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Participant
July 25, 2025
Question

Color error when exporting in Premiere on a MacBook Pro M4 Pro device

  • July 25, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 167 views

I have a problem with colorization in Premiere. Lately, when I export any video on my Mac M4 Pro, the colorization changes to a more desaturated, or flatter, tone. I have installed previous versions of Premiere, but the problem persists. The program's color settings are fine, but the export continues to be incorrect. I am uncertain of what else to do.

2 replies

jamieclarke
Community Manager
Community Manager
July 25, 2025

Hi @pedroorabelo - Please see this HelpX article: Display Color Management

 

You may also find this article helpful regarding washed out colors on export: Why do my Premiere Pro color exports look washed out?

 

R Neil Haugen
Legend
July 25, 2025

And what color space are you exporting, and how are you viewing that export in what player, what OS?

 

As Apple uses a non-standard display transform of essentially gamma 1.96 rather than the correct gamma 2.4. But only on Macs without Reference modes set to HDTV. And this is in QuickTime Player, Chrome and Safari browsers.

 

VLC and Potplayer will use the correct display transform.

 

Macs with Reference modes set to HDTV will use the same  display transform as nearly all other devices and screens except the above mentioned Macs without Reference modes.

 

So that is why what and how you view the media matters.

 

If you are on a Mac without Reference modes, and you only care about how it looks on Macs without Reference modes, set Premiere's viewing Gamma to 1.96 QuickTime. Then inside and outside Premiere on your machine should be similar in QuickTime Player.

 

The rest of us would see a darker, oversaturated image though. And until Apple changes this can't be fixed. Not really.

 

But past that, no two screens ever show the same image anyway. No one will ever see exactly what you saw on your monitor. 

Everyone's mileage always varies ...