sRGB Test
Verify your display's sRGB color space coverage and accuracy. Reference swatches and saturation sweeps confirm whether your monitor renders the web standard correctly.
Why use this color tool
sRGB reference swatches
Primary and secondary color patches at 100% sRGB saturation reveal whether your display renders the web standard correctly.
Saturation sweeps
Each primary ramped from 0% to 100% sRGB saturation to spot clipping and oversaturation.
Wide-gamut detection
Reference patterns reveal whether your wide-gamut monitor is rendering sRGB content oversaturated without color management.
Skin tone references
Multi-ethnic skin tones at sRGB saturation reveal whether colors look natural or radioactive on your display.
What is color
sRGB is the universal web color standard, created in 1996 for CRT monitors. It covers about 35% of human-visible colors. Every web browser, every phone, every consumer display supports sRGB. If you browse the web, watch YouTube, or play SDR games, sRGB is the color space your content was mastered in.
sRGB coverage has two measurements. Coverage is what percentage of the sRGB gamut your display can reproduce — 99%+ is standard for modern monitors. Accuracy is whether your display renders sRGB content at the correct saturation — wide-gamut monitors without sRGB clamp render sRGB content oversaturated, making reds look radioactive and skin tones look sunburnt.
Most monitors cover 99-100% sRGB, but wide-gamut monitors (DCI-P3 95%+) often render sRGB content wrong without color management. The fix is sRGB clamp mode, which restricts the display's output to sRGB primaries. macOS color-manages automatically; Windows varies by application. Without clamp, sRGB web images look oversaturated on wide-gamut displays.
How to test
Step 1: Display the sRGB swatches
Open the test and view the sRGB primary and secondary swatches. Compare to reference colors.
Step 2: Inspect saturation sweeps
Each primary ramps from 0% to 100% sRGB saturation. Watch for clipping or oversaturation.
Step 3: Check for wide-gamut oversaturation
If reds look radioactive and skin tones look sunburnt, your wide-gamut monitor is rendering sRGB content unmanaged.
Step 4: Enable sRGB clamp
Open the monitor's OSD and enable sRGB mode, or use an ICC profile that clamps to sRGB.
Step 5: Re-test after clamp
Re-run the test. Colors should now look natural — saturated but not radioactive.
Common causes of color issues
Wide-gamut display without clamp
DCI-P3 or Adobe RGB monitors render sRGB content oversaturated without color management. Enable sRGB clamp mode.
Insufficient gamut coverage
Older or budget monitors may cover only 90-95% sRGB, clipping saturated reds and blues. Upgrade for full coverage.
Wrong color mode
Monitors in Native mode render wide gamut by default. Switch to sRGB mode for web content.
No ICC profile
Windows without an ICC profile cannot color-manage sRGB content on wide-gamut displays. Install the monitor's ICC profile.
Frequently asked questions
Testing tips
- Enable sRGB clamp mode for web content on wide-gamut monitors to avoid oversaturation.
- Check skin tones first — they reveal oversaturation faster than pure colors.
- Use macOS for automatic color management; on Windows, install the monitor's ICC profile.
- Disable sRGB clamp for HDR content — HDR needs full wide gamut.
Related tools
sRGB: The Color Space Every Web User Should Understand
Every photo you see on the web, every YouTube video, every SDR game — all are mastered in sRGB. It's the universal color standard of the digital world, created in 1996 for CRT monitors and still the default for nearly all consumer content. Understanding sRGB is essential for understanding why colors look right (or wrong) on your display.
sRGB (standard Red Green Blue) was created by HP and Microsoft in 1996 to standardize color on CRT monitors and the web. It covers about 35% of human-visible colors — narrow by modern standards, but universal. Every web browser, phone, laptop, and consumer display supports sRGB. When you view a photo on Instagram, it's sRGB. When you watch a YouTube video in SDR, it's sRGB. When you play most games, the colors are sRGB.
Coverage is one question; accuracy is another. Most modern monitors cover 99-100% of sRGB, meaning they can reproduce every color sRGB specifies. But wide-gamut monitors (DCI-P3 95%+) often render sRGB content wrong without color management. A fire-engine red photo (sRGB 255, 0, 0) on a DCI-P3 monitor without sRGB clamp gets rendered as the monitor's native red, which is more saturated than sRGB red — making the photo look radioactive.
Test your display with our sRGB test. The reference swatches show sRGB primary and secondary colors at 100% saturation. Compare to what you see on your display. If reds look oversaturated (radioactive, sunburnt skin), your wide-gamut monitor is rendering sRGB content unmanaged. The fix is sRGB clamp mode — look for it in the monitor's OSD, or use macOS which color-manages automatically.
The tradeoff: sRGB clamp restricts your display to sRGB primaries, which is correct for web content but wrong for HDR. Enable sRGB clamp for web browsing and SDR content; disable it (switch to native or DCI-P3 mode) for HDR movies and games. Many monitors have a one-touch sRGB mode for this exact purpose. The goal is matching the display's gamut to the content's gamut.
For most users, sRGB is the only color space that matters. Web content is sRGB; SDR video is sRGB; most games are sRGB. Only HDR and professional photo/video work require wider gamuts. Verify your display renders sRGB correctly with our sRGB test, then explore wider gamuts with our DCI-P3 test and color gamut test if your work demands it.
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