Display Calibration in Linux
So yesterday I scored a new in box ColorVision Spyder2 at a garage sale for TWO BUCKS!!
I don't do any kind of for profit photo editing or anything, but I've always wanted a colorimeter to calibrate my displays and $2 is hard to pass up.
Basically a colorimeter is a device to measure the colour response of your display device. In concert with the appropriate software, you can then create a colour profile for the display. This allows your computer's colour management software to adjust what it outputs based on that colour curve in order to compensate for any deficiencies in your display and force it's output to be as accurate as possible. Why? Well, at a minimum so that what you see on the screen most closely matches the original image, but also so that when combined with a properly calibrated printer, what you print looks the same as what you see on the screen.
This device, being a little bit older model, doesn't work well with Windows 10. At least with the official, included software, but I don't care about that for several reasons. Not the least of which being I don't use Windows 10 at home. A bigger reason is that I found third party software that works on Windows, Linux, and Mac and so I used that instead.
The DisplayCal software creates calibration profiles in concert with, and for use by, the ArgyllCMS colour managament system.
You'll need to install both on your computer first.
I tested this all on my ThinkPad running OpenSUSE Linux LEAP 42.3.
This software isn't beginner level and a good RTFM is probably in order. However I managed to get it started on a profile run in a few minutes. The profile creation itself took a couple of hours and the results are impressive. ThinkPads are not content creation devices so they don't come with colour calibrated screens or high colour range screens. Despite that, once calibrated, the photo image quality is amazing. At least compared to stock.
I plan to run it on all my devices soon.
Meanwhile, if you get an opportunity to grab a good deal on a DisplayCal supported colorimeter, go for it.
https://displaycal.net/
Yep, I have a triple head system and I use DisplayCal with a colorimeter to make sure they all match and also that I see the colours as they are supposed to be.
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