dispcalGUI—Open Source Display Calibration and Characterization powered by Argyll CMS

About

dispcalGUI is a graphical frontend for several utilities from the open source color management system Argyll CMS by Graeme W. Gill, specifically dispcal, dispread, colprof and dispwin, which when used together allow you to calibrate and profile your display using a measurement device. Of course, you can do a lot more with Argyll CMS, but this is not the scope of this document—refer to the Argyll CMS documentation for in-depth information and usage scenarios.
dispcalGUI opens a main window when run, and a terminal-like window will be shown at the beginning of interactive display adjustment, which is currently needed for direct keyboard interaction with the Argyll CMS tools. It will be replaced with a graphical interface in the future. The main window is used to set options and access functionality.

Disclaimer

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

dispcalGUI is written in Python and uses the 3rd-party packages appscript (AppleScript library, only on Mac OS X), demjson ( library) and wxPython ( toolkit). It also makes extensive use of several Argyll CMS utilities. The build system to create standalone executables additionally uses setuptools and py2app on Mac OS X or py2exe on Windows. All of these software packages are © by their respective authors.

A note about colorimeters, wide-gamut displays and dispcalGUI

Colorimeters need a correction matrix in hardware or software to obtain correct measurements from wide-gamut displays (please also see “Wide Gamut Displays and Colorimeters” on the Argyll CMS website for more information). The latter is supported when using Argyll CMS >= 1.3.0, so if you own a wide-gamut display and colorimeter which has not been specifically tuned for this display (i.e. does not contain a correction matrix in hardware), you can apply a correction matrix that has been calculated from spectrometer measurements to help better measure such a screen (but you need a spectrometer in the first place to do the necessary measurements to create such a matrix, or you may look for a suitable correction matrix on the Argyll CMS website—please note though that a matrix created for one particular instrument/display combination may not work well for different instances of the same combination because of generally low inter-instrument agreement of most colorimeters). If you buy a screen bundled with a colorimeter, the instrument usually has been matched to the screen in some way, so you may not need a software correction matrix in that case.

Download

Linux DEB/RPM packages

Native packages for several distributions are available via my openSUSE Build Service repository:

Debian 5 (Lenny) x86 | x86_64
Debian 6 (Squeezy) x86 | x86_64
Fedora 12 x86 | x86_64
Fedora 13 x86 | x86_64
Fedora 14 x86 | x86_64
Fedora 15 x86 | x86_64
Mandriva 2009.1 x86 | x86_64
Mandriva 2010 x86 | x86_64
Mandriva 2010.1 x86 | x86_64
openSUSE 11.1 x86 | x86_64
openSUSE 11.2 x86 | x86_64
openSUSE 11.3 x86 | x86_64
openSUSE 11.4 x86 | x86_64
openSUSE Factory x86 | x86_64
RedHat RHEL 6 x86 | x86_64
SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 x86 | x86_64
SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 SP1 x86 | x86_64
Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) x86 | x86_64
Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic) x86 | x86_64
Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid) x86 | x86_64
Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick) x86 | x86_64
Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty) x86 | x86_64

Linux Autopackage

Universal install that should work on a multitude of distributions.

Autopackage (Python 2.5, 2.6 and 2.7, x86 and x86_64)

Stand-alone executable

This is what you should get if you don't have Python installed or cannot satisfy all prerequisites.

Mac OS X DMG
Windows Installer | ZIP

Source code

This is what you need to compile from source. You need to have a working Python installation and all prerequisites.

All platforms Tarball

Alternatively, if you don't mind trying out development code, browse the [8] repository of the latest development version (or do a full checkout using svn co https://dispcalgui.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/dispcalgui dispcalGUI). But please note that the development code might contain bugs or not run at all, or only on some platform(s). Use at your own risk.

Quick setup guide

This short guide intends to get you up and running quickly, but if you run into a problem, you should refer to the full Prerequisites and Installation sections.

1. Get and install the latest release of dispcalGUI. It is recommended to first remove all previous versions.
2. Download and unpack the Argyll CMS archive file: Linux | Mac OS | Windows. Put the extracted directory (Argyll_VX.X.X) in a convenient place on your harddisk.
   If you want to use the HCFR colorimeter on Mac OS X: Follow the instructions under installing Argyll CMS on Mac OS X to enable it.
3. Launch dispcalGUI. If it cannot determine the path to the Argyll CMS binaries, it will prompt you to select the location manually on first launch.
   If your measurement device is a Spyder 2: Choose “Enable Spyder 2 colorimeter...” from dispcalGUI's “Tools” menu. If you don't have the spyder software installed or its location cannot be determined, you will be prompted to select the setup executable that came with the instrument's installation media to enable it.
4. Connect your measurement device to your computer.
   Driver installation - Windows only: If you already have drivers for your measurement device installed, read “Adding Argyll drivers to existing drivers” (if you are using vendor drivers) or “Updating Argyll drivers” (if you use a prior version of the Argyll drivers) in Installing Argyll CMS on Microsoft Windows. If this is a fresh install, a “Found new hardware” dialog should appear:

   • Under Windows Vista/7...
     • Select “Locate and install driver software (recommended)”.
     • If a “User Account Control” window pops up, select “Continue”.
     • Select “Don't search online”.
     • Select “I don't have the disc, show me other options”.
     • Select “Browse my computer for driver software (advanced)”.
   • Under Windows XP...
     • In the window “Can Windows connect to Windows Update to search for software?” select “No, not this time” and “Next”.
     • Select “Install from a list or specific location (advanced)” then “Next”.
     • Select “Search for the best driver in these locations”, “Include this location in the search” and “Browse...”.
   • Under Windows 2000...
     • Select “Next”, then “Search for a suitable driver for my device (recommended)”, and “Next” again.
     • Tick the “Specify a location” box, then select “Next”.
     • In the window “Insert the manufacturer's installation disk” select “Browse...”.
   • Locate the “libusbw” subdirectory in your Argyll_VX.X.X directory (under Windows 2000, you also need to select the .inf file that corresponds to your device, then select “Open” and “OK”). Select “Next”.
   • Under Windows Vista/7, if a “Windows Security” dialog pops up, select “Install this driver software anyway”.
   • A window stating the successful installation of the driver should show. Click “Finish”/“Close”.
5. The instrument should show up in the dropdown menu within about 10 seconds.
   If you cannot access your instrument, first try unplugging and reconnecting it, or a reboot.
   Linux only: If that doesn't help, read Installing Argyll CMS on Linux: Setting up instrument access.
6. Refer to the Usage instructions.

Prerequisites

Installation

It is recommended to first remove all previous versions.

Basic concept of display calibration and profiling

If you have previous experience, skip to Usage. If you are new to display calibration, here is a quick outline of the basic concept.

First, the display behavior is measured and adjusted to meet user-definable target characteristics, like brightness, gamma and white point. This step is generally referred to as calibration. Calibration is done by adjusting the monitor controls, and the output of the graphics card (via calibration curves, also called curves, but please note the difference between these curves and so-called LUT profiles) to get as close as possible to the chosen target.
To meet the user-defined target characteristics, it is generally advisable to get as far as possible by using the monitor controls, and only thereafter by manipulating the output of the video card via calibration curves, which are loaded into the so-called video card gamma table, to get the best results.

Second, the calibrated displays behavior is measured and an profile describing the response of the display is created.

Optionally and for convenience purposes, the calibration is stored in the profile, but both still need to be used together to get correct results. This can lead to some ambiguity, because loading the calibration curves from the profile is generally the responsibility of a third party utility or the OS (currently, the only OS that applies calibration curves out-of-the-box is Mac OS X—for other OS's, dispcalGUI takes care of creating an appropriate loader), while applications using the profile to do color transforms usually rely on the calibration being already loaded. Even non-color-managed applications will benefit from a loaded calibration because it is stored in the graphics card—it is “global”. But the calibration alone will not yield accurate colors—only fully color-managed applications will make use of display profiles and the necessary color transforms. Regrettably there are several image viewing and editing applications that only implement half-baked color management by not using the system's display profile (or any display profile at all), but an internal and often unchangeable “default” color space like sRGB, and sending output unaltered to the display after converting to that default colorspace. If the display's actual response is close to sRGB, you might get pleasing (albeit not accurate) results, but on displays which behave differently, for example wide-color-gamut displays, even mundane colors can get a strong tendency towards neon.

