DisplayCAL and ArgyllCMS Color Profiling Software

[Kino]

Just a quick shout-out for DisplayCAL and ArgyllCMS Open Source Display and Characterization Software. You can find it here at: https://displaycal.net/

I just profiled my dual monitor Windows 10 system and the results were very good.

The nice thing is it has a custom display profile loader that is more accurate than the Windows default and loads the new profiles upon boot. As I understand it, the profile loader can hold any number of custom profiles for each monitor and they can be loaded upon demand without rebooting.

Be forewarned, the software is NOT for the faint of heart and you'll be required to carefully read the manual to install both DisplayCal and the underlying ArgyllCMS, but it's not too hard if you carefully follow the instructions.

What I like are the interactive tools that allow you to critically measure and adjust the monitor setup prior to profiling and and then confirm the results to assure yourself the desired outcome is obtained.

Also, once you make one profile for your monitor, as long as you don't touch the actual monitor controls, you can generate unlimited additional profiles in differing color spaces directly from the existing profile without having to actually re-measure color patches.

If nothing else, the website (especially the forum and FAQ) are a goldmine of information on the arcane arts of color calibration and profiling.

Here are the systems requirements:

General system requirements

• A recent Linux, Mac OS X (10.6 or newer for the standalone version, 10.5 or newer for the 0install version) or Windows (XP/Server 2003 or newer) operating system.
• A graphics card with at least 24 bits per pixel (true color) support and the desktop set up to use this color depth.

ArgyllCMS
To use DisplayCAL, you need to download and install ArgyllCMS (1.0 or newer).

Supported instruments
You need one of the supported instruments to make measurements. All instruments supported by ArgyllCMS are also supported by DisplayCAL. For display readings, these currently are:

Colorimeters

• CalMAN X2 (treated as i1 Display 2)
• Datacolor/ColorVision Spyder 2
• Datacolor Spyder 3 (since ArgyllCMS 1.1.0)
• Datacolor Spyder 4 (since ArgyllCMS 1.3.6)
• Datacolor Spyder 5 (since ArgyllCMS 1.7.0)
• Hughski ColorHug (Linux support since ArgyllCMS 1.3.6, Windows support with newest ColorHug firmware since ArgyllCMS 1.5.0, fully functional Mac OS X support since ArgyllCMS 1.6.2)
• Hughski ColorHug2 (since ArgyllCMS 1.7.0)
• Image Engineering EX1 (since ArgyllCMS 1.8.0)
• Klein K10-A (since ArgyllCMS 1.7.0. The K-1, K-8 and K-10 are also reported to work)
• Lacie Blue Eye (treated as i1 Display 2)
• Sencore ColorPro III, IV & V (treated as i1 Display 1)
• Sequel Imaging MonacoOPTIX/Chroma 4 (treated as i1 Display 1)
• X-Rite Chroma 5 (treated as i1 Display 1)
• X-Rite ColorMunki Create (treated as i1 Display 2)
• X-Rite ColorMunki Smile (since ArgyllCMS 1.5.0)
• X-Rite DTP92
• X-Rite DTP94
• X-Rite/GretagMacbeth/Pantone Huey
• X-Rite/GretagMacbeth i1 Display 1
• X-Rite/GretagMacbeth i1 Display 2/LT (the HP DreamColor/Advanced Profiling Solution versions of the instrument are also reported to work)
• X-Rite i1 Display Pro, ColorMunki Display (since ArgyllCMS 1.3.4. The HP DreamColor, NEC SpectraSensor Pro and SpectraCal C6 versions of the instrument are also reported to work)

Spectrometers

• JETI specbos 1211/1201 (since ArgyllCMS 1.6.0)
• JETI spectraval 1511/1501 (since ArgyllCMS 1.9.0)
• X-Rite ColorMunki Design/Photo (since ArgyllCMS 1.1.0)
• X-Rite/GretagMacbeth i1 Monitor (since ArgyllCMS 1.0.3)
• X-Rite/GretagMacbeth i1 Pro (the EFI ES-1000 version of the instrument is also reported to work)
• X-Rite i1 Pro 2 (since ArgyllCMS 1.5.0)
• X-Rite/GretagMacbeth Spectrolino
• X-Rite i1Studio (since ArgyllCMS 2.0)

If you've decided to buy a color instrument because ArgyllCMS supports it, please let the dealer and manufacturer know that “You bought it because ArgyllCMS supports it”—thanks.

Note that the i1 Display Pro and i1 Pro are very different instruments despite their naming similarities.

Also there are currently (2014-05-20) five instruments (or rather, packages) under the ColorMunki brand, two of which are spectrometers, and three are colorimeters (not all of them being recent offerings, but you should be able to find them used in case they are no longer sold new):

• The ColorMunki Design and ColorMunki Photo spectrometers differ only in the functionality of the bundled vendor software. There are no differences between the instruments when used with ArgyllCMS and DisplayCAL.
• The ColorMunki Display colorimeter is a less expensive version of the i1 Display Pro colorimeter. It comes bundled with a simpler vendor software and has longer measurement times compared to the i1 Display Pro. Apart from that, the instrument appears to be virtually identical.
• The ColorMunki Create and ColorMunki Smile colorimeters are similar hardware as the i1 Display 2 (with the ColorMunki Smile no longer having a built-in correction for CRT but for white LED backlit LCD instead).

Remember, read the documentation CAREFULLY; most of the answers are there, but for me it took a while to really grasp the basics. Frankly, I will be reading and re-reading this documentation for some while as it can be incredibly complex, but like any tool that is truly versatile, it requires a good fundamental understanding of the concepts that drive its operation.

Good luck!