Glossary
sRGB vs Adobe RGB for client delivery.
sRGB and Adobe RGB are color spaces, each one setting the range of colors a photo file can describe. Adobe RGB reaches further into greens and cyans for print, while sRGB is the smaller standard that phones, browsers and most screens assume, which makes it the safe choice for photos a client will look at or post.
What goes wrong.
A color space travels with the file as a profile. Software that reads the profile shows the colors as meant. Software that ignores it assumes sRGB, and an Adobe RGB photo shown that way looks flat and a little dull, which is the email every photographer gets once.
Adobe’s own guide to Lightroom Classic says sRGB, the space used by many web browsers, is relatively small, and that you can export in sRGB if the photos are going online.
What to export.
sRGB for anything a client looks at, posts or sends on. Adobe RGB when a lab or a printer asks for it, and to them alone. Lightroom Classic’s export offers sRGB, AdobeRGB, ProPhoto RGB, an HDR space and any profile you choose; Capture One sets it as the ICC profile in an export recipe, with sRGB for the web and Adobe RGB for print as its own examples.
On a DropYourFiles link.
DropYourFiles keeps the files you upload exactly as they are, so the color space your client downloads is the one you exported. Export sRGB and that is what they get.
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Questions.
Should I give clients Adobe RGB files?
Not as the main delivery. Most of what a client opens a photo in assumes sRGB. Send Adobe RGB to a printer that asks for it.
Does the color space change the file size?
Not in any way you would notice. It changes what the numbers in the file mean, not how many there are.
Can I convert Adobe RGB to sRGB later?
Yes, from the original. Export again with sRGB as the color space, or convert the profile in your editor.
Where this comes from.
- Adobe, Lightroom Classic: Color management, read October 29, 2026.
- Adobe, Lightroom Classic: Export files to disk or CD (File Settings, Image Sizing, Watermarking), read October 29, 2026.
- Capture One Support, Modifying file settings when exporting images (ICC profile), read October 29, 2026.
Keep reading.
- How to send photos from Lightroom to a client
- Capture One client viewer, then the finals on one link
- How to send photos to clients without losing quality
- Web size vs high resolution
- What is a RAW file in photography
- What is a proxy in video editing
More in the glossary, or see what DropYourFiles does.
Send your client one link for the whole job.
Free up to 5 GB. No card. Your client never makes an account.