Usage

Through the , you can choose your settings. When running calibration measurements, a terminal-like window will be shown during the interactive part of display adjustment, which is currently needed for direct keyboard interaction with the Argyll CMS tools. It will be replaced with a graphical interface in the future.

Menu commands

Known issues and solutions

• General: Wacky image colors (red and green swapped)
• Measurements are failing if using the “Allow skipping of spectrometer self-calibration” option and/or highres/adaptive mode
• Photoshop: “The monitor profile […] appears to be defective. Please rerun your monitor calibration software.”
• MS Windows Vista: The calibration gets unloaded when a “User Access Control” prompt is shown
• MS Windows Vista and 7: The display profile isn't used if it was installed for the current user
• MS Windows: Enabling the Spyder 2 colorimeter might fail when not running as administrator
• MS Windows: Installing a display profile system-wide might fail when not running as administrator
• MS Windows Vista and 7, 64-bit: Driver signature enforcement prevents the installation of unsigned Argyll USB drivers
• MS Windows XP, multiple displays: One profile is used by all displays connected to a graphics card
• Photoshop CS3 (Mac OS X): The brush cursor looks funny (box around brush)
• Linux/Windows: No video card gamma table access (“calibrate only” and “calibrate & profile” buttons grayed, “profile only” button available)
• Linux (KDE): The application does not look native
• General: Some text is still in english, even though another language is selected

General: Wacky image colors (red and green swapped)
Solution: This happens when you created a “XYZ LUT + R ↔ G swapped matrix” profile (which is the default for the “Prepress” and “Photo” presets) and is a way to alert you that the software you're using does not support XYZ LUT profiles and falls back to the included matrix (which generally means you'd loose accuracy). If you're having this situation only in some applications, creating a “XYZ LUT + matrix” profile will remedy it (but please keep in mind that those applications not supporting XYZ LUT will still fall back to the matrix, so results can be different from applications that support XYZ LUT correctly). If all colormanaged applications you use show swapped colors, you should create a matrix profile instead. Note that you do not have to re-run any measurements: In dispcalGUI, choose a profile type as suggested previously, adjust quality and profile name if you want, then choose “Create profile from measurement data...” in the “Options” menu and select the profile you had the issue with.

General: Measurements are failing (“sample read failed”) if using the “Allow skipping of spectrometer self-calibration” option and/or highres/adaptive mode
Solution: Disable either or all of the above options. The problem seems to mainly occur with the ColorMunki.

Photoshop: “The monitor profile […] appears to be defective. Please rerun your monitor calibration software.”
Solution: Adobe ACE, Adobe's color conversion engine, contains monitor profile validation functionality which attempts to filter out bad profiles. With Argyll XYZ LUT profiles created in versions up to 1.3.2, the B2A white point mapping is sometimes not particularly accurate, just enough so that ACE will see it as a problem, but in actual use it may only have little impact that the whitepoint is a bit off. So if you get a similar message when launching Photoshop, with the options “use profile regardless” and “ignore profile”, you may choose “use profile regardless” and check visually or with the pipette in Photoshop if the inaccurate whitepoint poses a problem. This issue is fixed in Argyll 1.3.3 and newer. Alternatively, you can create a Lab LUT profile.

MS Windows Vista: The calibration gets unloaded when a “User Access Control” prompt is shown.
Solution: This Windows Vista bug seems to have been fixed under Windows 7, and can be remedied under Vista by either manually reloading calibration, or disabling UAC—but please note that you sacrifice security by doing this. To manually reload the calibration, either open dispcalGUI and select “Load calibration curves from current display profile” in the “Options” menu, or (quicker) open the Windows start menu and select “dispcalGUI Profile Loader” in the “Startup” subfolder. To disable (not recommended!), open the Windows start menu and enter “msconfig” in the search box. Click on the Tools tab. Select the line “Disable UAC” and click the “Launch” button. Close msconfig. You need to reboot your system for changes to apply.

MS Windows Vista and 7: The display profile isn't used if it was installed for the current user
Solution: Open the Windows start menu, select “Control Panel”, then “Color Management” (you may have to select “Classic View” under Vista and anything other than “Category View” under Windows 7 to see it). Under the “Devices” tab, select your display device, then tick “Use my settings for this device”.

MS Windows: Enabling the Spyder 2 colorimeter might fail when not running as administrator
Solution: Run dispcalGUI as admin. Right-click dispcalGUI's icon and choose “Run as administrator...”

MS Windows: Installing a display profile system-wide might fail when not running as administrator
Solution: Run dispcalGUI as admin. Right-click dispcalGUI's icon and choose “Run as administrator...”

MS Windows Vista and 7, 64-bit: Driver signature enforcement prevents the installation of unsigned Argyll USB drivers
Solution: Please upgrade to Argyll CMS 1.2.0 or later. For prior versions, signing the Argyll drivers or disabling driver signature enforcement altogether on each boot was needed to successfully use the drivers. Such workarounds are no longer needed with Argyll CMS 1.2.0 which includes drivers that will work out-of-the-box (if you already have drivers for your measurement device installed, see “Updating Argyll drivers” in Installing Argyll CMS on Microsoft Windows if you use a prior version of the Argyll drivers, or “Adding Argyll drivers to existing drivers” if you are using vendor drivers).

Photoshop CS3 (Mac OS X): Under Mac OS X, the brush cursor in Photoshop CS3 looks funny (box around brush).
Solution: This seems to be a bug which shows with -type profiles that have only one rendering intent. You can try to overcome it by selecting “Advanced...” next to the profile type dropdown, selecting an existing profile (for hints as to which profile to select, see “Advanced gamut mapping options” under “Profiling settings”) and tick at least one of the “Apply gamut mapping to” checkboxes before profiling. To do that for an existing profile, adjust quality and profile name if you want, choose “Create profile from measurement data...” from the “Options” menu and select the profile. Note that this does not always solve the issue. Trying another profile type (XYZ LUT instead of L*a*b* LUT) might also help.

Linux/Windows: No video card gamma table access (“calibrate only” and “calibrate & profile” buttons grayed, “profile only” button available)
Solution: Under Linux, please refer to the Argyll CMS documentation, “Installing the software on Linux with X11” and “Fixing access to Video LUTs” therein. Under Windows, please see calibration cannot be loaded if you are under Windows 7 and make sure you have a recent driver for your video card installed.

Linux (KDE): The application does not look native
Solution: You need the GTK-Qt Theme Engine for native KDE look. Most Linux distributions offer ready-made packages through their packaging systems, search for “gtk-qt” (there will likely be separate packages for KDE3 and KDE4). Another alternative is gtk-kde4.

General: Some text is still in english, even though another language is selected in the menu.
Solution: All output from the Argyll utilities is always english, and on Mac OS X, also the menuitems in the application menu. This is not changeable by me.

To-Do / planned features (in no particular order)

• Better interface to GNOME Color Manager
• Measure and report on screen homogenity / evenness of illumination
• Get rid of the terminal and implement a proper GUI for the interactive part of calibration
• Better user interface for profile verification: If a test set contains multiple value formats (CMYK, RGB, XYZ, L*a*b*), allow selection which one(s) should be used in a “setup” window
• Add gamut coverage percentages to the profile verification report if the test set contains reference values (not *.ti1): Calculate profiles from test set and verification measurements on-the-fly and create gamut volumes from test set profile, evaluated profile, and verification measurements profile using Argyll's iccgamut tool. Compare gamut volumes using Argyll's viewgam tool with -i option and include the results in the report (coverage calculation for test set reference and profile to be evaluated could be done before the actual measurements and also shown in the yet-to-be-implemented profile verification “setup” window).
• German language README (postponed)
• (implemented in v0.3.6+)
• (implemented in v0.2+)
• (implemented in v0.2+)
• (code documentation could still be enhanced, for now it'll do)
• (mostly done)

Thanks and acknowledgements

I would like to thank the following people:

Graeme Gill, for creating Argyll CMS
Translators: Loïc Guégant (french translation), Roberto Quintero (spanish translation), Tommaso Schiavinotto (italian translation)
Recent donors: Patryk Bajer, Gregor Kofler, Richard Egger, Michael Dougherty, Christian Spyr, Eugeniy Yurov, Konstantin Pyanzin

And everyone who sent me feedback or bug reports, suggested features, or simply uses dispcalGUI.

Acknowledgements
Part of the comprehensive Argyll CMS documentation has been used in this document, and was only slightly altered to better fit dispcalGUI's behavior and notations.

