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Hi aristidesfl,

 

Is there some reason you are using "Color LCD" as your Display profile? Where did that profile come from?

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I am not sure of this but I think "Color LCD" is a generic profile Apple shipped with older MacBooks, while newer ones (or at least iMacs) come with a profile factory calibrated to that specific Mac's display. Either way, over the years the colors will drift so by now it won't be more than approximately accurate, nor would it be the correct one for an external display.

 

That may be relevant if Apple's Digital Color Meter app displays color values based on the display profile while Affinity bases them on the document working profile, but I don't know if that is true or not. Maybe the staff can tell us more about that?

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Still that doesn't explain the difference in color between the Affinity's color swatch and the document right?

I don't know if it does or not ... it depends on what the Apple app bases its color values on vs. the Affinity one.

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Afiinity's color swatch vs Affinity's document. Not about about Apple's Digital Color Meter

I do not understand what you mean by that. In your screen shots you seem to be comparing Affinity's color values to those of the Apple app. I do not know what you mean about Affinity's color swatch vs. Affinity's document -- as far as I know the Swatches panel will show whatever color values you have set, either manually or with the picker. The document itself does not have a color; only objects in it do.

 

Can you explain a bit more about what you mean?

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The Apple Digital Color meter is merely used to measure the color on the screen, not the point.

 

With color of the document, I obviously mean the color of the object in the document.

 

You measure the the color displayed in the affinitiy color panel, you measure the object color, you realise they are different. This seems to vary depending on the system color profile you are using.

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With color of the document, I obviously mean the color of the object in the document.

Yes, but how are you measuring that? If not with Apple's Digital Color Meter, then with what?

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The Apple Digital Color Meter measures the color of the screen pixel(s), based on the display profile. As far as I know, Affinity displays colors based on the working profile. Obviously, if you change the display profile, or use one for a different display, then the values it shows will change, right?

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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The Apple Digital Color Meter measures the color of the screen pixel(s), based on the display profile. As far as I know, Affinity displays colors based on the working profile. Obviously, if you change the display profile, or use one for a different display, then the values it shows will change, right?

 

The Apple Digital Color Meter measures the color of the screen pixel(s) as it is output by the system display buffer. There are multiple profiles in different buffer which contribute to that result. http://ricciadams.com/articles/osx-color-conversions/#osxis a good read.

 

One of those profiles is set in Affinity's. Independently of the profile selected in the system, the colors should change consistently. The color panel and the object should display the same color.

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From your link:

"As long as each buffer uses the same color profile, no color conversion occurs. This means that the value seen in a color meter utility is the same as the original value in the image file. However, when different profiles are involved, the value shown by a color meters will not be the same as the original value in the file."

 

Also:

"The behaviors mentioned above are guidelines — individual applications may use additional buffers and/or explicitly assign color profiles."

 

I am still not sure what you mean by "The color panel and the object should display the same color." Where & how do you see the object displaying a different color from the color panel?

 

Edit #2:

More to the point, again from the same article:

I can use a system-wide color meter to see an image file's RGB data.
False. You can use a color meter to approximate the file's original data, but there is no guarantee that one or more lossy color conversions haven't already occured. In order to see the file's original data, you need open the file in an image editor and use its built-in color meter or eyedropper tool. Note that even then, the data may not be accurate, as system image APIs may have performed a color conversion upon opening.

 

Edited by R C-R

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Everything you quoted from the article makes sense, don't understand what is your point with it.

 

I am still not sure what you mean by "The color panel and the object should display the same color." Where & how do you see the object displaying a different color from the color panel?

 

Maybe this picture answers this question more clearly.

 

post-1106-0-96743600-1485361027_thumb.png

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Everything you quoted from the article makes sense, don't understand what is your point with it.

 

What is unclear about this:

 

"You can use a color meter to approximate the file's original data, but there is no guarantee that one or more lossy color conversions haven't already occured. In order to see the file's original data, you need open the file in an image editor and use its built-in color meter or eyedropper tool. Note that even then, the data may not be accurate, as system image APIs may have performed a color conversion upon opening."

