[Gimp-user] question re. color handling

[dep <dep drippingwithirony com>]

greetings, everyone . . .

since the release of gimp 2.10, i've dealt with an issue whenever i open a 
file -- it asks me whether i wish to preserve the existing srgb or to 
convert to gimp's -- even when the image was previously saved in gimp's 
profile. if in fact i allow it to convert, the result is about a whole 
stop darker when it is saved, and darker still in thumbnails (gthumb, 
geeqie). this is a little bit alarming, and i'm not sure what is best to 
do. surely it serves some function or else it wouldn't be part of the 
program, but making pictures unusably dark probably isn't what they had in 
mind.

so would someone be so good as to talk me through the rationale here such 
that i might intelligently deal with it?

thanks!
-- 
dep

Some pictures:
http://www.ipernity.com/doc/depscribe/album