Version history / changelog

2011-06-02 21:45 (UTC) 0.7.0.7

0.7.0.7

Fixed in this release:

• wxPython 2.8.12 compatibility.
• Linux: Preserve environment when installing a profile system-wide so $DISPLAY is available for dispwin.
• Linux (Source): Changed highest supported Python version to “lower than 3.0” because openSUSE Build Service would choke on “lower than or equal to 2.7” when building for Ubuntu 11.04.
• Linux (Source): Fixed setup.py bdist_deb as far as possible (see notes under installing from source, additional setup commands, bdist_deb)
• Windows: Fixed error when the display profile cannot be determined (e.g. when running remotely).

2011-04-20 21:08 (UTC) 0.7.0.0

0.7.0.0

Fixed in this release:

• Updating profile verification reports created in versions prior to revision 672 should not strip calibration and gray balance information anymore (regression of a change in r672).
• If the Spyder 2 was enabled using Argyll CMS 1.2 or newer, this should now be reflected correctly in the “Tools” menu by a checkmark next to the “Enable Spyder 2” menu item.
• Linux (Autopackage, DEB and RPM installs) and source: Fixed missing application icons in sizes other than 16x16 and 32x32 if the source archive was created with setup.py under Mac OS X or Windows (regression of a change in r501).
• Linux/Windows: The location of the Argyll binaries was not stored in the system-wide configuration, which could prevent the profile loader from finding the Argyll binaries if they were not on the PATH environment variable and a profile was installed system-wide.
• Windows: Fixed program termination if EnumDisplayDevices fails (e.g. when running remotely).
• Windows: Fixed program termination if a display device has no driver entry in the registry (the very generic Windows error message is misleading in that case: It pretends a file was not found).
• Windows XP: Correctly enumerate display device names and EDID.

Changed in this release:

• When doing verification measurements of a (non-Argyll) profile containing a chromatic adaptation 'chad' tag, dispcalGUI now tries to use the same chromatic adaptation transform to calculate adapted values from the measurements instead of using a hardcoded Bradford transform.
• The default delta E formula for “RGB + gray balance” evaluation is now DE 2000.
• The delta E formula is now locked for the Fogra MediaWedge and IDEAlliance Control Strip evaluation criteria.
• The “Update calibration” and “Update profile” checkboxes were combined into one. This removes the ambiguity about what “Update profile” functionality actually was: Only updating the calibration inside the profile. Both updating stand-alone calibration '.cal' files and calibrations embedded in profiles are now handled with the single “Update calibration” checkbox. The slightly different workflow of only updating the calibration, and then creating an actual new profile on top of it in one go, is still possible by explicitly loading a calibration '.cal' file under “Settings”.
• Made the GUI a bit nicer towards low screen resolutions by moving more controls into the scrollable area and also removing the graphical banner and allowing horizontal scrollbars if things get really cramped.
• Windows Vista/7 and later: To be able to install a profile system-wide, you now need to run dispcalGUI explicitly as administrator (right-click the dispcalGUI icon, then select “Run as administrator”) to show the appropriate controls in the profile installation dialog.

Added in this release:

• Documentation: Updated the information for Photoshop's “The monitor profile […] appears to be defective” message under Known issues and solutions.
• Documentation: Added Windows XP multiple displays and profiles under Known issues and solutions.

2011-01-24 03:56 (UTC) 0.6.7.7

0.6.7.7

Fixed in this release:

• Fixed measurements hanging at the start if using the black background option.
• wxPython 2.9 compatibility.
• Windows: Potential COM error caused by obsolete code.
• Windows Vista/7: Potential WMI errors when trying to read a display's EDID are now suppressed (the EDID can not be read on systems where WMI has errors, which may prevent more accurate display descriptions, but will not impede functionality otherwise).

Added in this release:

• Profiles can now be dragged and dropped onto the curve viewer.
• When using the profile verification feature, it is now possible to first select a simulation profile before choosing a testchart.

2010-11-05 03:12 (UTC) 0.6.6.7

0.6.6.7

Fixed in this release:

• Re-enabled warning message from the profile loader if the calibration in the video card does not match the requested calibration after loading.
• Fixed “Show curves” checkbox in the profile installation dialog not doing anything if the curve viewer was not shown before (regression of a change in version 0.6.2.2).
• Fixed a small visual glitch where the message “Calibration complete” was not cleared from the progress window after instrument calibration.
• Fixed possibility of unprintable characters from EDID strings (e.g. display name) causing errors.
• Fixed Argyll CMS diagnostic output not working for dispwin when using Argyll CMS 1.3.1
• Linux: Fixed Autopackage install not working with Python 2.7

Added in this release:

• Linux: Added a “Load profile and calibration on login” checkbox to the profile installation dialog. Normally, you want to keep this checked, so that dispcalGUI's profile loader can setup the configured display(s). But if you use another solution for loading profiles, like Oyranos with the CompICC plugin, you should uncheck it, so that display profiles are solely handled by CompICC.
• Mac OS X: Like on the other platforms, EDID is now used if available.

2010-10-24 04:36 (UTC) 0.6.5.3

0.6.5.3

Fixed in this release:

• Fixed a bug where the wrong correction matrix setting was stored in a profile or calibration file when changing the correction matrix, and creating a profile with a previous settings file selected which used a different correction matrix. Note this didn't affect measurements when creating the new profile or calibration file, but when loading it in dispcalGUI, the correction matrix used for the previously selected settings file was set instead of the one actually used when creating the new file.
• Fixed missing XYZ values for the assumed whitepoint in profile verification reports.
• Fixed crash when the manufacturer ID from a display's EDID contains invalid data.
• Honor the selected display when loading calibration curves from a settings file.
• Linux: Installing profiles under multi-display configurations using separate X screens should now work better when Oyranos is installed (previously, when the profile for the second screen was installed after the profile for the first screen, it would override the first profile in the Oyranos configuration. Profiles can be re-installed with this version of dispcalGUI to fix this).
• Linux: Profile loader: When Oyranos is installed, but not xcalib, the fallback to dispwin to load the calibration curves was not working.

Changed in this release:

• Reset additional commandline arguments too when restoring defaults.
• The profile loader will no longer show an error message when unable to determine a display's current ICC profile, as there may just not be any profile installed for the respective display. Instead, such errors are now silently logged.
• Improved error messages from the profile loader by adding some information about the affected display for easier troubleshooting of multi-display configurations.
• Windows: Profile installation: When a system-wide autostart entry for the calibration loader already exists, do not create a per-user entry.
• Linux: The autopackage can now be installed just for the current user. Note this will not setup instrument access though, as that requires root privileges.

Added in this release:

• Save the device model and manufacturer description to measurement data (.ti3) files and use that information when creating a profile.
• Log all output from the profile loader.
• Ability to just measure a testchart and create a measurement data file (menu “Options”, “Measure testchart”).
• Approximate gamma for grayscales is shown in profile verification reports.
• Build system: Added --skip-postinstall option.

2010-09-19 17:53 (UTC) 0.6.2.2

0.6.2.2

Fixed in this release:

• Trying to verify or view curves of a (non-Argyll) profile with a 'formula' type vcgt tag no longer fails with a 'NameError'.
• When the measurement window was moved to the leftmost and/or topmost coordinates of the screen, the calculated relative position could become negative and prevent starting measurements.
• Trying to profile a display which provides an empty model description via EDID no longer fails.
• Profile name placeholder %im (instrument measurement mode) now inserts the correct string.
• Profiling did not finish if “Show actual calibration curves from video card gamma table” was checked and the curves window shown.
• Fixed black point correction rate not being restored correctly when loading settings.
• Fixed conversion of the color temperature to xy chromaticity coordinates (the input fields in the GUI) which was erroneously being calculated with the formula for daylight even if a blackbody locus was chosen.
• Fixed assumed whitepoint in profile verification reports erroneously being calculated with the formula for daylight even if a blackbody locus was originally chosen when creating the profile.
• Fixed profile verification reports not working in Internet Explorer 5.x-6.0 and Opera 7.x.
• Fixed profile verification reports showing “missing data” for some fields if using the Fogra Media Wedge V3 criteria and the reference file contained both XYZ and Lab data.
• Mac OS X: A double extension (.icc.icm) is no longer added when creating a profile from an existing one (menu “Options”, “Create profile from measurement data...”).

