Colors in GIMP Viewport Are More Vibrant Than Actual Image

[Lucky13guy]

Hey Guys and Gals,

First time post. Please forgive me if this has been discussed before, but I honestly had no idea what to search for in regards to my issue.

Anyway, I've been using GIMP for about 9 months now, and recently I noticed that my images appear to be much more vibrant or saturated in the GIMP viewport than they do when viewed outside of GIMP. This includes images that have never been opened in GIMP previously. It makes photo editing a little difficult, since what you see isn't going to be equal to what you get.

I doubt it has anything to do with my system, but just in case, I've listed some basic specs of what I'm running below.

GIMP Version: 2.10.32 (Revision 1)
Operating System: Windows 11 (64-bit)
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5900HS
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU

Has anyone else experienced this? If so, is there some way to fix it so the color saturation matches inside and outside GIMP?

Thanks in advance!
Lucky13guy

[PixLab]

Never experienced this, but a good start might be to take a look at these settings (go to Edit > Preferences), or post the same screenshot in here (there is a Reset button on the top right...)

   

May be to do first as it's very simple to try out > You can take a look also at Image > Precision > Perceptual gamma (sRGB) or Linear light

   

Also in Image > Color Management

   

[rich2005]

I can not really comment on your computer hardware or Windows 11 which might have an effect - I do not know.

The usual comment is the other way round, Gimp images not as bright as when viewed with MS Image Viewer, which is known to "enhance" an image whether you want-or-not.

Quote:..snip.. It makes photo editing a little difficult, since what you see isn't going to be equal to what you get.

That depends on the destination of the finished image. For printing or for viewing on line. For printing you really need a color calibrated monitor. For most users without calibration the display brightness (way-too-high) plays a large part. For 1000 on-line viewers, 1000 different displays, 1000 different impressions.

In Gimp by default Color Management is turned on and this can have an internal effect if the image has a non-sRGB color profile.

As an example, same image, left is a specific RGB profile, center is a proofing CMYK icc (for printing), right is an image viewer with no color management, you get RGB much the same as in Gimp with colour management off. 

   

Try turning color management off in Edit -> Preferences -> Color Management

[Lucky13guy]

Thanky you PixLab and rich2005! I was able to figure it out by randomly clicking on different settings in the color management menu under Edit>Preferences. The little box labeled "Try to use the system monitor profile" was unchecked. As soon as I checked it, my image in GIMP lost a lot of saturation, but at least it's the same as it is outside of GIMP now!

Thanks again!