HDR Screenshots Look Washed Out on Windows 11? How to Fix It

Screenshots taken while HDR is on often look washed out, grey or blown-out white when you paste or open them on a normal screen. The capture records the HDR desktop, but most apps and displays show the result as an ordinary standard-range image, so brightness and colors come out wrong. The fix in Snipping Tool is its HDR screenshot color corrector setting; you can also adjust SDR content brightness or turn HDR off while you take screenshots.

Why HDR screenshots look wrong

With HDR on, Windows shows HDR content brighter and with a wider range of colors, and shows ordinary (SDR) apps at a brightness you set with a slider. A screenshot captures that combined desktop. When the image is viewed on a standard display, or pasted into an app that assumes standard sRGB images, the brightness and colors no longer line up with what you saw. People on Microsoft Q&A describe the result as "overexposed" or "washed out", and it affects Print Screen, Snipping Tool, recordings and screen sharing.

Microsoft doesn't document a special HDR image format for the clipboard. What you paste is the same kind of bitmap as any other screenshot, so fixing the capture is what matters.

Fix 1: Turn on Snipping Tool's HDR color corrector

Recent versions of Snipping Tool include a setting that tone-maps HDR captures so they look right on standard screens.

1. Open Snipping Tool.
2. Select See more (...) > Settings.
3. Turn on HDR screenshot color corrector. (Community answers on Microsoft Q&A call it "HDR Screenshot Color Correction".)
4. Take the screenshot again.

If you don't see the setting, update Snipping Tool from the Microsoft Store. The correction applies to new captures, so retake any screenshots that already look wrong.

Fix 2: Adjust SDR content brightness

If ordinary windows look too bright and faded on your HDR display, screenshots of them will too.

1. Open Settings > System > Display.
2. Select HDR.
3. Drag the SDR content brightness slider until ordinary apps look balanced against HDR content.
4. Take the screenshot again and check it on another screen if you can.

Microsoft also notes that if SDR content looks too bright and desaturated, restarting the app can help.

Fix 3: Turn HDR off while you capture

For documentation, tutorials and bug reports, the simplest fix is to capture in SDR, since that's how most people will view the image.

1. Open Settings > System > Display.
2. Turn HDR off (on multi-monitor setups, select the HDR display at the top of the page first).
3. Take your screenshots.
4. Turn HDR back on when you're done.

Check the result on the right screen

Don't judge a screenshot on the same HDR display that took it. Open the saved PNG on a standard display, or send it to yourself in the app your audience will use, and check it there. Snipping Tool saves captures to Pictures > Screenshots by default, which gives you a file to compare against the pasted copy; comparing two screenshots side by side shows a quick way to do it.

Other apps that capture the screen

• Recording and streaming apps such as OBS have their own capture and color settings. Snipping Tool's corrector doesn't affect them, so check the app's own HDR options.
• Screen sharing in meeting apps can also look overexposed with HDR on. Turning HDR off during the call is the quickest workaround.
• Color pickers: PowerToys Color Picker doesn't support HDR or wide color gamut formats, so colors sampled from an HDR desktop may not match the source. How to copy a hex color code covers more accurate ways to get a color value.

When it isn't HDR

A dull or odd-looking screenshot can have other causes:

• Chat apps recompress images. Download the image you sent and compare it with your original file. Pasting a snip into Discord, Slack, and Teams covers how each app handles images.
• Night light or a color filter was on during capture and off when you viewed it, or the other way round.
• A wide-gamut display can make web images look more saturated on screen than in the file. The file is normal; the display was showing it differently.

FAQ

Do HDR screenshots stay HDR on the clipboard?

Microsoft doesn't document an HDR clipboard format. Clipboard images are ordinary bitmaps, and clipboard history stores them like any other image, up to 4 MB per item. Tone-mapping the capture (Fix 1) is how you make it look right elsewhere.

Why does my screenshot look fine on my PC but washed out for others?

Your HDR display shows the capture differently from the standard displays your recipients use. Turn on the HDR color corrector or capture with HDR off.

Does the Print Screen key use the color corrector?

On Windows 11, Print Screen opens the Snipping Tool capture overlay by default, so retest after turning the setting on. If you've turned that behaviour off, Print Screen copies the full screen directly; compare the result before relying on it. Print Screen vs Win+Shift+S vs Snipping Tool explains the differences.

Related reading

• Print Screen vs Win+Shift+S vs Snipping Tool (Windows 11)
• How to Paste a Screenshot Into Discord, Slack, and Teams
• How to Get a Color Code From a Screenshot on Windows
• How to Compare Two Screenshots Side by Side

Sources

• HDR settings in Windows (Microsoft Support) — turning HDR on and off, and the SDR content brightness slider.
• Over-exposure in screenshots and recordings with HDR (Microsoft Q&A) — user reports and the Snipping Tool HDR color correction setting.
• Use Snipping Tool to capture screenshots (Microsoft Support) — Snipping Tool settings and automatic saving to the Screenshots folder.
• Color Picker utility in PowerToys (Microsoft Learn) — WCG and HDR formats aren't supported.
• Keyboard shortcuts in Windows (Microsoft Support) — Print Screen behaviour on Windows 11.

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