Changed in this release:

• When loading settings from calibration (.cal) files, the actual parameters chosen when calibrating are now set instead of stored measured values (e.g. whitepoint, black- and white level. Will only work for .cal files created in this version and up).
• “Allow skipping of spectrometer self-calibration” (in the “Options” menu) for characterization readings after calibration is now disabled by default to help sensor stability (especially for the ColorMunki).
• Black point correction rate now uses a floating-point control with the range 0.05...20.0 (consistent with the Argyll CMS dispcal commandline tool) instead of the previous integer control with the range 5...2000.
• The default evaluation criteria for RGB testcharts in profile verification reports is now RGB only.
• The default Delta E formula used for results in profile verification reports is now Delta E 2000 (except for standardised criteria like the Fogra Media Wedge V3).
• Additional statistics in profile verification reports are now hidden by default.
• Selecting “CMYK” or “RGB” in profile verification reports now actually makes a difference (shows the corresponding device values in the overview).
• “Evaluate gray balance through calibration only” in profile verification reports is now disabled by default.
• Windows: Installing a profile system-wide removes an existing user autostart entry for the profile loader to avoid having two entries.
• Windows: EDID info will be used if available instead of generic device strings ('PnP-Monitor' et al).

Added in this release:

• Ability to enable Argyll CMS diagnostic (debugging) output for measurements via menu “Options”.
• Option to choose blackbody whitepoint reference instead of daylight in profile verification reports.
• Original profile whitepoint is now shown in profile verification reports.
• Instrument black level and display white level drift compensation options when using Argyll CMS >= 1.3.0
• Ability to choose a correction matrix for colorimeters when using Argyll CMS >= 1.3.0
• Allow setting of additional commandline arguments for dispcal, dispread, spotread and colprof via a new menu item in the “Options” menu.
• IDEAlliance Control Strip 2009 aim values for profile verification with CMYK test charts.
• Profile verification report shows instrument measurement mode and correction matrix (if any).
• Menu option to update existing profile verification reports with the current templates.

2010-08-01 03:19 (UTC) 0.5.8.1

0.5.8.1

Fixed in this release:

• Argyll CMS 1.2.0 compatibility

2010-07-25 13:19 (UTC) 0.5.8.0

0.5.8.0

Fixed in this release:

• The timeout of 10 seconds for the startup of Argyll tools and instrument initialization was too short for some instruments and is now increased to 30 seconds. If the timeout is ever exceeded, dispcalGUI should now also abort automatically and no longer hang.
• When previewing the calibration upon profile installation, use a linear calibration if no display profile is present when toggling the preview on and off (fixes the curve viewer not updating).
• Fixed closing the log window not re-enabling the “show log automatically” menuitem.
• Linux (Autopackage install): Fixed menu entry sometimes disappearing permanently after logging out under GNOME.
• Linux: Fixed dispcalGUI not working if libX11 or libXrandr do not expose certain functions (e.g. under Mandriva 2009).
• Linux: Fixed not being able to install a profile using GNOME Color Manager when the profile was not writable.
• Linux: Fixed not being able to install a profile using Oyranos when the profile was not located in ~/.color/icc/devices/display.
• Linux/Mac OS X: Saving a log file from the log window now works correctly.
• Mac OS X: The terminal should no longer lose its focus when the measurement area is shown. This should also make the mouse cursor reappear which is otherwise hidden by dispcal/dispread.
• Mac OS X 10.6: The current display profile should now be determined correctly (e.g. for the curve viewer) when loading its calibration curves or selecting the “<Current>” settings.
• Windows (installer): An unused console window is no longer shown when launching dispcalGUI via the installed shortcuts.
• Windows: Fixed executable not working under Windows 2000.

Changed in this release:

• Do not pass through the “hit any key to retry” message from Argyll CMS tools to the progress dialog in case of misreads/port communication problems (retries happen automatically, so there is no need and also no possibility for keyboard interaction).
• Enabling the Spyder 2 is now less cumbersome if the original installation CD is not available (especially on Mac OS X, where the firmware couldn't be found if a recent version of the Spyder 2 software was installed) and should work with the downloadable Spyder 2 software installers (but they need to be run to install the software first because the firmware can't be extracted from the installer binaries directly). Messages are now hopefully more informative to give a better idea of what to do. If the firmware can't be extracted from the Spyder 2 software installer, you are asked to install the software and try again. If that can't be done because of platform incompatibility (Linux), the last choice is to locate the Spyder.lib/CVSpyder.dll file manually (it must be copied from a Mac OS X or Windows system in that case).
• Linux: Allow installation of profiles using GNOME Color Manager even if XRandR is not working/available.
• Linux: Installation now checks for existing udev rules/hotplug scripts for instruments and only installs its own rules if none exist yet.
• Linux/Windows: The profile loader will now show a warning dialog if a profile couldn't be loaded.
• Linux/Windows: Device model and manufacturer are added to profiles if info is available.

+ Numerous other small fixes and changes.

2010-06-29 19:23 (UTC) 0.4.9.2

0.4.9.2

Fixed in this release:

• Spectrometer sensor calibration sometimes accidentally occured when the instrument was still attached to the screen, leading to erroneous subsequent readings.
• Immediately close a profile after reading to avoid locking it (fixes not being able to delete files from within the GUI).
• Fixed quirks in “update calibration” and “update profile” operation.
• The system-wide installation option in the profile install dialog is no longer hidden just because a profile has no embedded calibration curves (vcgt tag).
• If the calibration curves of the current display profile couldn't be loaded for some reason (broken video card gamma table access, or no profile set), the curve viewer was not yet shown, and then a profile under “Settings” was selected, and then deleted, and then the curve viewer called up, an unhandled exception was raised.
• Fixed ambient measurement via the “Measure” buttons timing out with the ColorMunki and various error handling issues regardless of instrument which could lead to an un-cancelable, forever looping progress bar.
• Fixed ambient color temperature measurement via the “Measure” button not updating the kelvin field if selected.
• Linux (only if the detected filesystem encoding is not UTF-8), Mac OS X and Windows: When installing a profile with “special” characters in the filename (everything not representable as 7-bit ASCII), it is now given an unique name containing the display number and MD5 hash, which fixes a few problems with filename encoding under Linux and Mac OS (under Linux the profile couldn't be successfully installed, under Mac OS X system-wide installation partly broke). This also fixes an issue under Windows where a profile whose name starts with the same first few characters (but has not the same name) as an already existing file in the system profile directory could accidentally overwrite that file, because I had not considered that filenames returned by win32api.GetShortPathName are only unique for the directory where a given file resides—and upon installation, that is the profile storage directory, not the system profile directory.
• Linux, Mac OS X: When installing a profile, interaction with the curves window works now while the installation dialog is shown.
• Windows (standalone executable): Fixed ambient measurement via the “Measure” buttons reproducably hanging (regardless of instrument) if the MS Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package (x86) was not installed.

Added in this release:

• Linux: Oyranos support. If it is available, profiles are imported to the Oyranos database using oyranos-monitor upon installation, and an appropriate autostart entry is created to load calibration curves and setup the X _ICC_PROFILE atoms on login.
• Linux: Rudimentary support for GNOME Color Manager. If it is available and XRandR is working, profiles are imported to GCM upon installation. Any calibration loaders created previously by dispcalGUI will be removed (except the possible oyranos-monitor entry). You then still have to manually assign the profile to a display in the GCM preferences by selecting it and then choosing the profile from the dropdown menu (in the future, this process will be made obsolete by using GCM library functions). Loading of calibration curves and setting up the X _ICC_PROFILE atom and XRandR output properties is then handled by GCM.
• Menu option to automatically show the log window after certain operations (measurements, profile creation).

