Color management on Slackware

Aeterna · 01-22-2023, 04:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SW64

I was able to get DisplayCAL running on my computer. Took me the better part of today to basically bumbled my way to this solution. I downloaded the 'DisplayCAL-3.8.9.3.tar.gz' file from the 'Source Tarball' link on this page: https://displaycal.net/#download. I ran the 'python setup.py install' inside the extracted folder. Among other things, this gave me the application desktop file for my menu in XFCE. I installed wxPython3, numpy-legacy, and argyllcms (grab 2.3.1 or newer zip at Download source) via sbopkg. I don't know if this was necessary but I also installed Certifi and psutil via 'pip install'.

Now I need to find a compatible colorimeter.

Actually one needs argyllcms (works with more devices),wxGTK3, wxPython3 and numpy-legacy before installing DisplayCAL.

Nevertheless, for photography proper color calibration one needs:
icc profile for each lens at (at minimum 3 conditions: sunny, cloudy and daylight) generated by camera, then install Darktable. For each pic taken under specific weather condition and specific lens upload generated icc profile (converted).
Now Darktable will keep color profile also for printing.

SW64 · 01-22-2023, 06:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aeterna

Actually one needs argyllcms (works with more devices),wxGTK3, wxPython3 and numpy-legacy before installing DisplayCAL.

Nevertheless, for photography proper color calibration one needs:
icc profile for each lens at (at minimum 3 conditions: sunny, cloudy and daylight) generated by camera, then install Darktable. For each pic taken under specific weather condition and specific lens upload generated icc profile (converted).
Now Darktable will keep color profile also for printing.

Yes, that was the bumbling part. I installed DisplayCAL first and then figured out what it needed.

Thanks for your calibration tip! I'll explore darktable for its color management options. I was planning on using RawTherapee. It has its own monitor/printer profile options in its preference that I was going to try out if I couldn't get XFCE to be color management aware.

Aeterna · 01-22-2023, 07:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SW64

Yes, that was the bumbling part. I installed DisplayCAL first and then figured out what it needed.

Thanks for your calibration tip! I'll explore darktable for its color management options. I was planning on using RawTherapee. It has its own monitor/printer profile options in its preference that I was going to try out if I couldn't get XFCE to be color management aware.

I bet you can. Monitor profile is loaded at login and photo color profile is loaded by app so XFCE can use color profile.

SW64 · 01-22-2023, 07:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aeterna

I bet you can. Monitor profile is loaded at login and photo color profile is loaded by app so XFCE can use color profile.

Yes, I can now. I had to rebuild xfce4-settings to get its Color dialog working. See: https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...er-4175721183/

SW64 · 01-25-2023, 07:36 PM

Today I was able to have DisplayCAL use datacolor SpyderX Pro, the cheapest one I could find new, to build my monitor profiles with on my Slackware computer.

SW64 · 01-25-2023, 08:49 PM

Before I got myself a colorimeter, I've been using these two websites to bring my monitor into the ballpark range. I was surprised to see how close I had it when I compared the result of before the calibration and after. So if you want a close-enough and eyeball-calibrated monitor, check these two links out.

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

https://www.photofriday.com/info/calibrate

pisti · 09-01-2023, 01:39 PM

sorry for asking so naïvely - but monitor color management is a new topic for me though i had planned to do monitor calibration ever since i do digital photography and since i use slackware, and that's for more than two decades

here some key questions :

-0- is DisplayCAL the way to go on a Slackware box ? which obviously will include ArgyllCMS ?

-1- i usually edit my photos inside a tigerVNC window so that i can process them easily via my local machine as well as remotely via my laptop or office workstation. now, calibrating my local machine with X & monitor should do it, right, as this will also make the tigerVNC screen calibrated properly, at least while working *locally*, correct ?

-2- my photo/image editor software is GIMP, while i really only use RawTherapee to convert from DNG to PNG without applying any color correction. moreover, i display my photos with FireFox and Google Chrome. will all these software need to be made aware of the new DisplayCal ICC profile after calibration, or is that taken care off systemwise by the OS and the X environment ?

thank you for any advice !

SW64 · 09-04-2023, 12:04 AM

pisti,

0.
DisplayCAL has worked very well for my purpose on Slackware under XFCE.

1.
In my limited understanding and limited experience with remote networking, I would think that the VNC aspect is going to have its own graphic conversion going on, squeezing the bandwidth to an acceptable level before sending it over the network. That'll mess with colors greatly. Maybe there are remote programs that have factored in color management. Personally, I would work on a local computer and not via remotely. Color management is confusing enough already, lol.

2.
Once I've calibrated my monitor with DisplayCAL and a colorimeter, I didn't mess with the color management features in GIMP/RawTherapee. As a matter of fact, they are either off or left to their default settings. My monitor is calibrated which then will ensure that what I see is very close to what I'll get back after sending digital image files to printing services (that I've checked in beforehand regarding their color management workflow). Many printers are set to sRGB anyway.

pisti · 01-18-2024, 09:22 PM

so, here we go, i finally got my colorimeter, a ColorVision datacolor Spyder X. for that i compiled and installed all the required pieces of software from SlackBuilds (see list below) on an old Dell Optiplex 990 SFF running stock Slack150. the last software, xcalib, i installed as i thought that at the end i would run my photo processing pipeline with a first fvwm instance, a local(!) tigervnc with a second fvwm, RawTherapee and GIMP and a simple invocation of xcalib on the generated LUT profiles in the first fvwm in order to get my Philips Brilliance 439P1 monitor calibrated.

