Just to make a point, every time I finished a panel of this I would export it as a PNG on the perceptual setting and use it as a color reference for the next panel
IT'S BAD
PLEASE CHECK YOUR COLOR SETTINGS
EDIT: If you're still having problems, it might help to switch from "Save/Save as" to "Export (as a) Single Layer". Just. Make SURE the box labeled "Expression Color" is set to RGB. I've been messing with this all day, and it looks like this combination of settings will allow exported PNGs to maintain their colors perfectly. To you. So far both Discord and Toyhouse still only display desaturated images and I cannot for the life of me figure out why
WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN ITS NOT JUST A MAC PROBLEM
As far as I can tell, this affects Mac and Windows, CSP, Krita, and probably Medibang.
So I just have one question to everyone also messing with their settings today.
How the HELL do I get Toyhouse to stop desaturating things back to the way they were
I've been fucking with my settings for DAYS and I canNOT get it
This is long but there's a tl;dr at the end.
So I messed with this in Krita (The setting there is under Settings > Configure Krita > Color Management, same name). I didn't find any desaturation in my less-than-scientific tests, but I'm on Windows and some others have said it's less pronounced there.
The Krita ICC Profiles Documentation has some information on what each of these options actually do. I'll summarize and add some notes here:
Perceptual squishes the color space of the work file into that of the format you're exporting to. This preserves differences between colours but will distort and desaturate colours if you're exporting into a more restricted space. I'm guessing that's what's happening here, and that different (sometimes really bad) handlings of colour space + exporting are the reason for this issue.
Absolute Colorimetric "will attempt to retain all the correct colors at whatever cost, which may result in awful looking colors." It sounds like it could work a bit better for converting back into the original space, but I think handling inbound images is a separate setting.
Relative Colorimetric is in between the two above, trying to match colours as much as possible without messing up the relative appearances as much. Sounds good but execution is likely to vary.
Saturation retains the saturation values as much as possible, but this can come at the expense of hue changing, meaning it's not optimal for refs either if your personal colour space export fuckery also affects hue.
My point here is, the Perceptual setting isn't necessarily the problem on its own. I'm far from an expert but I'd say it's more of an issue with exporting into a more restricted space and the program not being able to put the colours back to their original state when you import the image again. You're squishing it and the program doesn't stretch it out again because it probably doesn't know if the file was squished or how.
I'm not sure why you're getting such a restricted space when you export it. That's weird and not covered by this setting. The "Expression Color" setting you mentioned might be what's fixing this or it might be a deeper issue with the mix of settings only acting as a bandaid fix. It could be a matter of your device's display settings and the program factoring them into decisions when you don't want them to do that.
Discord and Toyhouse are another matter entirely. If you're getting desaturated images there it's probably due to how they're handling images on their servers and there's less you can do. I'm surprised Toyhouse would be doing it to a noticeable extent, given its purpose, so I suspect it loops back around to whatever's going on with your device. Especially if it's the exact same effect as with perceptual on.
If it's only happening on those sites and not some others, you might have a workaround. I don't know whether Toyhouse allows external links as the source of your images, but if it does you could upload the images elsewhere and include them through links and see if that helps. Otherwise you might be able to just export them even more saturated until it looks right on your target. With some tweaking you may be able to find a constant amount and add a layer that oversaturates it that much. This will be an issue if you hit the ceiling for colours.
If there aren't any sites that aren't fucking with the colours again it's probably stuff your computer is doing to it before uploading.
ALSO! I don't know your workflow but you probably shouldn't be recursively saving/exporting your reference images in general. That's piling on the colour space conversions and every other form of degradation you get from conversions. I'd recommend using a work file as a colour reference (as in, the type of file you do the drawing in, with layers and such) and sticking to one rather than picking from recent drawings. I HOPE the work file isn't being affected by all this because if it is you need an exorcist.
TL;DR:
Perceptual Setting isn't the only issue
Saturation isn't a perfect fix
THAT level of colour change is really weird
It's probably related to stuff on your device/display settings
Perceptual crushes the colours and your program isn't turning it back to its old state
Uploading to a host site that doesn't fuck with the image as much and linking to it might work, if there are any sites that aren't fucking with it.
If nothing else works, oversaturating it to get it about where you want it with the reductions might work.
Don't recursively convert/save/export refs. Use a work file for that or use a png but don't overwrite the png from anywhere other than the work file to prevent excessive degradation.
Hope something here helps you out. This is a really bad situation and I hope one way or another you find a workaround.