Changed in this release:

• The terminal window is now only shown when required (e.g. keyboard interaction during interactive display adjustment). Also, the terminal used is no longer an external application, but a minimal emulator that just passes keyboard input to the Argyll CMS tools.
• All measurements which do not require keyboard interaction with Argyll CMS tools now show a progress dialog with the option to cancel the measurements. All output that was previously visible through the terminal is still available via the log window (“Tools” menu) and -file.
• Always load calibration curves before installing a profile, even if the profile has no vcgt tag (resets calibration to linear).
• Automatically scroll to bottom when messages are added to the log window.
• Store calibration and profiling settings in extra sections inside the TI3 file instead of the profile copyright tag. Use “generic” copyright information (“Created with dispcalGUI <version> and Argyll CMS <version>”), overridable by adding a line copyright = My copyright information in dispcalGUI's configuration file.
• Made sure that only 7-bit ASCII gets written to a profile's copyright, ASCII description, and ASCII device model description. ICC v2 Unicode and Mac ScriptCode descriptions are now also written by default.
• Presets default to high profile quality.
• Remember visible state of curves, log window and testchart editor.
• Updated french translation (thanks).
• Linux: Unattended calibration & profiling no longer depends on xautomation.
• Linux: is now used (if available) when generating descriptive identifiers for displays.
• Linux: When determining a display's associated profile, check XrandR _ICC_PROFILE output properties first if available.
• Linux: The option to install a profile system-wide is not offered if using GNOME Color Manager to install profiles (GCM has its own way to set profiles as system default).
• Linux (only when GCM is not installed or XRandR is not working), Mac OS X, Windows: Installing a profile system-wide now also sets it as default for the current user.
• Windows Vista and later: The option to install a profile system-wide is no longer offered if using Argyll CMS <= 1.1.1 (system scope in Argyll releases up to 1.1.1 acts like user scope on those systems).

+ Numerous other small fixes and changes. There is now also a mailing list for discussion and support as well as announcements (see at the top of this document).

2010-05-07 22:36 (UTC) 0.3.9.9

0.3.9.9

Fixed in this release:

• Fixed unreliable (hanging occasionally) profile install when using system scope under Linux and Mac OS X (regression of a change in SVN r391 / 0.3.9.3).
• Fixed ICC profile truncation if actual tag data is not in the same order as the tag table (regression of a change in SVN r274 / 0.3.0.7. Argyll profiles were not affected).
• Fixed potential invalid profile name being generated if some unicode characters can't be conveyed in the file system encoding (Windows, Linux).
• Fixed possible backslash in profile name due to wrong escaping when replacing invalid characters.
• Fixed support for codepages 65000 (UTF-7) and 65001 (UTF-8) in the main application under Windows. This is actually a fix for shortcomings of Python.

2010-05-03 18:45 (UTC) 0.3.9.3

0.3.9.3

Added in this release:

• Show percentage and amount of tone values per channel (+ grayscales) for calibration curves in the curve viewer and profile verification reports.
• Profile verification: Enabled gray balance evaluation for all RGB charts containing grayscales (R=G=B). Added option to verify graybalance through calibration only (sets the target L* of each grayscale patch to the measured L* and target a*=b*=0).
• Added documentation for the interactive display adjustment part of calibration.
• Added further documentation of the profile verification feature with detailed information about underlying technical aspects.

Fixed in this release:

• Fixed an unicode error after creating a profile verification report in a path containing unicode characters and a few other unrelated (potential) unicode errors.
• Fixed potential unhandled exception if a JSON language file is malformed.
• Fixed unhandled exception (local variable referenced before assignment) if trying to view calibration curves of an output with no video card gamma table access.
• Fixed rare unhandled exception (local variable referenced before assignment) if logfile couldn't be renamed or removed during rollover.
• Fail more gracefully (omit traceback from error message) if temp directory couldn't be created.
• Fixed handling of XDG_CONFIG_DIRS and the system-wide autostart directory if the preferred configuration directory does not exist under Linux when installing a profile in local system scope, which prevented the system-wide autostart entry to be created.
• Correctly determine system display profile under Windows Vista and 7 if no user profile is set. Fall back to sRGB if no display profile is set.

Changed in this release:

• Changed default gamma from 2.4 to 2.2 in an attempt to increase the amount of available gamma table tone values after calibration for LCD screens, which often have a native response that is closer to a gamma of 2.2 than 2.4.
• Changed default profile type to single curve + matrix.
• Profile verification: Only evaluate grayscales (R=G=B) if their luminance is atleast 1% of the white luminance. Also evaluate combined Δa and Δb range.
• Moved instrument feature details to separate JSON configuration file.
• Made compatible with wxPython 2.8.6.0.

2010-03-31 15:24 (UTC) 0.3.8.0

0.3.8.0

Added in this release:

• “Very large” testchart with 912 patches.
• Profile verification: Support (non-Argyll) profiles which use chromatic adaption.

Fixed in this release:

• Improved error message when Argyll binaries are not found (only files not found are now shown, together with alternatives). Automatically fall back to xicclu if icclu is not found (eg. Ubuntu's Argyll 1.0.3 package doesn't contain icclu).
• Fixed 'invalid syntax' error when running under Python 2.5.
• Profile verification report: Fixed a parsing error when reference or measurement data contained numbers in exponential notation.
• Linux: Unhandled exception if DISPLAY environment variable is in the format [host]:displaynumber instead of [host]:displaynumber.screennumber (eg. :0 instead of :0.0).
• Mac OS X: Fixed values entered in combo boxes not updating the configuration correctly under some circumstances.

Changed in this release:

• Profile verification: Lookup device values relative colorimetrically and adapt the measured values to D50 before comparison (using Bradford matrix), so that the measured whitepoint corresponds to L*a*b* 100 0 0. Please note that verification results obtained with reference files measured in earlier versions of dispcalGUI should not be compared to those obtained via this new approach if the display whitepoint is not D50, as the results are likely to be different as an effect of the relative lookup and the chromatic adaption.
• Profile verification: Improved support for non-Argyll CGATS text files. Handling is as follows:
  • If the file contains RGB_R RGB_G RGB_B fields, it is handled like a Argyll *.ti1 (testchart) file—any XYZ or Lab data is ignored and the RGB numbers are sent to the display and measured. Afterwards, the measured values are compared to the expected values, which are obtained by sending the RGB numbers through the profile. If RGB values above 100 are found, a range of 0-255 is assumed. Otherwise, a range of 0-100 (like Argyll *.ti1) is assumed.
  • If the file doesn't contain RGB_R RGB_G RGB_B fields, but XYZ_X XYZ_Y XYZ_Z or LAB_L LAB_A LAB_B, it is handled like a Argyll measurement data (*.ti3) file—the values are used to lookup corresponding RGB numbers through the profile and these are then sent to the display and measured. Afterwards, the measured values are compared to the original XYZ or Lab values.
• Profile verification report: Show measured whitepoint and assumed target color temperature (based on closest daylight temperature), and use them to calculate the Delta E for the whitepoint. A few performance improvements when processing large datasets with several hundred or thousand measurements.
• GUI and ReadMe: Changed all occurences of the term “LUT curves” to “calibration curves” and also changed all occurences of the term “video LUT” to “video card gamma table” to better distinguish from “LUT profile”. Also renamed the “LUT viewer” to curve viewer as a more accurate description of its functionality.

2010-03-17 18:50 (UTC) 0.3.6.4

0.3.6.4

Added in this release:

• Profile verification: CGATS-compatible text files (*.txt) containing measurement data can now be selected in addition to Argyll testchart (*.ti1) and measurement data (*.ti3) files.
• Profile verification report: Depending on the chart used, you can now choose among different evaluation criteria from within the report. Also added Fogra Media Wedge V3 tolerance values for CMYK testcharts.

Fixed in this release:

• Profile verification: Error 'Unknown color representation Lab' when trying to verify a L*a*b* LUT profile.
• Profile verification: Wrong XYZ scaling when reading from *.ti3 files containing XYZ, but no L*a*b* values.
• Profile verification: When measuring a display other than the first one, the calibration curves were erroneously still loaded to the 1st display.

Changed in this release:

• Profile verification report: Show nominal and actual measured values as L*a*b* instead of XYZ. Reduced visible decimals in report to increase readability.
• Split the cramped “Extra” menu into “Options” and “Tools”.

2010-03-13 06:31 (UTC) 0.3.6.2

0.3.6.2

Added in this release:

• Profile verification by measurements. Argyll testchart (*.ti1) and measurement data (*.ti3) files can be measured.

Fixed in this release:

• Testchart editor: Do not automatically select a saved testchart (regression of a change in 0.3.3.5). Do not show empty rows when creating a testchart using an algorythm that does not create the expected number of rows.
• Bumped wxPython version check to 2.8.8.0 so a proper error message is displayed if wxPython is too old.
• Linux: When using TwinView or Xinerama, the size of the measurement window was sometimes not correct.
• Linux: Failure in get_argyll_version if Argyll utilities have alternate names (eg. argyll-targen instead of targen), which could prevent being able to open the testchart editor (regression of a change in 0.3.3.5).
• Mac OS X 10.4: Fall back to ColorSyncScripting if Image Events does not return a display profile.

