Pillow fades a P3 photo, sharp clips it: picking the JPEG default per target
The same Display P3 image went through Pillow 11.3 and sharp 0.34.5 with no color options set, and the two JPEGs went wrong in opposite directions. Pillow's copy came out washed out. sharp's copy was right for everyday colors and quietly flattened the most saturated ones. Neither library has a bug here. Each one simply defaults to a different target, and an image pipeline inherits that target…
When comparing Pillow 11.3 and sharp 0.34.5 when given an image in Display P3 color space, the two libraries produced different results. Pillow's output was washed out, while sharp's output was accurate for everyday colors but flattened the most saturated ones. Neither library had a bug – they simply defaulted to different color targets, and an image pipeline follows that target unless explicitly overridden.
The test used two HEIC files from macOS sips, a synthetic color chart, and a CC0 photo from Wikimedia Commons, all encoded in Display P3 with a 536-byte profile. Both libraries decoded the JPEG from a PNG that carried the P3 pixel values and profile. Pillow kept the P3 numbers but lost the profile, while sharp converted to sRGB and dropped the tag.
Keeping the P3 profile as the default results in less color shift and smaller file sizes. However, if the JPEG might be ignored or stripped of profiles by the destination, converting to sRGB is a safer choice, even if it incurs a slight color shift.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
