Legacy ImageMagick Discussions Archive

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using -colorspace sRGB vs -colorspace RGB?

Will one perform faster than the other? Will images look better with one of the options compared to the other?

I ImageMagick use 6.8.6.

Computer software often assumes that images are sRGB, even when they are RGB. sRGB is a common standard, especially for the internet. Images sourced from scanners and cameras are usually sRGB. For me, these are good reasons for ensuring that finished images are sRGB.

Processing might be done in sRGB, RGB or other colorspace.

hknight wrote:Will one perform faster than the other?

Performance of what?

hknight wrote:Will images look better with one of the options compared to the other?

An image should look exactly the same, whatever colorspace it is in, because the display software should convert it if needed. As I say above, some software ignores the actual colorspace and assumes it is sRGB.

Ken Rockwell explains sRGB vs. Adobe RGB thoroughly, yet simply. http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/adobe-rgb.htm

Another issue is that some functions assume that colorspace is linear to work properly or work better with linear colorspace (RGB vs sRGB). One example is with -resize. See http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/resize/#techniques