Affinity Photo's (absence of) colour management

[Maarten Langeveld]

Hello devs,

 

As a photo enthusiast I use a calibrated wide gamut monitor. Affinity does support colour management for the workflow but it seems, the application itself is not colour managed.

 

Nowhere I can find the option to select the appropriate (calibrated wide gamut) colour profile for my display. For office work I use a standard sRGB profile on my monitor as default since Windows GUI is way too over-saturated when working with AdobeRGB. But for photo work I use calibrated AdobeRGB profile.

 

Problem with Affinity is the same: when working with wide gamut colour profile for my photos the Affinity GUI is also way too over-saturated. 

 

Another wish I have is the option to export a picture with colour conversion (not just exporting with a different profile, but actually converted on the fly). I mean: when I work in a project in AdobeRGB I would like to export the result in sRGB JPEG without converting the project itself from AdobeRGB to sRGB (irreversible). 

 

Thanks,

 

Maarten

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, Maarten Langeveld said:

Another wish I have is the option to export a picture with colour conversion (not just exporting with a different profile, but actually converted on the fly). I mean: when I work in a project in AdobeRGB I would like to export the result in sRGB JPEG without converting the project itself from AdobeRGB to sRGB (irreversible). 

During Export, click the More button and then select the color profile you want for the exported file.

[James Ritson]

Hi Maarten, I'll tackle your last question first!

 

Quote

Another wish I have is the option to export a picture with colour conversion (not just exporting with a different profile, but actually converted on the fly). I mean: when I work in a project in AdobeRGB I would like to export the result in sRGB JPEG without converting the project itself from AdobeRGB to sRGB (irreversible). 

 

This is exactly what happens already. On the Export dialog, click the More option. ICC profile is usually set to "Use document profile" but you can change this to sRGB or another option. Upon export, the document is flattened then converted automatically to whichever profile you specify. This process is exactly the same as going to Document>Flatten, then Document>Convert ICC Profile.

 

Quote

As a photo enthusiast I use a calibrated wide gamut monitor. Affinity does support colour management for the workflow but it seems, the application itself is not colour managed.

 

Nowhere I can find the option to select the appropriate (calibrated wide gamut) colour profile for my display. For office work I use a standard sRGB profile on my monitor as default since Windows GUI is way too over-saturated when working with AdobeRGB. But for photo work I use calibrated AdobeRGB profile.

 

I'm a little confused here—I don't think the Windows GUI should be appearing oversaturated at all. I profile my wide gamut monitors (both for Mac + Windows) using an i1DisplayPro and displayCal and I don't have an issue with oversaturated colours. Affinity Photo is colour managed in that it will use your active monitor profile, but it relies on that profile being accurate. Can I ask how you calibrate and profile your monitor?

 

Hope that helps for now, look forward to hearing from you.

[Maarten Langeveld]

1 hour ago, James Ritson said:

Hi Maarten, I'll tackle your last question first!

 

 

This is exactly what happens already. On the Export dialog, click the More option. ICC profile is usually set to "Use document profile" but you can change this to sRGB or another option. Upon export, the document is flattened then converted automatically to whichever profile you specify. This process is exactly the same as going to Document>Flatten, then Document>Convert ICC Profile.

 

 

I'm a little confused here—I don't think the Windows GUI should be appearing oversaturated at all. I profile my wide gamut monitors (both for Mac + Windows) using an i1DisplayPro and displayCal and I don't have an issue with oversaturated colours. Affinity Photo is colour managed in that it will use your active monitor profile, but it relies on that profile being accurate. Can I ask how you calibrate and profile your monitor?

 

Hope that helps for now, look forward to hearing from you.

 

Thanks, Good to know !

 

I have calibrated my monitor using Spyder, which has created a wide gamut monitor profile for my standard monitor preset, this Spyder generated profile I have installed as default profile for my display in Windows Colour Management. But since Windows itself is not colour managed, the Windows GUI looks very over-staurated, so when doing regular tasks websurfing, e-mail etc. I switch my monitor to built-in (i.e. in the monitor itself) RGB profile. When working with Affinity I switch my monitor to (wide gamut) standard preset and like with Windows GUI, Affinity GUI looks very over-saturated.

 

Maarten

 

Edit: for some reason cannot reproduce over-saturated colours with Affinity. Have installed all profiles again, and now seems okay! Probably did something wrong that I have looked over. My apologies.

Edited April 30, 2018 by Maarten Langeveld
Correction