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Inspiring
September 10, 2026

Incorrect Viewport color management in macOS OCIO mode (or even unmanaged Adobe color space)

  • September 10, 2026
  • 0 replies
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I know this falls into the "this can't possibly be true" category, but please don't dismiss it outright. I have gut-checked this a few different ways over several months, and currently have custom OCIO view transforms to counter it in production.

On a Mac, After Effects sends the Composition viewer to the screen without converting it to the display's color profile whenever the project uses the OCIO color engine or has color management off. Every other app on the Mac converts, including Preview and QuickTime Player, so you see After Effects' own render. So the same frame looks more saturated inside After Effects than anywhere else.

Every Mac made in the last decade has a Display P3 screen, and with SDR views in Adobe's bundled ACES configs, targeting sRGB or Rec.709, this affects every OCIO user on a Mac.

The Adobe color engine converts correctly when a working space is set, so the code path exists. It is just not applied to OCIO output.

To be extra clear: on Windows the After Effects viewport and the rendered file agree in every app, on any monitor. On a Mac they don't (In OCIO mode or when Adobe color space is unmanaged). The Adobe color engine on the same Mac converts correctly when a working space is set, so the code path exists. It is just not applied to OCIO output. Please see the attached Markdown file for a testing worklow and forgive the LLM BS. I was having a tough time articulating this one on my own and needed outside confirmation to what I was noticing.

Tested with: a M5 Max Macbook Pro with Internal XDR screen and 4 different externals screens in multiple different monitor color profiles and system ICC profiles to rule out Displays, in general.