Color Calibration Problem: Photoshop, Windows 11 and Dell UP3216PQ

[Kyle Jackson]

in PS, in color settings under Working Spaces, among the options for RBG, one is the monitor profile. This is the profile the system has announced to PS.

I don't believe that's correct. Your Working Space profile is just that. It shouldn't care what monitor profile the OS is using or if a monitor is even connected at all. 

In my ancient Photoshop CS5 my working space is set to ProPhoto RGB regardless of which monitor cal profile is active. I don't know why yours changes, that seems bizarre.


Was this a fresh install of Win 11 and apps, or did you do an upgrade-in-place from Win 10? If the latter, I wonder if your Dell CM software got buggered up during the Win update. You could try un/reinstalling it.

I don't even have that Colour Management toggle in my Win 11 Settings (see screenshot).

I just finished building this PC to replace my old Win 10 PC and it has a fresh install of Win 11 Pro. Multiple monitors but at the moment I only set up colour management for the Eizo CS2740, using their Colour Navigator software. I haven't touched any colour-related settings in Win 11. When I change monitor cal profiles using either the monitor's buttons / on-screen display, or by using the menu in the Colour Navigator software, the active colour profile in Win 11 Settings changes automatically. So it appears Colour Navigator is doing what I paid it to do lol.

I haven't decided yet if I'll reinstall SpectraView for the old NEC PA271W monitor. But I expect it to behave similarly, like it did in Win 10.

[digitaldog]

I don't believe that's correct. Your Working Space profile is just that. It shouldn't care what monitor profile the OS is using or if a monitor is even connected at all. 

  Yes, PS does care. He is referring to the "Monitor RGB" profile listed, which is the profile Photoshop recognizes as the system profile for the display and what Photoshop uses for part of the preview mechanism. It MUST show the actual/correct display profile as seen here using my custom PA271Q display profile. It should NOT be selected as a Working Space, but it must show correctly in this location.

[Kyle Jackson]

  Yes, PS does care. He is referring to the "Monitor RGB" profile listed, which is the profile Photoshop recognizes as the system profile for the display and what Photoshop uses for part of the preview mechanism. It MUST show the actual/correct display profile as seen here using my custom PA271Q display profile. It should NOT be selected as a Working Space, but it must show correctly in this location.

Yeah I remarked about their Working Space being set to a monitor profile (and it changing based on monitor cal profile) only because I missed reading their footnote:

Please note my working RGB has always been ProPhoto RGB. In the attached screenshots I switched to monitor RGB only to illustrate all settings simultaneously in one image.

That confusion sorted, if this was an upgrade-in-place from Win 10 to 11, they still might wish to try reinstalling their monitor CM software if they feel something isn't working correctly.

[raminolta]

Yes, I formatted and wiped the disk entirely and did a fresh installation of Windows 11 pro. Initially, I had used the Windows upgrade tool, installing Windows 11 over 10 but I ran into some problem (frequent blue screens and system crashes). So I decided to start over from ground zero.

[Kyle Jackson]

Yes, I formatted and wiped the disk entirely and did a fresh installation of Windows 11 pro. Initially, I had used the Windows upgrade tool, installing Windows 11 over 10 but I ran into some problem (frequent blue screens and system crashes). So I decided to start over from ground zero.

I initially planned to upgrade in place too, and if that didn't work out I'd just start over with a fresh Win 11 install. I ended up just doing the latter. It's a lottttt of work tho to rebuild all the custom app settings etc (but I've been able to shortcut some by copying over some User AppData files/folder from the Win 10 system). I almost gave up a few times, tempted to revert to upgrading on top of Win 10, but I eventually got over the hurdles with reinstalling my legacy Photoshop software so I've stayed with the clean Win 11 install. I can still boot my old Win 10 setup if needed.

I'm still puzzled why yours shows the option to enable / disable CM in Windows Settings and mine does not. I've noticed the Win 11 Settings UI is full of mystery meat, where additional "hidden" options sometimes magically appear. For now I'm assuming it's enabled by default, and maybe my Eizo Colour Navigator software "hides" it. I have to uninstall / reinstall that software to fix an unrelated issue so I'll check what Win Settings shows while it's removed. Mainly just curiosity.

[raminolta]

I'm still puzzled why yours shows the option to enable / disable CM in Windows Settings and mine does not. I've noticed the Win 11 Settings UI is full of mystery meat, where additional "hidden" options sometimes magically appear. For now I'm assuming it's enabled by default, and maybe my Eizo Colour Navigator software "hides" it. I have to uninstall / reinstall that software to fix an unrelated issue so I'll check what Win Settings shows while it's removed. Mainly just curiosity.

Can you check in Windows settings > About > Windows Specifications that you have installed Windows 11 pro? I am asking because it may be possible that by some mistake, Windows installed  the non Pro version (they all come in one package).

Next, I suggest updating your GPU driver to the latest version, following these steps:

- Download DDU from https://www.wagnardsoft.com/content/Download-Display-Driver-Uninstaller-DDU-18139.
- Download the latest driver for your GPU. If it is an Nvidia, I highly recommend downloading the 'Studio' driver version.
- Disconnect from the Internet (so that WIndows does not automatically install GPU driver on your system.
- Do a clean uninstall of the current GPU driver and software using DDU.

"For that, you need to boot into safe mode and run DDM in the safe mode."

- Reboot in normal mode while still disconnected from the internet.
- Install the downloaded GPU driver.
- Reconnect to the Internet.

This is the procedure I go through every time I update my GPU drivers.

[raminolta]

On another note, I noted you mentioned you had not installed SpectraView for your monitor (NEC PA271W). It is possible that since you have not calibrated your monitor, the option is missing as Windows has simply activated the option for you automatically.

This is a good introduction to the Windows Color Management option and how it affects the display of colors on the monitor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD_l0xmvMEU

[Kyle Jackson]

It's Win 11 Pro build 25H2 and drivers are up-to-date.

I have 3 displays. The Eizo CS2740 is primary and is fully set up with Colour Navigator.

The NEC PA271W is no longer usable for colour-critical work (CCFL backlight degradation). It's for general desktop use now, so I didn't bother reinstalling the NEC SpectraView software for it.

There's also a Samsung TV connected sometime for gaming etc. But the Eizo is my main display for colour crit tasks so that's the only one that matters.

Quick googling shows some other users also don't have that Win 11 ACM option (incl one with same Eizo monitor/software). Also comments that no option = disabled. And it seems disabled is best.

In any case my Eizo profile switching seems to be working as expected. I was mainly just curious why I don't have that Win 11 ACM option at all, but I won't lose sleep over it (unless/until there is an actual problem).