 

Or just try this: Open Apple's color meter, compare what it says about the color of some pixel in an Affinity document vs. what is displayed for that same pixel by Affinity's Color panel. Now, without doing anything else, in System Preferences > Displays temporarily change the system display profile to something else. Note that the color values shown by the color meter app may change, depending on the profile selected, but that never changes what is shown by Affinity's Color panel.

 

Affinity shows the color in the document file's color profile, a.k.a. the working profile, which obviously I hope does not & should not change regardless of how it is displayed on the monitor, while the Apple color meter shows the color in the display's color profile, according to the article technically the final buffer.

 

The two are not displaying the same thing so there is no reason I can see to assume they should always agree.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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MBd, neither topic seems to be about the same issue. In particular, the second one seems to be about a bug in the Apple Color Picker or its interaction with Affinity that changes the Apple Color Picker's working profile from sRGB IEC61966-2.1 to the Generic RBG one.

 

Regardless, if we accept the article aristidesfl linked to as accurate, then the Apple Color Meter (or any other similar color meter utility) can only approximate the document's colors. It is 100% accurate for measuring the color of a screen pixel but that is not the same thing.

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What is unclear about this:

 

"You can use a color meter to approximate the file's original data, but there is no guarantee that one or more lossy color conversions haven't already occured. In order to see the file's original data, you need open the file in an image editor and use its built-in color meter or eyedropper tool. Note that even then, the data may not be accurate, as system image APIs may have performed a color conversion upon opening."

 

Or just try this: Open Apple's color meter, compare what it says about the color of some pixel in an Affinity document vs. what is displayed for that same pixel by Affinity's Color panel. Now, without doing anything else, in System Preferences > Displays temporarily change the system display profile to something else. Note that the color values shown by the color meter app may change, depending on the profile selected, but that never changes what is shown by Affinity's Color panel.

 

Affinity shows the color in the document file's color profile, a.k.a. the working profile, which obviously I hope does not & should not change regardless of how it is displayed on the monitor, while the Apple color meter shows the color in the display's color profile, according to the article technically the final buffer.

 

The two are not displaying the same thing so there is no reason I can see to assume they should always agree.

 

You keep mentioning the difference between the Digital Color Meter app and the document colors.

But the issue is about the difference between the Affinity color panel and the document colors.

 

When I pick a color using the color picker, I expect the color to be the same as the color displayed in the document, independently of the selected color profile (in affinity or the system). And I don't mean the color code, but the displayed color (which you can measure with the Digital Color Meter).

 

Either you have a second point with that, which you are not mentioning explicitly, or you didn't understand the issue.

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When I pick a color using the color picker, I expect the color to be the same as the color displayed in the document, independently of the selected color profile (in affinity or the system). And I don't mean the color code, but the displayed color (which you can measure with the Digital Color Meter).

That won't happen because there are multiple different color profiles, each contributing interactively to what you see displayed or measure with the Apple (or any other) color meter. They are all part of a mathematically defined, abstract profile connection space based on a color model that describes various ways colors can be described as numbers & related to human color perception.

 

There are many articles on the web that go into this in different levels of detail, but I think one of the better ones is this three part one from the Cambridge in Colour community site. This is from their Color Management & Printing tutorials, all of which I think are well done & worth reading.

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That won't happen because there are multiple different color profiles, each contributing interactively to what you see displayed or measure with the Apple (or any other) color meter. 

 

Once again: The color profiles being applied should be the same between the color panel and the document window. The color picker and the document should display the same color. (Notice I didn't mention the Digital Color Meter in this sentence.)

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Once again: The color profiles being applied should be the same between the color panel and the document window. The color picker and the document should display the same color. (Notice I didn't mention the Digital Color Meter in this sentence.)

Once again, you have to measure the color in the document window with something, & if not with the Digital Color Meter then what are you using for that comparison?

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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