How to make colours on one screen look the same as another

Question

Given two seperate computers, how could one ensure that colours are being projected roughly the same on each screen?

IE, one screen might have 50% brightness more than another, so colours appear duller on one screen. One artist on one computer might be seeing the pictures differently to another, it's important they are seeing the same levels.

Is there some sort of callibration technique via software you can do? Any techniques? Or is a hardware solution the only way?

Plasmagel

A lot of monitor functionality like sharpness etc is accessed using its own built in menu, if you could find a software solution to hook into it then you could define a set of presets that automatically configure the monitor, some monitors allow you to define presets from the menu but would require user interaction to set them if they change. – Velamen

Nice idea for a small software/hardware utility that could be made... – Chanterelle

Answer 1

If you are talking about lab-critical calibration (that is, the colours on one monitor need to exactly match the colours on another, and both need to match an external reference as closely as possible) then a hardware colorimeter (with its own appropriate software and test targets) is the only solution. Software solutions can only get you so far.

The technique you described is a common software-only solution, but it's only for setting the gamma curves on a single device. There is no control over the absolute brightness and contrast; you are merely ensuring that solid colours match their dithered equivalents. That's usually done after setting the brightness and contrast so that black is as black as it can be and white is as white as it can be, but you can still distinguish not-quite-black from black and not-quite-white from white. Each monitor, then, will be optimized for its own maximum colour gamut, but it will not necessarily match any other monitor in the shop (even monitors that are the same make and model will show some variation due to manufacturing tolerances and age/use). A hardware colorimeter will (usually) generate a custom colour profile for the device under test as it is at the time of testing, and there is generally and end-to-end solution built into the product (so your scanner, printer, and monitor are all as closely matched as they can be).

You will never get to an absolute end-to-end match in a complete system, but hardware will get you as close as you can get. Software alone can only get you to a local maximum for the device it's calibrating, independent of any other device.

Deity

Sorry about the duplicate (if you can still see it) -- I am currently using the world's flakiest wifi connection and, well, stuff happens. Had fun with the multiple CAPTCHAs, though... – Deity

A first approximation hardware calorimeter could be made using a camera. – Klein

Which leaves only the trivial problem of translating the picture you take into meaningful adjustments of brightness, contrast and gamma. At $170 - $500 for something like the Spyder 3 (a complete package that will get you to accuracy good enough the Pantone people at the high end, and better than good enough for in-house consistency at the low end), how much is your time worth? – Deity

Answer 2

What you need to investigate are color profiles.

Wikipedia has some good articles on this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_management

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICC_profile

The basic thing you need is the color profile of the display on which the color was seen. Then, with the color profile of display #2, you can take the original color and convert it into a color that will look as close as possible (depends on what colors the display device can actually represent).

Color profiles are platform independent and many modern frameworks support them directly.

You may be interested in reading about how Apple has dealt with this issue:

Color Programming Topics

https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/DrawColor/DrawColor.html

Apus

Answer 3

You'd have to allow or ask the individual users to calibrate their monitors. But there's enough variation across monitors - particularly between models and brands - that trying to implement a "silver bullet" solution is basically impossible.

Bogey

I heard talk about some sort of optical illusion trick, that allowed asked you to adjust a slider until both grey boxes looked roughly the same, then you have a mask you can apply to your image that portrays it roughly the same way? – Plasmagel

@Tom that sounds like calibrating the gamma correction. – Bogey

Answer 4

As @Matt Ball observes calibrating your monitors is what you are trying to do. Here's one way to do it without specialised hardware or software. For 'roughly the same' visual calibration against a reference image is likely to be adequate.

Bushcraft

Answer 5

Getting multiple monitors of varying quality/brand/capabilities to render a given image the same way is simply not possible.

IF you have complete control over the monitor, video card, calibration hardware/software, and lighting used then you have a shot. But that's only if you are in complete control of the desktop and the environment.

Assuming you are just accounting for LCDs, they are built different types of panels with a host of different capabilities. Brightness is just one factor (albeit a big one). Another is simply the number of colors they are capable of rendering.

Beyond that, there is the environment that the monitor is in. Even assuming the same brand monitor and calibration points, a person will perceive a different color if an overhead fluorescent is used versus an incandescent placed next to the monitor itself. At one place I was at we had to shut off all the overheads and provide exact lamp placement for the graphic artists. Picky picky. ;)

Artilleryman

Answer 6

I assume that you have no control over the hardware used, each user has a different brand and model monitor.

You have also no control over operating system color profiles.

An extravagant solution would be to display a test picture or pattern, and ask your users to take a picture of it using their mobile or webcam.

Download the picture to the computer, and check whether its levels are valid or too out of range.

This will also ensure ambient light at the office is appropiate.

Plano

Absolutely not! You forget that cameras introduce noise when acquiring an analog signal, and also (most important) environment lightning DOES change the subjective perspection of colours – Picrite

If lightning didn't change the subjective perception of colours, taking the picture would have no use. Lightning does change the perception, and also changes the picture taken. If the picture is too dark, you ask the user to change the monitor brightness. If it is too red, you ask to adjust the corresponding parameter, and so on. – Plano