If you read the explanations of color gamut in our monitor reviews, or in Display Calibration 101: Step-By-Step With Datacolor's Spyder4Elite, then you know that color gamut is another standard by which displays are matched to each other, as well as to cameras and printers. While it is possible to have a screen with a built-in color management system, it’s far more common to create a look-up table, called an ICC profile, that reconciles differences between a monitor’s actual color gamut and the target values.
Below we have a different representation of the CIE chart.

We chose this one because it shows the two gamuts currently available on computer monitors: Adobe RGB 1998 and sRGB. As you can see in the graphics, they are subsets of the full chart, which portrays the spectrum of color visible to the human eye. How close a display comes to these gamuts is a very important part of our testing.
There are other standards besides these two. The most common one is Rec. 709, which is used by high-definition televisions and projectors. Why don’t we show it on the chart? Because it’s identical to sRGB. They are indeed interchangeable. The other standard we’ll mention briefly is Rec. 2020, which is still a proposed spec and not currently in use on any production displays.

This is the proposed color gamut for ultra-high definition screens at both 4K and 8K resolutions. When this gamut is actually used in a monitor, you’ll need appropriate content to match it. And that is unlikely to happen without major upgrades in optical disc storage capacity and bandwidth, since it requires a minimum of 30 bits per pixel to encode.
How does this apply to our discussion? All fixed-pixel displays use three primary colors, red, green, and blue, to display an image. In the case of an eight-bit panel, 2563 gives us a possible 16,777,216 colors. Obviously, the positions of those primaries on the CIE chart are of paramount importance. Assuming that the camera used conforms to the standard, the only way we’ll see the same image is if our monitor conforms to the same standard.
That’s simple enough to understand, but what about the secondary colors?

In between the primary color points are the secondary ones: cyan, magenta, yellow. These are created by mixing two of the primaries in a particular ratio. The technical term is phasing and it’s important that a display does this correctly. A screen can have spot-on primaries, however, if the secondaries are off, visible color errors will result. Previously, we saw that adjusting the white point can help align secondaries. And most of the time, this is the only thing we can do to improve a display’s color accuracy.
Now we’ll get into some actual application of all this science. We’re going to explain just how we calibrate a monitor using its built-in controls only. This is exactly what we do for our reviews.
- The Two Reasons To Calibrate Your Monitor
- Levels: The Key To Contrast And Detail
- Gamma: The Key To Maximum Image Depth
- Grayscale: Why White Is The Color Of Everything
- Gamut: What Color Is Your Monitor?
- Application: How To Adjust Levels
- Application: How To Adjust Gamma
- Application: How To Adjust Color Temperature
- Application: How To Adjust Color
- Calibrate Your Monitor For A Better Picture
I have no idea how my monitor was off until i saw the patterns
Now perfectly set for brightness/contrast:first,third,and fourth pattern(although on this i notice cliping on the blue).
However second pattern couldn't set it right.Darkest bar which should be almost cliping to the background is too "black",and the next "12" bar is more closely match to the background in colour.
Any thoughts someone? I use Philips 227Eqha IPS monitor.
I love these articles. =)
Seems to be an interesting read so far, and I've really wanted to read an article like this, so thanks in advance!
It's written the other (incorrect?) way around in the article, i think.
Shouldn't it be "above D65"?
It's written the other (incorrect?) way around in the article, i think.
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/gamma-correction.htm
That's incorrect. It actually works backwards/opposite from what one might think. Color temperature originates from the color a flame radiates in relation to the temperature at which it burns. Think back to grade school and playing with the Bunsen burner... the hottest part of the flame (i.e., higher Kelvin) is in the darkest blues, not the reds (i.e, lower temperature/Kelvin). This simple picture helps explain the difference.
Shouldn't it be "above D65"?
Warm (reddish) colors are below 6500K, whereas cool (bluish) colors are above 6500K.
Try installing a full featured driver from your video hardware manufacturer.
But don't most monitors have a "backlight" option which changes how bright the image without adjusting the contrast & brightness? This can used to effectively adjust liminance, but at superficial global adjustment level rather than a granular control. None the less, one can then put preference on the brighter or darker end depending on their use case(s).
Grayscale can be confusing too. As the temperature gets lower, the color is said to get warmer.
Ojas, the photo on page 2 showing a higher black level is correct. As you raise the black level, blacks get brighter and become more gray.
-Christian-
But don't most monitors have a "backlight" option which changes how bright the image without adjusting the contrast & brightness? This can used to effectively adjust liminance, but at superficial global adjustment level rather than a granular control. None the less, one can then put preference on the brighter or darker end depending on their use case(s).
Unfortunately, very few monitors have separate backlight and brightness controls. None of the screens we've covered this year (16 including reviews not published yet) have a backlight control. This kind of thing is common on HDTVs but not computer monitors and that is a shame. With brighter screens, it's really nice to be able to move the dynamic range up or down to get better blacks or brighter whites, depending on application.
-Christian-
It's written the other (incorrect?) way around in the article, i think.
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/gamma-correction.htm
That's incorrect. It actually works backwards/opposite from what one might think. Color temperature originates from the color a flame radiates in relation to the temperature at which it burns. Think back to grade school and playing with the Bunsen burner... the hottest part of the flame (i.e., higher Kelvin) is in the darkest blues, not the reds (i.e, lower temperature/Kelvin). This simple picture helps explain the difference.
Shouldn't it be "above D65"?
Warm (reddish) colors are below 6500K, whereas cool (bluish) colors are above 6500K.
Grayscale can be confusing too. As the temperature gets lower, the color is said to get warmer.
Ojas, the photo on page 2 showing a higher black level is correct. As you raise the black level, blacks get brighter and become more gray.
-Christian-
Thanks for clarifying that! I even changed gamma on my monitor to see what happens before i posted, i guess i misinterpreted what was happening.
That would be very useful, along with some recommendations of affordable "meters".