Why is my canvas not white, colours appear incorrectly or the UI is not rendered as expected?

[Dan C]

The Affinity apps perform what is called document-to-screen colour profile conversion.
This means that the colour values are translated from their initial document values based on the current display profile.
Other apps do not perform such conversions, so these incorrect colours may only be shown within Affinity.

If you find your apps canvas is not displayed as white, your colours appear incorrectly, or even the applications UI is not rendered as expected, this is usually caused by the colour profile (ICC profile) applied to your display/device.

Colour profiles can be applied automatically by the manufacturer of your display/device or can be manually created using a third party colorimeter for display calibration.

If your Affinity app is showing an off white canvas, or incorrect colours, we recommend changing your display's colour profile to sRGB IEC61966-2.1 to resolve this.

 

For Windows users:

1. Open Windows Run (Windows Key + R)
    
2. Type colorcpl and click OK
    
3. In the Devices tab, select the current monitor from the Devices dropdown menu and make sure Use my settings for this device is selected.
    
4. If a profile is currently listed:
   Select the profile in the list and then click Remove. You will be prompted to confirm, please select Continue.
   If no profile is currently listed:
   Proceed to the next step
    
5. Click Add... and select sRGB IEC61966-2.1 from the list and click OK. Do not use the 'virtual' sRGB profiles.
   The sRGB IEC61966-2.1 profile should now appear in the Profiles associated with this device: section.
    
6. Select the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 profile and click Set as Default Profile to make it the default.
    
7. If you have multiple monitors, please repeat the steps above by selecting your other monitor(s) from the Device dropdown list.
    
8. Close the Colour Management window and restart your Affinity app.

Your Colour Management settings should appear similar to the below:

 

For macOS users:

1. Navigate to Apple > System Settings > Displays
    
2. Select your main device/display from the top of the dialog, if multiple devices are connected
    
3. Change the Colour Profile option to sRGB IEC61966-2.1
    
4. If you have multiple devices, please repeat the steps above by selecting your other monitor(s) at the top of the dialog
    
5. Close the System Settings window and restart your Affinity app.

Your display settings should now appear similar to the below:

 

If you have followed the above steps and are still experiencing colour issues in the Affinity apps, please create a new post detailing your problem, the profile(s) you have tried, and include a copy of your Affinity document if this only occurs in one specific file.