Subscribers to Tim Grey’s Digital Darkroom Questions e-mail list will have learnt today that Microsoft is set to introduce a brand new colour space in the Windows Vista OS. Called scRGB, it will extend the existing sRGB space and offer a larger gamut and larger dynamic range. Tim Grey comments that “It was specifically designed to provide benefits to high-end users such as graphic arts, professional digital photography, computer games, and more.”. Here’s an extract from the official specification:

“The IEC 61966-2-2 (scRGB) color space is designed to complement current color management strategies—such as International Color Consortium (ICC), CMYK, and sRGB—by enabling a method of handling color in the operating systems, device drivers and the Internet that utilizes a simple and robust equipment independent color definition. This will provide good quality, large color gamut, and large bit precision and extended tonal range. Based on IEC 61966-2-1 (sRGB), this color space is well suited for graphics arts RGB workflows, professional digital photography, computer gamuts and computer graphics.”

This new announcement follows hard on the heels of the Windows Media Photo Format that was unveiled recently.