linearLight

Scales in LIGHT-linear space rather than in the transfer curve's space.

Averaging code values darkens thin bright detail as a picture is scaled, which shows most on high-contrast edges such as subtitle text and animation lines. The Metal renderer converts the picture to light at its own size, in a half-float texture, and scales that. The Android GPU blit decodes each tap to light before it weighs it. Both use the sRGB curve, and both leave a picture drawn at its own size within one level of the plain write.