How to calibrate screen for free and without colorimeter 【step by step】

Using a colorimeter to calibrate a screen is without a doubt the most accurate and reliable way to do it, but it is a device that costs money and is clearly not worth buying for one time use. For this reason, there are applications, pages or directly procedures in the operating system itself to be able to do this calibration without the need for a colorimeter.

These are the three methods that we will use to carry out the calibration of our monitor. In these cases it will depend a lot on our ability with the controls of the OSD panel of our monitor and on the good view we have. Since, in some cases, it will be the software that creates a color profile, but in others we will be enough with the firmware controls of the screen, which on the other hand, will remain fixed without the need to use ICC profiles.

Index of contents

What is the purpose of calibrating the screen?

Perhaps we can think that calibrating the screen is only worth it if we are designers or we are professional or amateur in video or photography editing tasks. But nothing is further from reality, we should all calibrate our monitor in order to obtain the highest possible color fidelity from it. If we spend a considerable amount of money on one, the least we can do is adjust its levels of color, brightness, contrast, gamma, and so on, to perceive colors that are as close to reality as possible.

Normally, high cost monitors and QHD or UHD resolutions usually bring very good factory calibrations. For this reason, on many occasions it will be the user's decision to touch up these parameters to make them comfortable. In this case, it is true that a colorimeter will make a lot of difference, but on a more discreet screen, a manual calibration will greatly improve image quality.

Remember that a screen is made up of a panel of pixels that vary their own light (in the case of OLEDs) or vary the amount of light that passes through them (in the case of TFT-LCDs) to represent colors. For this reason, the light generated is always artificial, and never of the same quality as sunlight, whose incidence on objects will make us perceive colors through our eyes. In a monitor this is only an imitation, and it will depend a lot on the technology used and the calibration to have more or less faithful colors.

How to calibrate a monitor

Basically there are three ways to calibrate a monitor, which will depend on the possibilities, knowledge, skill and demands of each user.

• By means of a colorimeter: it is the most professional and exact way to do it, although we will need somewhat more specific knowledge than in the other methods. The colorimeter is a device that literally photographs the screen while performing a test with a color and tone palette to buy them with the ideal colors. In this way, a program creates a color profile that is installed in the system to modify the characteristics of the screen. It pays off professionally, when monitors graduate every so often to always have the best color fidelity. Using software: this method is less professional than the previous one, although it does not require a colorimeter to calibrate the screen. A program shows us certain screens with color schemes together with an explanation of how they work. We ourselves will be the ones who, through the OSD of the screen or control bars in the program, will adjust the values ​​to a reference image or color. It is not as exact as the previous one, since it is our sight and perception that determines the optimal point that will be subjective. These programs also create color profiles that will be installed on the system. Through a web page: the method is identical to that carried out through programs, only this time the steps to be followed will be implemented directly on a freely accessible website. Normally they do not generate any profile, so it is purely a hardware calibration. Directly: for this, we only need to get an ICC profile created by a third party for our monitor and install it on our system.

Basic concepts to know how to calibrate screen

• Brightness: brightness is the luminance or light power that a screen is capable of giving us. It is measured in nits or cd / m ² are two equivalent measurements. Contrast Ratio: Contrast is the difference between the dark hue that a monitor can represent and the brightest hue. That is, it is the ratio of luminance between the deepest black and the lightest white. Gamma: is the parameter that relates the luminance to the voltage of a CRT monitor. Oddly enough, the CRTs represented the actual colors, and the display's operating ratio was exponential with a gamma value of 2.2. Today's monitors use that parameter for their color calibration, to resemble the performance of a CRT. It will be very important in a calibration. ICC Profile: set of data that characterizes a color space. It is a file created by a calibration program with a set of parameters that will associate the colors of the monitor with the ideal calibration values, through its RGB configuration. Color temperature or white point: it is the degree of warmth or coldness with which a color is represented on the screen. It really is the light that a black body will emit when heated to a certain temperature. Warm (reddish) colors reflect a lower color temperature, while cool (bluish) tones have a higher color temperature. The ideal point will be pure white, at 6500 Kelvin. Color Depth: Refers to the number of bits a monitor uses to represent the color of a pixel on its screen. The more bits, the more colors it will be able to represent. For example, a 10-bit monitor has 1024x1024x1024 = 1, 073, 741, 824 colors. Color space: it is an interpretation system for the colors that will be shown through a mathematical model. It is very important in design, since the programs work with certain color spaces, for example, sRGB, DCI-P3 or the CYMK of printers. The degree of adjustment to a color space reflects the fidelity with which the colors that belong to it will be represented. Delta E: it is the difference of sensations of one color and another, that is, the difference between the color represented by the monitor and the one considered ideal in the color space. Measure the fidelity of color representations for a given space.

Steps before a calibration

It will be important to know a few things before you start calibrating your screen. This is extensible for all methods.

• Calibrate after about 30 minutes of use: it is important that the display, specifically the LED backlight system, warm up before starting the calibration. In this way the temperature of the RGB colors and curves will stabilize and the calibration will be more accurate. Reset to source values: every screen has an option to reset to factory settings. Thus we will start from scratch in the calibration, with the parameters that the manufacturer initially considered as ideal. You check the current values: after this, it is worth taking notes or capturing the values ​​that the parameters of the screen have. Above all, gamma, RGB, brightness and contrast. During calibration we may lie down a bit and we must know what the starting reference was.

• Always set the native resolution and maximum color depth: whatever, Full HD, 2K, 4K, or ultra-wide settings, a monitor will generate better colors at its native resolution. With color depth the same thing will happen, be it 8 or 10 bits. To see these parameters we will go to Display Settings -> Advanced Display Settings -> Show adapter properties -> Show all modes. We need to make sure it is 32-bit true color. Then, in the configuration of the graphics card, we will verify that it is 8 or 10 bits in the corresponding section. Having the most natural lighting in the room: because our eyesight is going to be the calibration element, natural light is the one that best represents the colors. If possible, do it during the day and without artificial light and with a medium level, neither too much darkness nor too much light.

Get an ICC file without having to calibrate

If you are lazy to read the different screen calibration methods, then what you have to do is go to the TFT-Central page and search its repository for an ICC profile for your monitor. They have a lot of models already uploaded, and they are also profiles made with colorimeters and professional programs, so they will be a guarantee of success.

But of course, if it happens to you like us and your monitor is not on the list, you will have to read our other calibration solutions.

How to install ICC or ICM monitor profile in Windows 10

Calibration with colorimeter

At this point we will pass very quickly, since we have a complete tutorial on how to calibrate a monitor with a colorimeter. If we have one, it will also have its own program to do it. If it is basic like the Colormunki Display, we recommend doing it with Display CAL, a free software, easy to use and very complete.

Calibrate monitor with colorimeter step by step

Calibration with Windows 10 wizard

We will start with the most direct way we have at our disposal to calibrate the screen. Windows 10, like Mac OS, has a native application to carry out a complete monitor calibration process.

Well, we will access this application by placing “ calibrate screen color ” or “Calibration of screen color ” in the search engine. If it does not come out, we will go to the traditional control panel and we will have the assistant in the screen configuration.

What we will have to do is simply follow the instructions. In all of them, we are provided with a very complete and easy to understand explanation for carrying out the calibration.

It is possible that when starting the wizard we are shown a warning that the monitor is already using a wide range ICC color profile. These profiles are created by the calibration programs, or may even be factory installed with the monitor. We can choose to keep it or start the wizard anyway.

The good thing about Windows software is that RGB level profiling and Gamma value calibration are done directly from the software. We only need to resort to the monitor OSD to modify the brightness and contrast, which will surely be optimized.

In any case, and this applies to all methods, we recommend using a brightness of between 120 and 200 nits for calibration. Let's say it's a value between 40 and 70% on most monitors, pleasing to the eye and not too dazzling.

At the end of the wizard, the program will give us the opportunity to see the before and after of the calibration. This way we can verify if we are happy with what we have done or was better at the beginning. We can always go back to the previous steps in the wizard to correct or improve the results.

Color Manager

If we write " Color Manager " at the beginning, the ICC profiles loading and configuration window will appear. In it, we will have created and installed a new color profile generated by the program. It will correspond to the "sRGB display profile…" we have more due to the tests carried out on the monitor.

Calibration by APP

Now it's time to calibrate the screen with an application external to that of Windows or Mac OS. They are generally very similar applications, some more or less complete like the one we will see in the example. In any case, the idea is to use a free one.

We have chosen the Calibrize 2.0 application for its enormous ease of use. If we are in a hurry or trust our eyesight, this will be the easiest that can be used. It is free, and we only need two steps to do the calibration. This application is in English, it is the small inconvenience.

In the first step, we will focus on calibrating the contrast and brightness of the monitor. For this, we are offered two white and black pills with two circles in the middle. The idea is to make our eyesight be able to differentiate the background circle on the two pads. Likewise, each one has two shades of black and white, which we must make them look uniform and in the same color.

In the instructions it tells us to set the contract to maximum and then modify the brightness. We do not advise doing this at any time, we will only try to obtain a representation as described.

In the second step, we have the RGB colors and some bars. This is to ensure that the dark circles in the center do not stand out too much or too far from the background color. In any case, we must always keep a neutral color on the screen. The truth is that it is a somewhat complicated system since it does not show percentages and will depend a lot on our perception.

Another interesting application to calibrate the monitor will be f.lux, although this is more focused on modifying the color temperature and brightness of the monitor depending on the hours of the day and our location, creating multiple profiles that will be automatically loaded according to our taste. Finally, the QuickGamma application is similar to Calibrize, but with a more complex use and similar to that of Windows, consequently, the results will be better.

Calibration through a web

We go to the final phase with the third method available, which consists of visiting one of the many calibration websites that exist to calibrate the screen without the need for a colorimeter. Its use is very similar to that of applications, with the great advantage that we will not have to download anything or install anything. The small drawback or advantage, depending on how you look at it, is that the calibration will be directly on the hardware, without creating a color profile.

The example has been carried out with the Lagom.nl website. It is one of the most famous websites in the community for this type of configuration. The page is in English, with the advantage of being able to use the Google translator to pass it to our favorite language.

Its distribution is very simple and similar to the Windows 10 wizard. We go page by page through the different calibration steps, where we will be shown some graphs with a complete explanation of how to carry out the adjustment in each one of them.

Of course, we are not obliged to do them all, what's more, perhaps the monitor you are using does not allow you to adjust the black or white levels manually, or other parameters such as the response time. Precisely at black and white levels, we recommend doing this by adjusting the gamma and contrast level of the monitor. If we need to go back to previous steps to verify that the rest is still correct, the website allows it without any problem.

Other elements such as the viewing angle are for informational purposes only. While in the step of the contrast ratio it will allow us to attach photos of the screen in bank and in black so that the web calculates the contrast of it. Be careful, we are talking about photos taken directly to the panel, not screenshots. Something similar occurs with the step of the design of the subpixels.

It is an extremely complete and easy to follow website, and after calibration by colorimeter it is the one that has given us the best results.

If we want a much simpler one, we can choose PhotoFriday, and if we want a more complete and similar one to the example, we can go to the Online Monitor Test. The latter requires adobe flash to function, so we recommend opening it with the Microsoft Edge browser.

Comparative results between the systems, which will be better?

After seeing the different methods, we have carried out a comparative test to evaluate the Delta E of each calibration with our X-Rite Colormunki Display colorimeter. What we will do is buy a calibration with the own colorimeter in Display CAL 3 and the others. For this, we have taken as reference a sRGB profile for the comparison of Delta E.

We can see that the most accurate calibration is the one carried out with a colorimeter (the last one), while the worst one is the one we have carried out with the Calibrize application, as expected. However, it is very close to what we have done with Windows, while the best without colorimeter has been the one we have carried out with the web.

This highlights two important things. The first is that the references for calibration have a lot to do with adjusting the monitor, so having an appropriate one will facilitate the process. And the second is that our view (my view) seems to be quite susceptible to those reference charts. I see that these are the main disadvantages of not using a colorimeter, which has a lens and an impartial camera and is able to compare colors much more exhaustively than we do.

Of course, the tests have not been carried out by a professional, whose eye must be more used to variations in tones. Perhaps the result would have improved in their hands, this is similar to musicians, who have a more educated ear for music.

We leave you now with more links of interest related to monitors:

What calibration method do you plan to follow? Have you ever calibrated a monitor?