The term “linear” is confusing me in this context since I’m always thinking at a “Linear Workflow” as working with the raw image data without any gamma correction. Now, when I read that importing a “Normal Map” baked in “Linear Color Space” needs the setting “sRGB” this implies for me an internal undoing of the gamma correction since Blender uses under the hood the “Linear Workflow” for its calculations while the display can use the gamma corrected image directly. Unchecking the “Save As Render” option is a point where I can follow again.
Can I say it like this (?): sRGB is just a representation for describing colors (but not for all colors possible) and not linked to any gamma correction. Converting something to sRGB means squeezing the color space of an image so that colors being outside of sRGB are shifted into this color space.
The Blender image texture import setting “sRGB” on the other hand assumes that this image is also gamma corrected so that Blender converts it for its internal “Linear Workflow” calculations. In other words: Blender associates sRGB with gamma correction when importing image textures allthough sRGB and gamma correction are not linked with each other.
