What is the difference between sRGB and Adobe RGB?

The term RGB in an abbreviation for red, green and blue and is a form of displaying colour in a range of digital devices, such as digital cameras, printers and screen monitors.

There are two standards: sRGB and Adobe RGB. What differs between the two, is the range of colours captured.

sRGB
sRGB is the current international standard, adopted by general software and hardware such as Microsoft Windows, displays, printers, and digital cameras.

The biggest convenience of sRGB is that as most devices use this colour standard, any colour differences between separate devices is minimized. This means that the transition between (for example) a camera → screen monitor → printer should result in a picture with very few colour variations from start to finish.

However, sRGB is somewhat limited in the range of colours it can display. As a result, pictures may appear to have a narrower spectrum of colours. 

Adobe RGB
This is an alternative colour space standard, proposed by Adobe Systems.

The area of colours that can be captured is broader than that of sRGB, which allows for more detail and vibrance is the colours. For that reason, it is widely used in areas such as the printing industry.

NOTES:

• In order to correctly output Adobe RGB colour as an image, compatible software along with compatible hardware such as displays and printers may be needed. 
• If images displaying on a TV or screen monitor are appearing as pale or with "washed out" colours, it could be because the device(s) are not compatible with the Adobe RGB standard (DCF2.0/Exif2.21).