How to improve color accuracy of your digital fabric simulations?
As textile design increasingly relies on fabric simulations, we often prefer to skip physical printouts and send image files directly to customers for approval. Formats like JPEG or WebP are convenient because they produce small files, but their color accuracy is limited. Colors are converted to sRGB—the lowest common denominator—which is inadequate for a high‑quality workflow.
ArahWeave offers a powerful but often overlooked solution: saving simulations in TIFF Lab format. In this mode, the simulation is calculated and stored directly in the color‑accurate CIE Lab space, without conversion to RGB.
ArahWeave print dialog with TIFF CIE Lab format selected
Here’s how it works: yarn colors are defined in CIE Lab, either by matching to PANTONE or by measuring them with a spectrophotometer. The fabric simulation is then generated in CIE Lab and saved in TIFF Lab format, preserving the original color perfectly throughout the process. No conversions, no compromises—maximum color gamut.
Gwenview on Linux shows wrong colors, paper white is yellow
Of course, there is a catch: not all software reads TIFF Lab correctly. For example, Gwenview on Linux misinterprets the background white, rendering it yellow because it converts Lab to RGB under D50 instead of D65 lighting. GIMP makes the same mistake. By contrast, Krita handles Lab natively and displays the simulation accurately. On macOS, Preview shows the colors correctly, and Photoshop also supports Lab format.
Gimp also reads TIFF CIE Lab images incorrectly, white becomes yellow
This means that if your customer uses professional tools within a calibrated workflow, they will see accurate colors both on screen and on color‑managed printers. The trade‑off is file size: TIFFs are significantly larger than JPEGs, but that is the price we pay for true color fidelity.
Finally success – Krita natively supports CIE Lab color format, and white is correct
Fabric simulation by Paoletti Tessuti.
