Preferences
The preferences window allows you to control:
- A device profile.
- The gamma, brightness and contrast.
- 4.1. Basic Preferences
- 4.2. Advanced Preferences
- 4.3. Profile viewer
- 4.4. Calibration and profiling
4.1. Basic Preferences
To alter a profile for a device.
- Select the device.
- Select the required profile from the list in the color profile drop down box.
If the required profile is not in the list then
- Select "Other profile..."
- Find the ICC profile file using the GNOME Open File dialog presented.
- Press the Open button on the dialog.
If the profile is invalid then the profile selected for the device will not alter. Messages may be shown.
You can drag JPG and RAW files on to the main window. This will automatically create a virtual device profile that you can assign a profile to.
4.2. Advanced Preferences
This allows you to adjust a calibrated device or generated profile.
The Fine Tuning Option is only available if you configure GConf to enable it (
).CRT monitors have native gamma around 2.4 - 2.5 and LCD monitors usually emulate the same value.
Traditionally, Linux and MS Windows operating systems use image encoding of 1/2.2 and do not apply any gamma adjustment to the image or video card LUT. Therefore the overall gamma is expected to be around 1.1 (which is useful to allow for dim viewing conditions at home environment).
Apple used to use image encoding gamma close to 1/1.8 to naturally match the native gamma of printing devices (and therefore internally applied gamma adjustment of 1/1.45 before displaying images on monitor so that the images displayed correctly).
Nonetheless, since OS X (v10.6 Snow Leopard) the default image encoding gamma has also the value of 1/2.2 to meet the requirements of consumer imaging industry.
Before fine tuning the gamma in GNOME Color Manager, you should know what your monitor native gamma is, what display gamma you want to reach and then do the math yourself.
4.4. Calibration and profiling
GNOME Color Manager can generate ICC profiles with supported color measuring instruments.


When calibrating and profiling a display you may have to change the color measuring instrument to operate in different modes. You may have to remove your instrument from the screen to change the modes. Ensure the instrument is put back on the screen after you have changed any settings.
When calibrating and profiling a display connected using a VGA or DVI connection, often the type of device is not known. By answering correctly, GNOME Color Manager can generate better profiles for the device you are trying to calibrate and profile.
When profiling a printer you can also generate images to be sent to a print shop or photograph processing agency. The profiling details will be saved, and you will need to select the correct profiling results when you receive the proofs back.