---
title: ColorSync
framework: colorsync
role: collection
role_heading: Framework
platforms: [iOS 16.0+, iPadOS 16.0+, Mac Catalyst 13.0+, macOS 10.13+, tvOS 16.0+, visionOS 1.0+, watchOS 9.0+]
path: colorsync
---

# ColorSync

Reproduce colors accurately across a range of input, output, and display devices.

## Overview

Overview ColorSync is the color-management engine on Apple platforms. For most apps, color management happens automatically through higher-level frameworks such as Core Graphics and Core Image. Use ColorSync directly when your app needs to manage color itself; for example, a professional photo, print, or video app that builds custom transforms, or a tool that inspects and calibrates the profiles assigned to devices and displays. note: To pass a profile to Core Graphics, create a CGColorSpace from a ColorSyncProfile with CGColorSpaceCreateWithColorSyncProfile(_:_:). A ColorSyncProfile describes the color behavior of a device or a working color space, and a ColorSyncTransform converts color from one profile to another. Use ColorSync to match color across color spaces and to read, author, and embed the International Color Consortium (ICC) profiles that describe them. You can also create Headroom Adaptive Gain Curve (HAGC) metadata, which controls how the system adapts HDR content when a display can’t show its full brightness range.

## Topics

### Color conversion

- [Color transforms](colorsync/color-transforms.md)
- [Pixel format and data layout](colorsync/pixel-format.md)

### Profile and HDR metadata

- [Color profiles](colorsync/color-profiles.md)
- [Headroom Adaptive Gain Curve](colorsync/headroom-adaptive-gain-curve.md)

### System color management

- [Color devices](colorsync/color-devices.md)
- [Color management modules](colorsync/color-management-modules.md)

### Supporting types and conventions

- [Supporting types and conventions](colorsync/supporting-types-and-conventions.md)