Code:

SBo software list : jam argyllcms wxGTK3 wxPython3 numpy-legacy DisplayCAL xcalib

but i just started to run into trouble because DisplayCAL does not recognize the connected colorimeter, it just shows a gray field under [Instrument] - though i admittedly also see some "failed to execute" errors under :

Code:

tail -f /var/log/{syslog,messages}
...
Jan 18 21:25:28 amalia last message buffered 2 times
Jan 18 21:32:42 amalia kernel: usb 2-1.5.3: USB disconnect, device number 85
Jan 18 21:33:16 amalia kernel: usb 2-1.5.3: new full-speed USB device number 86 using ehci-pci
Jan 18 21:33:16 amalia kernel: usb 2-1.5.3: New USB device found, idVendor=085c, idProduct=0a00, bcdDevice= 1.00
Jan 18 21:33:16 amalia kernel: usb 2-1.5.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
Jan 18 21:33:16 amalia kernel: usb 2-1.5.3: Product: Datacolor SpyderX
Jan 18 21:33:16 amalia kernel: usb 2-1.5.3: Manufacturer: Datacolor
Jan 18 21:33:16 amalia kernel: usb 2-1.5.3: SerialNumber: 0001

==> /var/log/syslog <==
Jan 18 21:33:16 amalia udevd[4175]:  failed to execute '/lib/udev/usb-db' 'usb-db /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.5/2-1.5.3': No such file or directory
Jan 18 21:33:16 amalia udevd[4179]:  failed to execute '/lib/udev/usb-db' 'usb-db /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.5/2-1.5.3/2-1.5.3:1.0': No such file or directory

==> /var/log/messages <==
Jan 18 21:33:44 amalia kernel: usb 2-1.8: reset high-speed USB device number 7 using ehci-pci

what does that mean ? does this look familiar to anybody in this forum ? does this hinder DisplayCal to do its job ? the colorimeter device ultimately appears to be recognized, right ?

any help is greatly appreciated - i really need to get my photo setup calibrated, after more then 20y of fiddling with incorrect contrasts and colors...!

pisti · 01-18-2024, 09:54 PM

i think the temporary solution was to run displaycal as root...

pisti · 01-19-2024, 11:58 AM

as said before displaycal and argyllcms started to work on my slack150 box for root - but my large Philips Brilliance 439P1 monitor displays now a beautiful green tint where before a clean white was shown ! during the displaycal calibration phase (the first phase) under 'interactive display adjustment' it asked me to adjust via the monitor's OSD the RGB colors (lower RED from 100 to 86) and picture brightnedd from 50 to 51. that's when things turned ugly green...while the second profiling phase didn't adjust much in terms of colors though the dark contrasts are now better admittedly.

anybody here with experience how to adjust displaycal's run options such as 'Mode' and 'Correction' under 'Instrument' and then the other parameters under 'Calibration' and 'Profiling' for this relatively new type of LCD-LED monitor, a Philips Brilliance 439P1 ?

pisti · 01-27-2024, 03:57 PM

"Ende gut, alles gut" : after i switched away from that el-cheapo SpyderX colorimeter and got myself a calibrite colorchecker display plus for roughly double the price things started to move in the right direction and my large Philips 439P1 left that green tint !
ultimately it was a fairly simple and smooth experience to run displaycal as root on my slack150 box, get those *.icc files into my home directory, and then play with those ICC settings by doing repeatedly :

Code:

xcalib -c
xcalib PHL\ 439P1\ #1\ 2024-01-27\ 15-59\ 2.2\ F-S\ XYZLUT+MTX.icc

the Spyders are not really recommended by the DisplayCal folks and are called "paperweights" - while the calibrate (formerly i1d3) worked like a charme

UrbanDesimator · 01-29-2024, 04:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jkh2cpu

Does anyone have functioning color management working in Slackware?

If you do, I'd be interested in knowing how you got it operating.

I saw a significant improvement in my dissplay after setting up a color profile especially in video playback, games and my psychadelic desktop wallpapers.
I don't perform any calibration on monitor but I am looking into it.

I use colord, icc_profiles, icc_profiles_from_eci, xiccd from SBo and rebuild xfce4-settings with
--enable-colord \ option added to the slackbuild.
I then generate a profile from my monitor edid and used instuctions from archlinux wiki below.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/ICC_profiles towards the bottum there are instructions to generate a profile from your monitors edid.
I then copy that file to /usr/share/color/icc/. As I use xfce I setup xiccd to start on login with atostart script thsat will thrn load the profile created.
I know you can do similar in kde and gnome using there inbuilt color profile apps but I have no experience with them.
I hope the info is usefull