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The sRGB color #ffffff should never mean "the brightest white on this monitor", unless you're using an average CRT.

Just imagine you're using an HDR display, where the brightest white is as bright as the sun.




Thankfully, "as bright as the sun" is waaaaaaay outside of what a monitor is capable of : SDR is (supposed to) top out at 10^2 cd/m^2, HDR10 at 10^3, Dolby Vision maxes out at 10^4 cd/m^2, but the midday sun is... ~10^9 !


OK but then when will you use that "bright as sun" color? If not, why provide them? If so, what color will you use ?


sRGB is quite literally defined as "the average 90s CRT in an office environment", i.e. full-white sRGB on a HDR display should be around 100 nits or so in those reference conditions (i.e. display set to "reasonable" brightness).


VR displays. Probably the color of the sun in linear RGB color space for rendering purpose, then converted to the display color space.


The color you will use isn't in SRGB, but is in other color spaces such as Rec2020.


Do you have a recent iPhone? Try taking a picture with the sun in it: the white of it will appear white as well, but the phone will display it considerably brighter than the white UI surrounding it.




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