Color Management
User Manual
Disclaimer
BenQ Corporation makes no representations or warranties, either expressed or
implied, with respect to the contents of this document. BenQ Corporation reserves the
right to revise this publication and to make changes from time to time in the contents
thereof without obligation to notify any person of such revision or changes.
Copyright
Copyright 2013 BenQ Corporation. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may
be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system or translated into
any language or computer language, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
magnetic, optical, chemical, manual or otherwise, without the prior written permission
of BenQ Corporation.
Table of Contents 3
Table of Contents
Disclaimer ....................................................................2
Copyright......................................................................2
Introduction .................................................................4
Key features ............................................................................................4
System requirements ............................................................................4
Calibration overview ...................................................5
Calibration workflow............................................................................5
Calibration target...................................................................................5
Preparations.................................................................7
Installing Color Management...............................................................7
Connecting the color meter ...............................................................7
Connecting display(s) to the computer............................................7
Setting monitor ID.................................................................................8
Warming-up the display(s)...................................................................8
Using the Color Management ....................................9
Performing calibration - a quick guide ..............................................9
Overview of components and functions..................16
Menu bar................................................................................................16
File menu.....................................................................................16
Tools menu.................................................................................16
Settings menu.............................................................................17
About menu................................................................................17
Control panel........................................................................................18
Display Wall tab ........................................................................18
Advance tab................................................................................19
Status panel............................................................................................22
Troubleshooting .........................................................23
Error message ............................................................24
Introduction4
Introduction
The uniformity in image representation is a vital element in creating a video wall that
consists of multiple displays. However, due to factors like component variation and aging,
it is inevitable for each display to produce images with slight differences in color and
luminance even when related settings are identical among all displays.
The Color Management is designed to minimize such differences and enhance the image
uniformity of all displays in a video wall application. It works by first measuring and
comparing the color characteristics of each display, and then calibrating all displays with a
common and optimal setting.
With the Color Management, you can also adjust color settings of each display easily on a
host computer, or backup and restore calibration data quickly.
Key features
The Color Management provides the following functions and features:
• Supported calibration targets:
- Color temperature (6500K/9300K/11000K)
- Gamma (1.8/2.0/2.2/2.4)
- Brightness (backlight luminance)
Refer to page 5 for more information about the calibration targets.
• Supported display tiling matrix: 1x1~10x10
• Supported display parameter: 10 bits LUT (Look Up Table) for R/G/B
• Supported internal test pattern: 256 R/G/B/W levels
• Accuracy: Delta_x, Delta_y < 0.5% with (1) DVI source for 30%~80% white level and
(2) I1D3 measurement
• Colorimeter that displays the color meter measurement values
• Local backup and restore functions that makes it easy to save and restore LUT and R/G/
B gain settings
• Manual adjustment functions (brightness, contrast, R/G/B gain and offset) that allow
fine-tuning of individual display
System requirements
The following items are required to use the Color Management.
• A color meter (supported model: X-Rite i1 Display Pro)
• A host computer (PC) that meets the following minimum hardware and software
requirements:
• HDMI, DVI or VGA cable and RS-232 cable
CPU Pentium 1GHz
Free memory 1 GB
Hard disk space 400 MB
Operating system Windows XP (32-bit/64-bit), Windows Server 2003,
Windows Vista (32-bit/64-bit) or Windows 7 (32-bit/64-bit)
RS-232 port An available RS-232 port
HDMI/DVI/VGA port An available HDMI, DVI or VGA output port
The firmware version of the PH and PL series displays must be V1.06 or higher to work with the
Color Management.
Calibration overview 5
Calibration overview
Calibration workflow
The diagram below lists the basic workflow for performing calibration using the Color
Management for the first time. If this is not the first time you use Color Management to
calibrate the displays, you can start from step 2 directly.
Calibration target
The Color Management calibrates displays by measuring, adjusting and synchronizing the
following settings:
Color temperature
There are many different shades that are considered to be "white" for various purposes.
One of the common methods of representing the white color is known as the "color
temperature". A white color with a low color temperature appears to be reddish white,
while a white color with a high color temperature appears to have more blue in it.
The Color Management allows you to set a different color temperature as calibration
target. However, if the selected color temperature is very different from the native one, a
large correction must be applied and the maximum brightness will be affected.
Gamma
The gamma of a display is the relationship between the video input signal and the light
output (“brightness”). The display is a nonlinear device. Doubling the level of the video
input signal to the display does not double the light output.
A gamma value of 1 would result in a perfectly linear display (doubling the signal level
doubles the light output). You can use the Color Management to choose a different
gamma target for all displays.