Changed in this release:

• Linux: Info window no longer stays always on top.
• Linux: When getting the current profile for a display, also look at the _ICC_DEVICE_PROFILE atom (see draft ICC Profiles in X Specification 0.4).

2010-03-02 20:12 (UTC) 0.3.3.6

0.3.3.6

Fixed in this release:

• Linux/Mac OS X: 'tcgetattr failed' when trying to calibrate or profile.

Changed in this release:

• Linux: Updated udev rules.

2010-03-01 06:27 (UTC) 0.3.3.5

0.3.3.5

Added in this release:

• Capability to set whitepoint or ambient light level for viewing condition adjustment by measuring ambient light.
• Profile name %tpa placeholder (test patch amount).
• Documentation for ambient light level viewing conditions adjustment, advanced profiling options (gamut mapping) and testchart editor in the ReadMe. Also a few additions to the existing whitepoint/white level and tone curve documentation (mostly taken from the Argyll CMS documentation).
• Two entries to the known issues & solutions section in the ReadMe (swapped colors and Photoshop “Monitor profile appears to be defective”).

Changed in this release:

• New improved testcharts and presets, with lower patch counts: 12 patches default for gamma+matrix profiles, 48 patches default for curves+matrix profiles (former chart had 91 patches), 124 patches default for LUT profiles which should actually be usable this time around when coupled with a profile quality setting of “high”, unlike its predecessor with 127 patches which yielded mediocre results at best (but for increased accuracy, the new 238-patch “extended” testchart is recommended). 396 and 2386-patch charts (the new “large” and “massive” quantity) are also included.
• Default to high profile quality (and force for gamma+matrix profiles, as there is no processing penalty like for curves+matrix or LUT profiles).
• Removed limit for remembered settings files.
• When calibration or profiling measurements fail, first show the main application window, then the error message (small dialog boxes are sometimes hard to spot on big screens if the application context is missing).
• Moved profile quality, type and advanced settings above testchart selector (this order is more logical, as profile quality and type influences testchart selection).
• Testchart editor: Default to adaption of 10% for testchart creation using optimized farthest point sampling (OFPS). Support both device and L*a*b* diagnostic VRML files when creating testcharts using Argyll >= 1.1.0. No longer calculate the amount of white/gray/single color patches or multidimensional cube steps if info is missing in testchart file (calculations take way too long for little added benefit).
• Cleaned up the known issues & solutions section in the ReadMe.

Fixed in this release:

• Wrong value for adaption settings in testchart editor being stored.
• Linux (cosmetic): Incorrect special characters in console window when using non-english locale under certain configurations (regression of a change introduced in 0.3.0.7).
• Non-critical: File information in Argyll CGATS TI1 to TI3 conversion.
• Testchart editor: Do not allow overwriting of predefined testcharts when saving. Correctly remember last used filename when “saving as...”.
• Log window: Correctly remember last used filename when saving.
• Typo in the ReadMe (the second “Report on calibrated display device” entry under “Menu commands” should have been “Report on uncalibrated display device”).

2010-02-17 15:53 (UTC) 0.3.1.0

0.3.1.0

Fixed in this release:

• Running “Calibrate & profile” several times in succession no longer fails on the 2nd and subsequent runs.
• Linux: Missing wxPython version check for the measurement window subprocess.

2010-02-15 17:27 (UTC) 0.3.0.9

0.3.0.9

Added in this release:

• Test chart editor: Support for Argyll 1.1.0 perceptual space-filling quasi-random test patch distribution.

2010-02-13 16:36 (UTC) 0.3.0.8

0.3.0.8

Fixed in this release:

• #2951168 Windows: Critical bug with win32 API calls to get the display name returning 8-bit characters where only ASCII was expected.

2010-02-12 20:13 (UTC) 0.3.0.7

0.3.0.7

Added in this release:

• Support for Argyll >= 1.1.0 adaptive emissive measurement mode with the i1 Pro spectrometer.
• All of Argyll's profile types are now available (XYZ LUT on Windows only if using Argyll >= 1.1.0).
• Support for “very low” calibration quality.
• Optionally create a fast matrix/shaper profile when just calibrating.
• “Reset video card gamma table” checkbox in the dialog shown when just profiling.
• Information how to install Argyll >= 1.1.0 USB drivers on Windows Vista/7 64-bit to the “known issues and solutions” section in the ReadMe.
• ReadMe, license, bug tracker and support forum can now be accessed from the “Help” menu.
• “Check for update...” in the help menu (launches a web browser and displays the dispcalGUI homepage if a new version is found).
• Curve viewer: Capability to show the actual curves from the video card.
• Curve viewer: Capability to show a matrix profile's rTRC/gTRC/bTRC curves.

Changed in this release:

• When restoring defaults, selected display/instrument/measurement mode, language and profile name are retained.
• The display/instrument selector is only enabled if more than one device detected respectively.
• Changed i1 Pro highres measurement mode from implicit to user choice.
• Gamut mapping: When selecting a source profile, pre-select a source viewing condition based on profile class (monitor or printer).
• Updated defaults and presets to Argyll 1.1.0 values (i.e. black output offset).
• Short display name placeholder (%dns) for profile name should not yield single numbers or model name without model number any more (or atleast less likely).
• Log messages from most informational and all error dialogs.
• Show file paths in most dialogs involving file processing.
• Documentation in the ReadMe has been updated and is now more or less complete for the main application (testchart editor docs are still to be done). Setup instructions have also been streamlined.
• Moved information how to fix video card gamma table access under Linux/X11 to the “known issues and solutions” section in the ReadMe.
• Linux: Updated udev rules to those provided with Argyll 1.1.0. Removed obsolete permissions and policy files.
• Linux: In multi-display setups using separate X screens, it should no longer be necessary to launch dispcalGUI on the display you want to measure.
• Windows: Get names of displays via additional Windows API calls (should yield more descriptive names than “DISPLAY1”, “DISPLAY2” etc.)
• Windows (cosmetic): Use default command prompt text color, and a darker variant only when doing measurements.
• dispcalGUI version now corresponds to SVN revision number, split into its digit components. Build system (setup.py) uses SVN to generate version information.

Fixed in this release:

• Curve viewer: When no display is selected (i.e. when Argyll binaries are not found), it will now try to show the vcgt of the 1st display's profile.
• Curve viewer: When hiding the viewer and loading different calibration curves, those changes were not reflected when showing the viewer again.
• Curve viewer: If a profile does not contain a 'vcgt' tag, clear canvas and disable R/G/B checkboxes.
• Selection of display used for video card gamma table access not working correctly.
• Loading of calibration upon initial preview in profile installation dialog if profile does not contain dispcalGUI settings.
• Do not show failure message if user cancels profile installation via the password dialog when installing in system scope.
• In some cases, values read from the configuration file were not correctly validated (would only show with deliberately altered or broken config file).
• colprof output is no longer swallowed when creating a matrix profile with Argyll versions <= 1.0.4.
• Linux: Fall back to ASCII if detected encoding is not UTF-8 to fix profile install issues.
• Linux/Mac OS X: Enabling the Spyder 2 colorimeter might need elevated privileges.
• Linux/Mac OS X: When installing a profile in local system scope, the necessary password was not accepted under newer Linux distros and also Mac OS X > 10.4.11
• Mac OS X (cosmetic): Suppress spurious AppleScript messages.
• Windows: Get display profile via registry instead of Windows API because the latter does not reflect runtime changes to profile associations (you still need to refresh the curve viewer when changing profile associations outside of dispcalGUI while it is running).

Known issues in this release:

• Linux: You can't interact with the drop-down menu or the checkboxes in the curve viewer while a profile installation dialog is shown.

2009-07-16

• Fixed a glitch in the Linux Autopackage installer where it would install even if required libraries were missing.

2009-06-30 0.2.6b3 (SVN r239)

• fix (Windows): Fixed a critical bug in the Windows codepath which tried to access non-existent paths when certain settings were used.

