OS: Windows 10
Aseprite version: v1.2.25-x64 through Steam (currently the latest version)
Steps to reproduce:
Download the png provided in a reply to this post because of new member restrictions
Open it in Aseprite and open it in another image viewing/ editing program like in this example Paint(dot)net
Result:
The png will look brighter in Aseprite then any other program.
Additionally it will also render differently from .ase files
Steps to reproduce:
Open the png in Asprite
Create a new empty 16x16 .ase file with the color mode set to rgb
Copy the contents from the opened png to the new file
Compare to how it displays in any other image editing program like in this instance Paint(dot)net and see that the colors now look identical:
This might be a color management issue, check your settings in Edit > Preferences > Color. The PNG probably doesn’t get a color profile saved with it or gets some default profile that differs from your working profile.
FWIW, when I opened your PNG, the differences in colour were much smaller between Aseprite (left) and Photoshop (right), both look “bright”
Any chance of getting the .ase file of the same region for comparison?
Turning off color management does not make a difference for this. I tested this but forgot to include it in the post.
What’s interesting is that the lightest brown color in the image you uploaded gives me #522511 if I use the color picker on it, while the original file gives me #401b0f
To get the lighter displayed colors I simply open the .png file in aseprite, to get the darker displayed colors I did the following:
ctrl + a
ctrl + c
ctrl + n (make sure RGBA is selected for the color mode)
After doing some more digging, the problem might be related to gamma in the .png
It is possible for .pngs to include data about the gamma but not all image viewers respect this.
It seems like asesprite respects gamma data when viewing the png, includes gamma data when converting to .ase from .png but doesn’t copy gama data when parts of the image is copied to another image.
While the not copying gamma data is probably working as intended, it does create unexpected behavior when working with .pngs that have gamma data. It’s especially problematic because you can’t access this data through Aseprite.
when i export (both export and save as) png i get same colours (dark).
when i look in xnview at info of the png you provided (the bright one) its size is 1405 bytes while the files i exported are 395 bytes only. (i also tried to switch off color management in aseprite and exported file is 382 bytes - yet still looks dark.) your png is more than three times larger.
xnview also shows info that your image contains profile “Generic RGB profile”
when i check the values in your png file and my exported png files, they are same even though the images look different. when i copy the layer of one image to another, the brightness changes, but not values.
xnview allows me to switch on and off icc profiles - brightness of your image changes when i switch it on. when it’s off, it looks exactly as the files i’ve exported and your aseprite.
it is not enough to just switch off color management, the icc profile embedded in file will be respected when you copy paste file - that’s why you get different rgb values.
if you open the image you provided after you set your color management profile on and “files with profile” to “don’t handle color” you should see the colours same as you have them in your aseprite source file.
here’s a screen shot of:
file opened with color management off,
file opened with color management on - don’t handle color,
file opened with color management on - use embedded profile,
file copy pasted from xnview with color management on
only the very last image gives me colour #522512 at the position 7,8 - first three show value #401b0f at that position.
now, i have to admit i don’t understand icc profiles well enough to explain further, i can only provide the settings which work for me in the sense that what i export looks same in both aseprite and viewer or browser:
