▷ How to install monitor icm profile in windows 10

In this article we will see how to install ICM profile of our monitor in Windows 10. If you have just bought a monitor and the colors do not have the quality you expected, surely you have been disappointed. But we should not worry because there is a way to recover true colors thanks to ICM profiles, and in Windows it is quite simple.

Index of contents

What is the ICM profile or ICC profile

The first thing we will have to know is what an ICC profile is and what use they have for us and our miscalibrated monitor.

An ICC (International Color Consortium) profile or also found as an ICM (Image Color Matching) profile, this is a file that contains all the parameters necessary to create a color profile of our monitor. With it, the monitor will take the color values ​​optimized for the specific monitor model that we have since this file is supposed to have the perfect balance of colors for the monitor. These files may come in extension ".ICC" or ".ICM".

But how do you get to have the perfect color values ​​on a monitor? Well, for that we would need a colorimeter to calibrate our monitor. These teams are responsible for capturing the colors and current settings of the monitor and comparing them with a table of actual colors that the team has. In this way the colorimeter creates an ICC profile with the most accurate and natural values ​​that your monitor is capable of giving in terms of colors.

The problem here is that a decent colorimeter is a pretty expensive section (over 150) euros), and it doesn't make much sense for a normal non-designer user. Precisely for this reason what would be most convenient for us is to look for an ICC or ICM profile on the internet of the manufacturer or of any user who has calibrated their monitor, and download it for direct use by us.

To find an ICC profile on the Web, a good page where there are quite a few ICC profiles, it is in TFT Central you can search to see if yours is there.

The ICM profile is independent of the operating system that we have installed, since it belongs to the monitor's own controller and it will only be he who "understands" its color profile.

Install ICM profile in Windows 10

The good thing is that since Windows 10, it is quite easy to install a color profile, since the system has an application or, better said, with some display configuration options to do this, and its name is the Color Manager.. We can access the color manager in two different ways:

The first of them is to open the start menu and directly write " Color Manager ".

The second is from the screen options, so for this we are going to right-click on the desktop and choose " Screen Settings ".

In the screen section, we will go to the end of the whole and click on the option " Advanced screen settings ". Then we will enter a new window where we will have to click on " Show the properties of display adapter 1 ".

Next, a new window with three tabs will appear, we will have to click on " Color Manager " and then click on the only link available in its section. Finally we will have managed to access the Color Manager.

Load ICM Profile in Color Manager

From now on we will work with this window. We must click on the drop-down list of " Device " and select our monitor, which will be referred to as " Screen : Generic PnP Monitor "

Next, we activate the option “ Use my settings for this device ”. Then we can give " Add... " to find our downloaded ICC or ICM file.

If the file is not in the list that appears to us, we will have to click on " Browse... " and look for it directly in the directory where we have it stored.

Now it will be loaded in our ICM profiles list, so we will only have to select it and click on "Accept". We already have our own profile loaded, so when we return to the previous window, we will select it and click on the button " Set as default profile"

We still have one last configuration, and it is in the " Advanced options " selection. We go there and click on " Change the system default values ​​... ". We will do exactly the same as we did before, loading the profile to stay as default.

Color changes may not take effect immediately, so it will be time to restart your computer. When it starts again, we will appreciate a different color scale on our monitor that may be more or less different from the previous one depending on how we had this configured.

Where are color profiles stored in Windows 10?

If what we want is to directly store the ICM file in the directory of the monitor driver, we will have to know where it is located. The path where they are stored is:

C: \ Windows \ System32 \ spool \ drivers \ color

This is the natural directory where the profiles of our monitor are stored. If we put the file here, the Color Manager will automatically load them in the selection list.

Final result and reverse changes

The end result should always be better than what we currently have, as ICM files are supposed to have a perfectly calibrated color profile using professional colorimeters.

It is important to know that not because of this, the colors will be "real", since this will depend on each monitor and its benefits, but we should notice much greater fidelity. These profiles do not modify neither contrast nor brightness, we must do this ourselves from the OSD panel of our monitor.

If we are not happy with the result, we can search for another color profile on another website or go to the Color Manager and uncheck the box " Use my settings for this device ".

This is how we can install ICM monitor profile in Windows 10, as you can see, it is simple and fast. You may also be interested in these articles related to the topic:

We trust that you can all modify your color profile correctly and without problems, otherwise, write in the comments and we will help you.