Elevate black point with icc profile

[Hansebenger]

Hi,

I want to calibrate my display. Black shouldn't be dark black anymore but a bit grey. So I want to lift the black point only, do I use this word right? An icc profile comes to my mind here.

Since I don't want to change colors I don't need a hardware device, I only need a display calibration software which lets me chosse a virtual ideal display and the black point and creates an icc profile then. Is there any?

[digitaldog]

0/0/0 should preview as Black; that's what it is.

[Hansebenger]

Reality: My black cloth has 10% the luminance of my white wall
My Screen: Black has 5% luminance of white even with surrounding light.
I will go for Reality here and raise black. But it's a matter of taste.

[digitaldog]

Reality: My black cloth has 10% the luminance of my white wall
My Screen: Black has 5% luminance of white even with surrounding light.
I will go for Reality here and raise black. But it's a matter of taste.

You'll get no help from me, mucking up your display calibration based on believing what IS 0/0/0 and actually black (a digital image pixel, not a black cloth you didn't even measure) and hence actually numerically black being black from previewing black as it should.
Ideally, on a really good calibrated display, you'll see a visual difference between 0/0/0 (and then, the actual black of the display) vs. 1/1/1 which is a very, very dark gray and not black. That is, IF you know how to do such testing (and why):
http://digitaldog.net/files/20Testing%20your%20display.pdf
Reality: 0/0/0/ is black. 1/1/1 isn't and shouldn't appear as black (dark).
And yes, you DO need a hardware device to do any of this properly.

[GWGill]

Reality: My black cloth has 10% the luminance of my white wall
My Screen: Black has 5% luminance of white even with surrounding light.
I will go for Reality here and raise black. But it's a matter of taste.

Modifying your display to emulate your cloth is a very poor way of going about things. Instead there's this thing called color management that lets you use your display to proof any other colorspace you like if you use it properly.  What you need to do is create a profile that represents your process of printing onto your cloth, and then use that as the source in a preview/proofing workflow. This is standard ICC workflow stuff.

[Doug Gray]

Reality: My black cloth has 10% the luminance of my white wall
My Screen: Black has 5% luminance of white even with surrounding light.
I will go for Reality here and raise black. But it's a matter of taste.

Are you sure? Luminance is measured as cd/m^2 which is a linear measure. Surface luminance depends on what the surface is illuminated with. A really good white matte paper, illuminated with 350 Lux, will reflect most of that light with a luminance of 100 cd/m^2. Setting your monitor for a white luminance of 100 cd/m^2 will match that assuming the tint is the same.

No monitor's black is anywhere near as high as 5 cd/m^2 (your 5%). Monitors set for 100 cd/m^2 typically have blacks that measure less than 0.5 cd/m^2. 5 cd/m^2 would be pretty far from black. It's roughly between the two darkest patches on a ColorChecker card.

[JRSmit]

Hi,

I want to calibrate my display. Black shouldn't be dark black anymore but a bit grey. So I want to lift the black point only, do I use this word right? An icc profile comes to my mind here.

Since I don't want to change colors I don't need a hardware device, I only need a display calibration software which lets me chosse a virtual ideal display and the black point and creates an icc profile then. Is there any?

Why not turn softproofing on, using a ICC profiel of a fine art platte paper?
An ICC profiel of a monitor describes its color behaviour, including greys. How do you want to created An ICC profile without any measurement of its behaviour?

[Hansebenger]

Are you sure? Luminance is measured as cd/m^2 which is a linear measure. Surface luminance depends on what the surface is illuminated with. A really good white matte paper, illuminated with 350 Lux, will reflect most of that light with a luminance of 100 cd/m^2. Setting your monitor for a white luminance of 100 cd/m^2 will match that assuming the tint is the same.

No monitor's black is anywhere near as high as 5 cd/m^2 (your 5%). Monitors set for 100 cd/m^2 typically have blacks that measure less than 0.5 cd/m^2. 5 cd/m^2 would be pretty far from black. It's roughly between the two darkest patches on a ColorChecker card.

I have measured Luminance and only calculated percents for convenience. I have to admit that I measurd the screen with surrounding light on, that's where the 5% come from. But the reflected light isn't enough for me. I am used to old IPS panels and cheap TN panels where everyone would complain that the black in the scene would look grey and think the quality is crappy. But I like it and think there are indeed monitors with this bright black but you would declare them as faulty. I have noticed this new screen straining my eyes a bit from the beginning and recently begang investigating because I use it more.

[Hansebenger]

I have done it.
I have taken an ICC profile with some embedded vcgt calibration: http://fotovideotec.de/farbmanagement/downloads/testkalibrierung_blaeulich.icm.
With https://github.com/KennethEvans/colormanagement I could reverse engineer pretty quickly this particular vgct's function and hack a desired one into it with a hex editor.

Thanks for your opinions!