2009-06-26 0.2.6b2

• fix: Only look at <major>.<minor> during the Python version check (fixes a critical error on Ubuntu 9.10 Beta, where the Python revision number has an unexpected value).
• fix: The curve viewer is now also able to plot calibration curves from *.cal files.
• fix (Linux): If launched on an X display which is not the first display, the measurement window's location no longer determines the display which is used for measurements. This allows non-Xinerama multiscreen configurations to work with dispcalGUI. Note: You need to launch dispcalGUI on the display you want to measure, e.g. `DISPLAY=:0.1 dispcalGUI`.
• fix (Linux): Get the profile from the correct display when loading a display's calibration curves into the curve viewer.
• fix (Linux, cosmetic): Suppress CUPS warnings encountered on some systems when using the curve viewer.
• fix (Mac OS X): Do not offer 'Network' scope during profile installation if /Network/Library/ColorSync/Profiles does not exist.
• fix (Windows, cosmetic): Made sure the message "Debug: src/helpers.cpp(140): 'CreateActCtx' failed with error 0x0000007b (the filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.)" is not shown when launching the standalone Windows executable, by changing the way *.pyd files are bundled (they are now copied to the executable's directory and are no longer part of the executable itself).
• chg: The curve viewer resets to linear if a display without associated profile is selected.

2009-06-22 0.2.6b

• fix: calibration preview checkbox in the “install profile” dialog should now correctly toggle between previous and new calibration.
• fix: profiling failed when creating a profile on top of an existing calibration.
• fix: correctly decode environment variables (should fix a failure when trying to create a profile and the username contains non-ASCII characters).
• fix: automatic restoration of defaults before loading settings from a profile or cal file should no longer restore “do not show again” dialogs.
• fix (Windows): several errors related to character encoding.
• chg: unattended calibration and profiling: wait 10 seconds instead of 5 after calibration before trying to start profiling measurements (some instruments seem to need longer to initialize than others, e.g. Spyder 2).
• chg (Python packages and source): instead of requiring wxPython 2.8.x specifically, only ensure a minimal version of 2.8.
• add: Curve viewer.

2009-06-11 21:33 (UTC)

• Added Linux Autopackage download.
• Renamed 55-Argyll.rules to 92-Argyll.rules, so it can work on Debian too.
• Removed “Creating a standalone executable from source” section from the ReadMe (the topic is still handled under “Installing from source” / “Additional setup.py commands”).

2009-06-07 0.2.5b4

• fix: “TypeError: coercing to Unicode: need string or buffer, instance found” when calling any of the get*Description() methods of an ICCProfile instance, which caused profile creation from existing profile to fail.
• fix: (Windows Vista) application exit on launch if autostart directory did not exist.
• fix: (source, Debian and RPM packages) use the correct wxPython version
• fix: tab-key traversal of calibration settings controls.
• fix: automatically scroll into view focused calibration settings controls if scrollbars are shown.
• fix: properly clean & remove temporary directory.
• fix: (cosmetic) added some padding to calibration settings right-hand side so scrollbar won't overlap if shown.
• chg: (cosmetic) enable auto-sizing (fit to contents) for colortemp locus, trc type and profile type selectors.
• chg: (cosmetic) do not show vendor name in instrument select dropdown (conserve some space).
• chg: (cosmetic) made the instrument selector a little narrower (needs less space now to display instrument name because the vendor name is stripped) and the measure mode selector a bit wider (to accommodate for projector mode).
• chg: only try to re-start within terminal if running as standalone executable.
• chg: show application restart request in the chosen language after changing it.
• chg: allow resizing/maximizing of main window (a minimal size is forced to prevent layout glitches).
• chg: (Linux) install from source or package will try to automatically setup access to your instrument. Some services (PolicyKit/HAL or udev) may need to be restarted to get the updated configuration recognized. If in doubt, a reboot should work in all cases.
• add: french translation (by Loïc Guégant, thanks!)
• add: bdist_deb command and --cfg option for setup.py

2009-05-16 0.2.5b3

• Fixed calibration loader autostart entry creation (“access denied” error) under Windows Vista and later with User Account Control enabled.

2009-05-07 0.2.5b2

• Fixed “error: nothing to repeat” when using a spectrometer.

2009-05-05 0.2.5b

• fix: encoding-related issues on all platforms and strange Unicode-related problems with AppleScript and Terminal on Mac OS X 10.4 (Details).
  Prerequisites to reproduce Unicode-related issues under Mac OS X 10.4: Terminal closed, or with atleast one window opened. Script inside an AppleScript bundle, the bundle filename contains UTF-8 characters. “main.command” (executable shell script) inside Contents/Resources subfolder of the bundle.
  
  Not working (messagebox “Resource not found”):

  tell application "Terminal"
  	activate
  	do script quoted form of (POSIX path of (path to resource "main.command"))
  end tell

  Not working (messagebox “Resource not found”):

  tell application "Terminal"
  	activate
  	do script quoted form of (POSIX path of (path to resource "main.command")) in first window
  end tell

  Not working (message “No such file or directory” printed to Terminal window):

  set shellscript to quoted form of (POSIX path of (path to resource "main.command"))
  tell application "Terminal"
  	activate
  	do script shellscript
  end tell

  Working:

  set shellscript to quoted form of (POSIX path of (path to resource "main.command"))
  tell application "Terminal"
  	activate
  	do script shellscript in first window
  end tell

• fix: (Windows) several actions unexpectedly failing under Windows 7 (dispcalGUI created temporary files via system calls on several occasions, but on Windows, this does not create the file in the user's temp directory as one would expect, but in the ROOT directory e.g. C:\—a sane method is now being used instead).
• fix: bug in sorting function caused leading and trailing zeroes of numbers in testchart filenames to get lost, thus failing to load such files.
• fix: (Linux) “No module named _md5” error with the standalone executable on some Linux distros (apparently an OpenSSL-related issue, because normally it wouldn't fall back to the legacy _md5 module which is not even built by default in recent Python versions). The fallback _md5 module is now included.
• fix: calibration was not automatically added & selected in the dropdown menu when only calibrating.
• fix: dropping a profile which was not created in dispcalGUI onto the application window no longer results in an unhandled error.
• fix: when trying to load calibration curves from a profile which actually does not contain any, an error message is now shown instead of resetting the video card gamma table to linear and erroneously stating the curves were succesfully loaded.
• fix: add display device name as device model description when profiling.
• fix: when creating a new profile from an existing profile, use that profile's device model description if present.
• fix: also create .app/.sh/.cmd files when creating a new profile from existing measurement data.
• fix: restore advanced gamut mapping options to default if selecting a profile which does not contain those settings.
• fix: allow free selection of source and target viewing conditions in advanced gamut mapping options for profiles regardless of source profile type.
• fix: if the screen or instrument that was selected in a previous session is not available, select an available one.
• fix: (Mac) the “enable spyder 2” menu item would not allow to select files other than “setup.exe”.
• fix: [src] (Mac) if dispcalGUI was installed as application and then run from (separate) source, multiple copies were launched at certain occasions.
• fix: selecting a different Argyll binary directory than the previous one now actually works.
• chg: the previously empty entry at the top of the settings dropdown (settings which are not associated to a profile or .cal file) is now named “<current settings>”.
• chg: changed settings which are associated to a profile or .cal file are now marked with a leading asterisk in the settings dropdown.
• chg: default to a gamma of 2.4 (Argyll default).
• chg: warn before changed settings are discarded.
• chg: new default profile naming scheme.
• chg: new default file locations on all platforms.
  - On Linux, dispcalGUI now adheres to the XDG Base Directory Specification—the configuration file is saved as $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/dispcalGUI/dispcalGUI.ini ($XDG_CONFIG_HOME defaults to ~/.config if not set), all files created during calibration/profiling go into $XDG_DATA_HOME/dispcalGUI/storage/ ($XDG_DATA_HOME defaults to ~/.local/share if not set) by default, and logfiles into $XDG_DATA_HOME/dispcalGUI/logs/
  Any old (pre v0.2.5b) configuration data is retained in the file ~/.dispcalGUI and may be safely deleted after using v0.2.5b or newer for the first time.
  - On Mac OS, the configuration is saved as ~/Library/Preferences/dispcalGUI/dispcalGUI.ini, all files created during calibration/profiling go into ~/Library/Application Support/dispcalGUI/storage/ by default, and logfiles into ~/Library/Logs/dispcalGUI/
  Any old (pre v0.2.5b) configuration data is retained in the file ~/Library/Preferences/dispcalGUI Preferences and may be safely deleted after using v0.2.5b or newer for the first time.
  - On Windows, the configuration file is saved as %APPDATA%\dispcalGUI\dispcalGUI.ini, all files created during calibration/profiling go into %APPDATA%\dispcalGUI\storage\ by default, and logfiles into %APPDATA%\dispcalGUI\logs\
  Any old (pre v0.2.5b) configuration data is retained in the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\dispcalGUI.
• chg: [build/src] (Windows) removed MS Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable DLLs from the source package. Users who build under Windows will have them anyway as they are installed with Python 2.6, so they are now copied directly from %SystemRoot%\WinSxS (Windows side-by-side assemblies) if possible.
• chg: [build/src] SendKeys is now a dependency on Windows when running or building from source.
• chg: [build/src] made dispcalGUI a distutils package, so it can be built/installed via setup.py.
• chg: default locations are now also searched for resource files ($XDG_DATA_HOME/dispcalGUI, $XDG_DATA_DIRS/dispcalGUI on Linux, ~/Library/Application Support/dispcalGUI, /Library/Application Support/dispcalGUI on Mac OS X, %APPDATA%\dispcalGUI, %COMMONAPPDATA%\dispcalGUI and %COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\dispcalGUI on Windows) in addition to the current working directory (which is always searched first if it differs from the executable directory) and the executable directory (which is always searched last).
• chg: better error handling. For unhandled exceptions, a message box is shown and an entry is written to the logfile.
• chg: (Linux) the calibration loader will no longer try and handle gnome-screensaver quirks—it was working too unreliably, and should really be fixed in gnome-screensaver. The current recommendation is to not use a screensaver at all if possible, and instead rely on the system's energy saving options.
• chg: (Linux) there's no longer an installer for the Linux version.
• chg: cancelling of certain operations like profile calculation and testchart generation is now also supported when using Python 2.5
• chg: when searching for Argyll executables, also search for files with “argyll-” prefix or “-argyll” suffix (thanks to Mark Whitis for report).
• chg: disable measurement mode selection when using a spectrometer.
• add: logging (also see the change related to file-storage). Logfiles are created per-date. A maximum of 5 old ones is being kept as backup.
• add: placeholders like display name, measurement device, whitepoint etc. can now be used in the profile name.
• add: unattended calibration and profiling for some instruments, meaning it is no longer necessary to press a key after calibration to start the measurements for profiling (needs xautomation under Linux).
• add: settings and related files can be deleted.
• add: (Linux, Mac, Vista) profile install scope can be selected (note: local system scope install is broken with current Argyll versions under Linux).
• add: version and translation information in the about window.
• add: projector mode when using Argyll 1.1.0 Beta or newer with the X-Rite ColorMunki.