Step 1: Install Color Management on a host PC (see page 7)
Step 2: Connect the color meter to the PC (see page 7)
Step 3: Connect the PC to the display(s) via RS-232 connection (see page 7)
Step 4: Set monitor ID on each display (see page 8)
Step 5: Open the Color Management and perform calibration (see page 9)
Calibration overview6
Brightness
The Color Management provides options for brightness adjustment with which you can
change the display’s screen brightness level and synchronize it among multiple displays.
According to the number of display(s) and your Brightness setting when the calibration
project starts, the calibration method differs:
• If a single display is being calibrated, the display’s brightness will be calibrated to your
Brightness setting.
• If multiple displays are being calibrated and all connected to the computer:
- When Brightness is set to Auto, the Color Management will synchronize the
brightness level of all displays with that of the darkest display. The principle is
illustrated as follows:
However, if any of the displays’ actual brightness level (as measured by the color
meter) fails to meet the darkest brightness level (as read from the internal
memories of all displays), the Color Management will re-synchronize the brightness
level of all displays to the actual darkest brightness level.
- When Brightness is set to other settings than Auto, the Color Management will
adjust the brightness level of all displays to the target brightness setting. If any
display fails to reach the target brightness due to various factors like hardware
limitations and component deterioration, a warning message will appear.
• If multiple displays are being calibrated but some of them are disconnected from the
computer, a warning message will appear. In this case, brightness synchronization will
not be performed by the Color Management.
The tolerance of the target brightness is 15 nits.
Before brightness calibration After brightness calibration
Brightest display: brightness level = 450
Darkest display: brightness level = 430
440
445
435
430
430
450
435
450
440
430
430
430
430
430
430
430
430
430
Preparations 7
Preparations
The following operations must be performed before you can use the Color Management
to calibrate your display(s).
Installing Color Management
Ensure that the computer meets the minimum system requirements set forth on page 4.
1. Locate the Setup.exe file and double-click it to begin installation.
2. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.
Connecting the color meter
Follow the instructions provided in the documentations of the color meter to connect it
to the computer, and complete its hardware and software setup if necessary.
Connecting display(s) to the computer
HDMI/DVI/VGA input and RS-232C serial connections between the display and
computer are required to transmit control signals. The diagram below shows the general
connection schemes. For details on the location of ports and connectors, please refer to
the documentations of the computer and display.
To run Color Management in Windows 7, the User Access Control (UAC) must be temporarily
disabled. To disable UAC:
1. From the Start menu, select Control Panel > User Accounts and Family Safety >
User Account.
2. Click on the User Account Control settings link, and then drag the slider bar to the lowest
value (towards Never Notify).
3. Click OK and restart the computer to make the change effective.
Single-display
connection
Multiple-display
connection
RS-232 cable
HDMI, DVI or VGA cable
RS-232 cable
HDMI, DVI or VGA cable
RS-232
cable
IN
OUT
IN
IN
OUT
IN
RS-232
cable
Preparations8
Setting monitor ID
For the Color Management to calibrate multiple displays, each display must be assigned
an unique monitor ID. Otherwise the display(s) will not be identified correctly.
To assign monitor ID on each display, open the OSD menu of the display and select
Settings > Set Monitor ID.
Warming-up the display(s)
For a precise calibration result, the power-on time of the display(s) to be calibrated must
be longer than 60 minutes before calibration.
Be sure to assign a unique monitor ID for each display.
Using the Color Management 9
Using the Color Management
Performing calibration - a quick guide
This section provides a quick guide that walks you though the basic calibration
procedures by creating a new calibration project.
1. Launch the Color Management by clicking Windows Start button and selecting Pro-
grams > Color Management. You can also double-click the Color Management
icon on Windows Desktop to launch the program. The Color Management main
screen appears.
2. Click File > New project to create a new project. The Create Project dialog
appears.
3. Refer to the table below to set the parameters and click OK when finished.
• For detailed information about the components and functions of the Color Management,
please refer to "Overview of components and functions" on page 16.
• Before you start, make sure that you have completed the initial preparations as described in
"Preparations" on page 7.
Be sure to reset all color settings before proceeding to the next step. Please refer to page 21
for more information.
Once a project is created, the parameters cannot be changed. You need to create another new
project if you want to change these settings.
Using the Color Management10
4. According to the number of display(s) you wish to calibrate, there are 2 calibration
scenarios:
• Single-display calibration: refer to "Calibrating a single display" on page 11 for the
next step.
