How to calibrate the monitor on an Ubuntu system?

colors monitor color-management

168,044

Solution 1

You can use GNOME Color Manager to install color profiles, perform calibration and adjust color settings. For full functionality, you'll need ICC profiles that provide the required information for your devices.

Solution 2

If you don't use unity (or gnome), using gnome-color-manager does NOT work (see How do you set system display color profiles in Xubuntu and Lubuntu? for the glory details).

However, there is an excellent german howto all necessary things manually: http://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/Monitor_profilieren_mit_ArgyllCMS

Solution 3

I think that a ColorHug2 (http://www.hughski.com/colorhug2.html) is probably the best choice IMHO. I want something with Linux software out of the box and this looks like the right product.

I'm writting this so that other people googling will find the product.

Solution 4

I ran into the same issue using Ubuntu Mate 16.04. The solution was really simple. Go to Ubuntu Software Center and do a search for DisplayCal. Their direct url is http://displaycal.net/. It works amazingly well and quite simply utilizing my Spyder 3 Elite spectrometer. You will have to have a spectrometer to do this. In a dual boot system with Windows, you can import the icc or icm profile from Windows to Ubuntu.

Hope this will help others who have run into this issue.

j.Michael Hill Photography

Solution 5

To do a colour calibration (this is the process that the 'Calibrate...' button will start) you would need to use a spectrophotometer. These measure the colour produced by monitors or printers.

The basic process is that the screen will display a number of coloured patches one after the other and the spectrophotometer will detect the actual colour produced on the screen. This allows the software to compare the colour produced with the colour that was requested.

After the process is completed Ubuntu will have a profile specifically for that monitor (or printer) that will tell it what colour to request to get the colour that it actually wants.

View more solutions

168,044

Author by

user372705

Updated on September 17, 2022

Comments

user372705 over 1 year

What is the procedure to calibrate the monitor and what software to use?

Edit: I think what I mean is "colour profile" if that's what it is called. I happened to notice that the same photos look very differently indeed on my home laptop and on other computers…
user372705 over 13 years

f.lux seems like a nice piece of software but I think it is not quite what I need
JanC over 13 years

Really calibrating a monitor requires a rather expensive piece of hardware though...
user372705 over 13 years

just in case anyone finds this useful: an alternative to f.lux: jonls.dk/redshift
Svilen over 13 years

Not really. The Pantone Huey Pro, which works with GNOME Color Manager, costs $100, which is nothing if you're doing professional work that necessitates proper calibration.
Svilen over 12 years

GCM developer Richard Hughes recently announced ColorHug, a colorimeter with open hardware specs and drivers -- hughski.com
Ian Santopietro over 10 years

Even the imaging industry standards like the Spyder4 are only around $220 (US). And the Spyder4 works with gcm-calibrate.
unhammer almost 9 years

Actually, you can get it to work by either running xiccd (not in regular repos, but not too hard to install) or gnome-settings-daemon (not that many gnome dependencies): askubuntu.com/q/427821/25639
Admin almost 9 years

This answer has nothing to do with the question.
Colin over 8 years

it does provide a command line tool to change the color calibration, that's not nothing. when I start X on an external monitor, my driver incorrectly sets my color profile and my screen is unusable. Running xgamma -gamma 1.0 fixes the problem (and is scriptable). Thanks!
Mikko Rantalainen over 8 years

If you're going to get a colorimeter (as opposed to more costly and more accurate spectrometer), I'd suggest ColorHug2: hughski.com/faq.html#ch1-ch2-what-changed
David C. about 8 years

gcm works if you have calibration hardware or an icc file to install (or if one of the bundled profiles is acceptable). What it doesn't do is what Windows and Mac users have the option of - go through a bunch of screens dragging contrast/gamma sliders to generate a profile for the display. I don't know of a Linux tool for that.
Jason McVetta about 8 years

I was able to find a good color profile for my laptop by googling for "color profile" and the model of laptop. You can probably do the same thing for desktop by substituting the model number of your monitor.
nafg almost 8 years

From man xgamma: Note that the xgamma utility is obsolete and deficient, xrandr should be used with drivers that support the XRandr extension.