2009-01-01

Linux and sourcecode bugfix update: Creation of the autostart entry failed when the autostart directory did not yet exist.

2008-12-24 0.2.1b

• fix: video card gamma table access check always returned false when no display profile was set.
• chg: (Linux) dispcalGUI now uses the autostart specification from freedesktop.org for the profile loader under Linux when installing profiles. NOTE for users: This also means you should manually remove any autostarts from previous versions, e.g.
  rm ~/.gnome2/dispwin-*.sh
rm ~/.kde/Autostart/dispwin-*.sh
  and then re-install your current profile so the new loader is created. The new loader will be created in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/autostart/ (if set) or ~/.config/autostart/ (if not set), with the filename dispcalGUI-Calibration-Loader-Display-x.desktop, where x is the display number.
• chg: the calibration loader will check if gnome-screensaver is running and if so, exit it before loading the calibration, then start it again to prevent resetting the calibration when activated.
• chg: .sh/.cmd file in profile folder is no longer created when just installing a profile.
• add: message box when selecting as profile type with recommendation to use more samples for higher quality profiles.
• add: default to english locale if translation doesn't exist.

2008-12-18 0.2b

• fix: no longer possible to introduce invalid value types through a malformed config file (which could lead to dispcalGUI not launching).
• fix: windows can no longer be moved permanently out of the visible screen area.
• fix: spaces and special chars in the profile name should work now (should have from the start, but I had some superfluous code which broke it).
• fix: spaces in the path to dispcalGUI should work now under Linux and Mac OS X too (Windows had no problem)
• fix: measurement file no longer gets deleted after successful measurement if profile generation fails (was a simple oversight on my side).
• fix: [cosmetic] logo header now always spans the whole width of the window.
• fix: [cosmetic] (Mac OS X) on first launch, a second, unused, terminal window is no longer opened.
• fix: windows will now try to adjust its height to fit on small screens (scrollbars might appear).
• chg: “Calibration file” renamed to “Settings” and moved to the top, is now a dropdown box remembering the last 10 used files. Settings are stored in and loaded from profiles.
• chg: renamed “Display type” to “Measurement mode” and moved over to measurement device selector.
• chg: default to “LCD” for measurement mode.
• chg: default testchart file names are now localized.
• chg: new default testcharts, four flavours: matrix default (91 patches), default (127 patches), large (512 patches) and massive (3012 patches).
• chg: testchart selector is now a dropdown box, shows all testchart files in chosen directory plus the default testcharts.
• chg: [build/src] new and improved build system.
• chg: [build/src] Python 2.6 is now the recommended version to run and/or build dispcalGUI. Python 2.5 is still supported, but you will not be able to cancel profile or testchart creation through the .
• chg: (Linux) externally installed wxGTK is no longer a dependency for executables.
• chg: [build] Executables are now completely self-contained. The following paths are searched for additional language files: <user home directory>/dispcalGUI/lang, <dispcalGUI root directory>/lang
• add: all settings now stored in profile whenever possible.
• add: “Install” button next to settings dropdown to install selected profile.
• add: dropdown to choose the display to use for video card gamma table access if all of the following applies:
  - more than one display connected
  - one of those displays seems to have non-working video card gamma table access (detected on startup)
  - one of those displays seems to have working video card gamma table access (detected on startup)
• add: show patch count of selected testchart next to dropdown.
• add: ability to select an icc profile (if it contains appropriate data) or measurement data file (.ti3) as testchart (converted on-the-fly).
• add: testchart generator with editing cabability (experimental)
  - to select patches, click and drag the mouse over table cells, or hold SHIFT (select range) or CTRL/CMD (add/remove single cells/rows to/from selection)
  - to add a patch, double-click a row label
  - to delete patches, select them, then hold CTRL or CMD and hit DEL or BACKSPACE (will always delete whole rows even if only single cells selected)
  - CTRL-C/CTRL-V/CTRL-A = copy/paste/select all
• add: advanced gamut mapping options for -type profiles, can also be used to overcome an apparent Photoshop CS3 bug under Mac OS X where the brush cursor shows strange artifacts when using -profiles with only one intent (thanks to Klaus Karcher for reporting this).
• add: ability to generate profile from existing measurement data, even from an existing profile (if it contains appropriate data).
• add: drag and drop calibration files (.cal), profiles (.icc/.icm), testcharts (.ti1) and measurement data files (.ti3) to the main window to process/select them (does not work very reliably on Mac OS X depending on where you drop the files, and you also get no optical feedback during the drag operation like the changed mouse cursor on Linux/Windows. Your best bet when dropping any files is perhaps the unoccupied area below “Settings”).
• add: fully movable/resizable measurement window.
• add: profile and testchart creation can be aborted (when running from source only if using Python >= 2.6).
• add: “Before” / “After” switch when calibration / profiling complete.
• add: menu item to enable Spyder 2 from within dispcalGUI.
• add: italian and spanish translations (thanks contributors!)
• Numerous other small fixes/changes.

2008-08-21

Executable-only update for Linux (thanks to Patrice Vetsel for bug report): dispcalGUI is now built against wxGTK 2.8.7.1, which becomes a dependency.

2008-08-18 0.1b

First public release.

Definitions

[1] CGATS

Graphic Arts Technologies Standards, CGATS.5 Data Exchange Format (ANSI CGATS.5-1993 Annex J)

[2] CMM / CMS

Color Management Module / Color Management System

[3] GPL

GNU General Public License — gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html

[4] GUI

Graphical User Interface

[5] ICC

International Color Consortium — color.org

[6] JSON

JavaScript Object Notation, a lightweight data-interchange format — json.org

[7] LUT

Look Up Table — en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lookup_table

[8] SVN

Subversion, a version-control system — subversion.tigris.org

[9] UAC

User Account Control — en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_Account_Control

[10] EDID

Extended Display Identification Data — en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EDID