When you render a scene, you have the option of baking an output color transform into the result. The output transform is intended to convert color values from the rendering space to a color space that is more suitable for display.
You can activate Apply Output Transform and specify the particular Output Transform to apply in the Color Management preferences, as well as in the Color Management group on the Render Settings: Common tab. You can set Output Transform to Use View Transform to use the same view transform as is configured in the preferences.
- Apply an output transform if you are rendering preview images that will be displayed using a device or viewing software that does not apply the appropriate view transform to scene-linear images. For example, if you are rendering a flipbook to preview animation or lighting for approval, turn this option on.
- Do not apply an output transform if you are rendering final images for compositing or other tasks that require scene-linear color values. For example, if you are rendering 3D elements that will be integrated with live action plates, make sure that this option is off. You should also leave this option off if you are rendering to a high dynamic-range image format like EXR, because many other image processing applications assume that these files are linear and apply a view transform by default.
When Apply Output Transform is on, you should disable the view transform in the Render View. Otherwise, the output transform gets baked into the rendered color values and then the view transform is applied on top of that, which results in a double transformation.
When using render passes, the output transform gets applied only to the Beauty pass.