• Multiple-display calibration: refer to "Calibrating a multiple displays" on page 13 for
the next step.
Option/Setting Description/Instruction
Project Name Enter a project name for the calibration task.
H. Monitors (number
of displays on the
horizontal side)
Sets the number of displays to be calibrated.
• If you are calibrating a single display, select 1 in both H.
Monitors and V. Monit o r s .
• If you are calibrating multiple displays in a display wall, set
the number of displays in H. Monitors and V. M o n i t o r s .
For example:
V. M o n i t o rs (number of
displays on the vertical
side)
Connect Method Displays the connection method: RS-232C.
Ta r g e t C T Sets the target color temperature.
Ta r g e t G a m m a Sets the target gamma.
Target Brightness Sets the target brightness.
H. Monitors = 2
V. Monitors = 3
H. Monitors = 3
V. M o nito r s = 4
6 monitors 12 monitors
Using the Color Management 11
Calibrating a single display
1. Click to select the display box that represents the display you want to calibrate on
the Display Wall tab, and then click Calibrate Single.
2. The calibration window appears. Click Run to proceed.
• In the Color Management, each display is represented by a display box
on the Display Wall tab. For more information about the display box,
refer to "Display Wall tab" on page 18.
• If the display is connected to the computer successfully, the “connected”
icon appears on the upper right corner of the display box. If the
“disconnected” icon appears, refer to "Troubleshooting" on page 23
for how to solve the connection problem.
• The power-on time of the display must be longer than 60 minutes before
calibration. Otherwise a dialog asking you warm-up the display will
appear after you click the Calibrate Single button.
You can also click Tr ac k to measure the CIE1931 (x,y) values of current W,R,G and B colors at
level 255 for further analysis.
Display box
Using the Color Management12
3. You will be requested to put the color meter in the center of the display’s screen. A
center pattern is displayed on the screen for alignment at the same time. Click Ye s .
4. The calibration starts, and the status will be indicated in the Calibration Status
area.
- Initial: The computer is validating connection to the display and color meter.
- Measure: The color meter is measuring the display’s color profile.
- Produce: The Color Management is calculating for optimal values.
- Write: The Color Management is transmitting the updated Look Up Table (LUT)
to the display.
- Fine-tune: The Color Management is fine-tuning the backlight.
5. When calibration is completed, the status bar of the display box changes from “Not
Calibrated“ to “Calibrated”, and its color becomes green. The x and y values of the
W/R/G/B colors will also appear in the box.
Now you have successfully calibrated the display.
During calibration, do not change the position of the color meter, move the display to another
location or change display settings. Otherwise the precision of calibration will be affected.
You can fine-tune the calibration result manually using the Manual Adjust tool. Refer to
"Manual Adjust tool" on page 21 for more information.
Using the Color Management 13
Calibrating a multiple displays
1. Click Calibrate All on the Display Wall tab.
2. The Select first calibration dialog follows. Click to select the ID of the first
display to be calibrated and then click Set.
• In the Color Management, each display is represented by a display box
on the Display Wall tab. For more information about the display box,
refer to "Display Wall tab" on page 18.
• If the display is connected to the computer successfully, the “connected”
icon appears on the upper right corner of the display box. If the
disconnected icon appears, refer to "Troubleshooting" on page 23
for how to solve the connection problem.
• The power-on time of the displays must be longer than 60 minutes
before calibration. Otherwise a dialog asking you warm-up the displays
will appear after you click the Calibrate All button.
Display box
Using the Color Management14
3. The calibration window appears. Click Run to proceed.
4. You will be requested to put the color meter in the center of the display’s screen. A
center pattern is displayed on the screen for alignment at the same time. Click Ye s .
5. The calibration starts, and the status will be indicated in the Calibration Status
area.
- Initial: The computer is validating connection to the display and color meter.
- Measure: The color meter is measuring the display’s color profile.
- Produce: The Color Management is calculating for optimal values.
- Write: The Color Management is transmitting the updated Look Up Table (LUT)
to the display.
- Fine-tune: The Color Management is fine-tuning the backlight.
6. A dialog requesting you to move the color meter to the next display (current display
ID + 1) appears. Repeat step 4 and step 5 to complete calibration for all displays.
You can also click Tr a ck to measure the CIE1931 (x,y) values of current W,R,G and B colors at
level 255 for further analysis.
During calibration, do not change the position of the color meter, move the display to another
location or change display settings. Otherwise the precision of calibration will be affected.
