I am curious what the useEmbeddedColorManagement parameter in System.Drawing.Image.FromFile actually does. This parameter directory corresponds to a GDI+ parameter in the same method of the same class. So debugging .NET source does not lead anywhere.

If my understanding of color profiles is correct, a color profile is basically a mapping which describes how particular RGB triples (or CMYK or something else) map into the so called Profile Connection Space (CIELAB or CIEXYZ). Now, if I open an image with embedded color in .NET setting useEmbeddedColorManagement to true, my experience is I get an image whose RGB values are not exactly the same as the original values in the file, i.e. is transformed. Since the original image was an RGB and the new is also an RGB, there must have been a transformation from the embedded color profile to a Profile Connection Space and the back to RGB. The thing which I don’t understand is what is the target color system? Is it some default Windows color profile? Is the current monitor profile? Is it sRGB?