How to turn off color management

[JamesFrankel]

I have a monitor that came with it's own color profile (Dell U2723QE).

I'm making stuff for a game engine which does not support color management (and have source images without a color profile), so I need the images to look the way they would when color management is turned off (for example, in XnView MP, you can turn that option off).

There are work-arounds using "Assign Color Profile" and using "Rasterize" on imported images (this thread, especially the last comment, explains the whole thing well), but those are not viable options for me, because I need the imported images to stay image layers, among others.

So, please, please, tell me there's an option to just turn the color management off in Affinity Photo!
This has been a real pain point so far, since Affinity is displaying the colors completely wrong (from my perspective) and I am not able to get any work done.
In other software like GIMP, this has been so problem, only in Affinity Photo.

I've tried different things, like the soft proof option, but that one only really worked for printed color profiles and nothing else.

 

[lacerto]

7 hours ago, JamesFrankel said:

I'm making stuff for a game engine which does not support color management (and have source images without a color profile), so I need the images to look the way they would when color management is turned off (for example, in XnView MP, you can turn that option off).

You can have your images rendered with native colors by using your monitor color profile as you RGB color profile (In Preferences > Color), or using it explicitly when assigning and converting to monitor color space. (Rendering would of course then be device dependent so basically pretty much random...).

Note though that Affinity color management is a bit inconsistent and you may still get sRGB factory default color space assigned to opened images without a color profile (instead of having the default working color space assigned), and get colors rendered identically even if you have placed images with multiple embedded color profiles, and have distinct color values rendered only in Export Preview (with document color profile selected), or after exporting. 

As sRGB is still probably the most common display color gamut, it might be a good idea to use it to approximate a typical color rendering and user experience, even if color management is not supported in the end product, and exports are created without embedding a color profile.

[NotMyFault]

Color managed is required and active on multiple levels e.g. application, OS, display or printer.

You can’t or need to turn it off to get consistent results. Instead you need to configure it consistently over the full chain of devices and apps.

most modern display can be switched to different modes like sRGB, P3, AdobeRGB etc.

as explained by lacerto, sRGB is the common standard since ages, and you need to set you display into sRGB mode, and the OS to use an sRGB profile, and use sRGB as document profile in Affinity apps. 
 

never the less, you should get identical results when using the native display color profile (often P3) and activate the matching profile in OS, but still use sRGB as document profile in Affinity apps.

There are some pitfalls, depending on OS. Microsoft Windows 11 recently changed (default) color management globally as many apps (not Affinity) get it completely wrong, and assumes apps are working in sRGB, and automatically adjust to deviating display profiles.

So please check the on-screen-menu of you Dell display:

• activate sRGB mode (Menu „colors“, mode: color space, then sRGB).
• deactivate Bluelight reduction

in (Windows?), use a sRGB display profile, not the Dell profile.

[JamesFrankel]

Thanks a lot to both of you!

I did some testing based on it (image of table in attachment).

So basically, whatever I set in "Preferences > Color" in Affinity didn't seem to have any effect, only what I set in the Windows Color Management setting had an effect.

The crazy thing is, whenever I set the standard sRGB IEC...2.1 color profile in Windows, the colors were finally "correct" in Affinity... regardless of what color preset I had set on the actual monitor (P3 or sRGB)!

This is just so weird to me... the monitor actually comes with color profiles and everything, and logically, I would expect the correct setting to be where all three entities (monitor, Windows, Affinity) are set to the same, monitor-based profile, but instead, only setting the standard sRGB on Windows was the solution. So weird.

Anyways, thanks again for the help, I wouldn't have had the idea to set a non-monitor color profile in Windows on my own, since my gut feeling would tell me that that shouldn't be right.

I anyone knows the exact cause for this behavior, I'd be curious to hear!

EDIT: Also, one more question... on the Dell monitor, the sRGB profile is so to speak the 'correct' one for web- and screen-based work, is that about right? And what exactly is the P3 color profile for? Just for looking nicer, or is it more for printed work?

Edited January 16 by JamesFrankel

[R C-R]

37 minutes ago, JamesFrankel said:

So basically, whatever I set in "Preferences > Color" in Affinity didn't seem to have any effect, only what I set in the Windows Color Management setting had an effect.

If I understand what you mean correctly, those color settings determine the defaults for new documents but they do not have any effect on documents already saved with another profile.

[JamesFrankel]

37 minutes ago, R C-R said:

If I understand what you mean correctly, those color settings determine the defaults for new documents but they do not have any effect on documents already saved with another profile.

I always restarted Affinity Photo after changing the Windows color profile settings and just dragged in an image.

I have an older project opened right now which appeared washed out previously, which now looks much better.

Then again, Affinity Photo seems to always "reapply" the current color profile settings to image layers (see this thread), so yeah, for rasterized layers, it probably does not have any effect, as you mentioned (then again, nothing has an effect on rasterized layers, I believe, other than "Assign color profile").

[NotMyFault]

Do not use Dell sRGB for Affinity Documents, or any other Device Profile.

The Profile between Display in in Windows must match, and there you can use a generic sRGB or DellsRGB profile.

The profile in Affinity should always be a device independent profile, and for your specific use case sRGB

The Dell sRGB could be just a copy of the sRGB profile, or deviate. To be on the save side, don’t use it for documents.

Your table is valuable. It shows that there is still an issue with color management in your setup, because P3 /P3 / sRGB should render the same colors as sRGB/sRGB/sRGB. 
the differences could lie in brightness settings and other parameters (HDR mode on/off in OS or Display).