A 2012/2015 audit of 15 sRGB ICC profiles found that only Cinepaint and RawStudio matched exactly; every other tool ships a subtly different sRGB.
Key Takeaways
XYZ primaries cluster into 5 groups; practical color differences are only visible in saturated cyans and greens, and only at extreme saturation.
The “mystery profile” lacks Bradford D50 adaptation entirely, producing a visible blue cast – a real-world failure mode to watch for in raw pipelines.
D50 vs D65 white point in the profile header is harmless in relative colorimetric conversions but causes color casts under absolute colorimetric intent.
Tone Response Curves vary: most use sRGB-1024 LUT, dcraw uses gamma=1.933594, Scarse uses gamma=2.199219, RawTherapee uses sRGB-4096 – affecting shadow/highlight rendering.
Software versions matter: by 2015, Krita and darktable had already switched profiles, so any audit is a point-in-time snapshot.