Using the Color Management 15
7. The Color Management will calibrate and adjust all displays to the same color and
backlight level. When calibration is completed, the status bar of the display boxes
changes from “Not Calibrated“ to “Calibrated”, and its color becomes green. The x
and y values of the W/R/G/B colors will also appear in the boxes.
Now you have successfully calibrated all displays.
You can fine-tune the calibration result manually using the Manual Adjust tool. Refer to
"Manual Adjust tool" on page 21 for more information.
Overview of components and functions16
Overview of components and functions
The Color Management main screen consists of the following components:
1. Menu bar
2. Control panel
3. Status panel
Menu bar
File menu
Tools menu
1
2
3
Option/Setting Description
New project
Creates a new calibration project. A dialogue appears for you to
set up calibration parameters.
Open project Opens an existing calibration project file (*.vns file).
Save
Saves current calibration project file. By default, the project will
be saved as a *.vns file in the same folder where the Color
Management program files are located. (For example, C:/
Program Files/Color Management/)
Save As Saves current calibration project as another new project file.
Exit Closes and exits the Color Management.
Option/Setting Description
Backup
Saves the LUT values and backlight settings of a display as a
backup file. (*.lut file)
Click to select a display (display box) on the Display Wall tab
and select this option. By default, the backup file will be named
following the format below:
ProjectName_SSerialNumber_MMonitorID_CTTa r g e t C T _
GTargetGamma.lut
Overview of components and functions 17
Settings menu
About menu
Restore
Loads (restores) the LUT values and backlight settings of a
display from a backup file. (*.lut file)
Click to select a display (display box) on the Display Wall tab
and select this option. You need to connect a color meter to
the computer before loading the backup file.
Option/Setting Description
Connection
Selects a COM port that is used for RS-232C connection.
To select a COM port:
1. Click to select a COM port from the
ComPort drop-down box.
2. To apply the COM port setting to
current display, select Single. Select
All if you want to apply the COM port setting to all
displays.
3. Click Connect to establish RS-232C connection to the
display(s).
Color meter
If there are multiple color meters connected to the computer,
you can use this function to select the color meter to use for
calibration.
Center pattern
Selects and displays a center pattern
on the screen for color meter
installation.
To select a center pattern:
1. Click to select a pattern.
2. To display center pattern on the
screen of current display, select
Single. Select All if you want to
display center pattern on the
screens of all displays.
3. Click Set to confirm.
Language Selects a preferred language for the Color Management.
The center pattern will not disappear from the display’s screen
when you close the Color Calibration Tool. To close the center
pattern, restart the display.
Option/Setting Description
About
Displays the software version and other information about the
Color Management.
Overview of components and functions18
Control panel
Display Wall tab
The Display Wall tab allows you to view the status and color settings of all displays
connected to the computer. Each display is represented by a display box, and the number
and layout of the display boxes on the Display Wall tab correspond to the Tile Matrix
setting when you create the calibration project.
Please refer to the description below for the information provided in a display box.
1. Monitor ID: Shows the ID of the display that is set in
the display’s OSD menu.
2. Status: Shows the calibration status of the display: Not
Calibrated or Calibrated.
3. X and Y values: displays the x and y values of White/
Red/Green/Blue colors after the display is calibrated.
4. Connection status: Indicates the status of connection.
- : the display is connected to the computer
- : the display is disconnected from the computer.
1
2
3
4
Overview of components and functions 19
Advance tab
The Advance tab provides tools and options that allow you to view and manually adjust
color settings of the display selected on the Display Wall tab.
Click a function button beside the tab to switch to a different function.
Colorimeter tool
The Colorimeter tool shows the results measured by the color meter after you
calibrate the display. You can click the Measure button to manually perform
measurement again.
• Use the Center Pattern function in the Settings menu to display center pattern on the
display’s screen before you perform measurement.
• The center pattern will not disappear from the display’s screen when you close the Color
Calibration Tool. To close the center pattern, restart the display.
Overview of components and functions20
Test Pattern tool
The Te s t P a t t e r n tool allows you to display test patterns on the display’s screen for
verifying color uniformity. To display a test pattern:
1. Click to select a test pattern.
2. Click to select a color temperature setting from the Color Temperature box
(optional).
3. Specify the color level (0~255) of the test pattern in the Level box (optional).
4. To display test pattern on the screen of current selected display, select Single.
Select All if you want to display test pattern on the screens of all displays.
5. Click Set.
• It is recommended that you set the display’s Picture Mode setting to Standard before
using the test pattern.
• The test pattern will not disappear from the display’s screen when you close the Color
Calibration Tool. To close the test pattern, restart the display.
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