sRGB Upgraded to scRGB by Microsoft

Back in the 90s, Microsoft and HP wanted something to make colors on Web pages look better. The result was the sRGB color model. It definitely served the purpose of the day. Unfortunately it isn't enough to provide the full color range of today's digital photographer. Microsoft has created a new color space, scRGB that they hope will catch on. An area that will greatly benefit from the new model is high-dynamic range photography that I discussed in a recent post. Microsoft is also pushing the JPEG XR file format to handle high-dynamic range images.

Of course the challenge with new color models and file formats is getting others to support them. Microsoft can certainly push hard since they develop Windows. But they are also up against the Adobe RGB color model that has been championed by Photoshop and other Adobe products. Also popular in the photographic community is the ProPhoto RGB color space.

Current versions of Corel products support sRGB, and can support Adobe RGB. But they don't yet support scRGB or ProPhoto RGB. Nor does Corel support the JPEG XR format. There are very few products that support these new models or formats. We can only wait and see if they get adopted and become popular standards or just interesting ideas that never went anywhere.

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