I should chose my Spyder profile, so I can see the colors of my pictures as accurate as possible.

Btw.: Should I use 8 or 16 Bit? I just want to use the repair brush on my already color graded JPEG, that i've exported from Capture One (I used RAW there)

EDIT: Ok, the JPEGs are in 8Bit, so I guess it makes no sense to put affinity in 16 Bit, so I will use 8 Bit.

Using Affinity Photo 2.

 

Cheers

Alex

Edited February 19, 2023 by UnbreakableAlex

[NotMyFault]

Hi,

never use a Display or Printer profile as document profile for RGB documents.

Use one of the standard profiles, depending on use case:

• sRGB for least common denominator to avoid all compatibility issues
• DCI-P3 works on almost every device today (Apple, Android, Windows, Linux, all Browsers). All current Macs support this profile
• AdobeRGB for documents intended to be printed

Always work in RGB/16, to avoid banding and other issues while editing. You can export the final result in RGB8.

[Jim_A]

As I understand it, your custom Spyder monitor profile should be selected in your operating system's display preferences. For macOS, this is set in System Preferences > Displays > Color.

When working in graphics programmes such as Affinity Photo, select a device independent colour profile such as sRGB.

That way, the document you are working on in the device independent colour space (e.g. sRGB) is converted by the OS using your custom monitor profile for display onscreen.

If you send the sRGB file to someone else, they will view it through *their* monitor's unique calibration profile, and in theory you will both see the same colours.

You also have to make an offering to the colour management gods.

If in doubt, work in sRGB!

[debraspicher]

Your calibrated profile is for system-wide\OS color management. Your document color profile (AdobeRGB,sRGB,etc) is for distribution when that image is exported and its color mgmt is handled by the exporting application and the application used to view later.

I use AdobeRGB for illustrations and photography, but, the ICC profile has to be embedded for other apps to display it. There is a dropdown on export if you need a different profile even if you work in Adobe. If distributed through the web, there is a chance this image gets read without a profile. So in those cases I work in AdobeRGB, but convert to sRGB on output if I expect it to be very widely distributed. If it is something I want tightly controlled then I leave Adobe profile embedded. These are just personal preferences, not some rule... But it is generally safer to use sRGB because most apps default to this color space if the file is rewritten somewhere without the profile for some reason, or, doesn't support reading embedded profiles... Then sRGB is usually the default  for applications in those scenarios.

Never distribute your monitor profile. It only applies to, well, the way your monitor handles color. The hope is you calibrate your display with highest possible accuracy using this profile, then work within the target color space (sRGB, etc) in applications and most people are able to see your work as intended on export.