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:
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
• HDMI, DVI or VGA cable and RS-232 cable
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.
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 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.
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.
The tolerance of the target brightness is 15 nits.
• 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:
Before brightness calibration After brightness calibration
440
435
445
Brightest display: brightness level = 450
Darkest display: brightness level = 430
430
450
430
435
440
450
430
430
430
430
430
430
430
430
430
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.
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.
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.
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.
Single-display
connection
Multiple-display
connection
HDMI, DVI or VGA cable
IN
RS-232 cable
HDMI, DVI or VGA cable
IN
RS-232 cable
OUT
RS-232
cable
IN
OUT
RS-232
cable
IN
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.
Be sure to assign a unique monitor ID for each display.
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.
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.
• 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.
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.
Be sure to reset all color settings before proceeding to the next step. Please refer to page 21
for more information.
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.
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
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. M o n i t 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 it o r s .
For example:
6 monitors 12 monitors
V. Mo ni to rs (number of
displays on the vertical
side)
H. Monitors = 2
V. Monitors = 3
H. Monitors = 3
V. M o n i t o r s = 4
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.
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.
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.
• 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.
2. The calibration window appears. Click Run to proceed.
Display box
You can also click Tr a c k to measure the CIE1931 (x,y) values of current W,R,G and B colors at
level 255 for further analysis.
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.
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.
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.
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.
• 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.
2. The Select first calibration dialog follows. Click to select the ID of the first
display to be calibrated and then click Set.
Display box
Using the Color Management14
3. The calibration window appears. Click Run to proceed.
You can also click Tr a c k to measure the CIE1931 (x,y) values of current W,R,G and B colors at
level 255 for further analysis.
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.
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.
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.
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
1
2
3
Menu bar
File menu
Option/Setting Description
New project
Open project Opens an existing calibration project file (*.vns file).
Save
Save As Saves current calibration project as another new project file.
Exit Closes and exits the Color Management.
Creates a new calibration project. A dialogue appears for you to
set up calibration parameters.
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/)
Tools menu
Option/Setting Description
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
Backup
and select this option. By default, the backup file will be named
following the format below:
ProjectName_SSerialNumber_MMonitorID_CTTar g e t C T _
GTargetGamma.lut
Loads (restores) the LUT values and backlight settings of a
display from a backup file. (*.lut file)
Restore
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.
Settings menu
Option/Setting Description
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.
Connection
Color meter
Center pattern
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).
If there are multiple color meters connected to the computer,
you can use this function to select the color meter to use for
calibration.
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.
Overview of components and functions 17
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.
Language Selects a preferred language for the Color Management.
About menu
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
4
1
2
3
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.
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.
Overview of components and functions 21
Manual Adjust tool
The Manual Adjust tool allows you to manually fine-tune color settings after
calibration.
To manually fine-tune color settings:
1. Click the radio button of a color setting. For example, the Gain radio button of
Red.
2. Enter the desired value in the Adjust box.
3. Repeat step 1 and 2 to fine tune the settings of other colors.
4. Click Set. The settings will be applied and the measured values will appear in the
table on the left of the Adjust box. If you want to apply color settings without
performing measurement, check the Without measurement checkbox before
clicking Set.
• For the adjustments you performed using the Manual Adjust tool to take effect, you need
to restart the display.
• Be sure to reset all color settings by clicking the Set default button before performing a
new calibration.
Overview of components and functions22
Status panel
The Status panel indicates the status and provides detailed
information about the display selected on the Display Wall
tab.
Item Description
Project Name Current project file name.
H. Monitors Number of displays on the horizontal side.
V. M o n i t o r s Number of displays on the vertical side.
Monitor ID The ID of the selected display.
Model Model name of the display.
Connection Connection method: RS-232C.
ComPort
Connect Status Current connection status.
Meter Type Model name of the color meter connected to the computer.
Meter Status Connection status between the color meter and the computer.
Ta r g e t C T Value of the target color temperature setting.
Ta r g e t G a m m a Value of the target gamma setting.
Ta r g e t B r i g h tn es s Value of the target brightness setting.
Video Source
Project Status Status of calibration.
Number of the COM port currently being used for RS-232C
connection.
Video source being used for calibration.
• Internal: The display is currently using the White, Red,
Green, or Blue test pattern for calibration.
• External: The display is currently using the External test
pattern for calibration.
Troubleshooting 23
Troubleshooting
If you encounter problems during calibration, please refer to the following
troubleshooting tips to try to solve the problems by yourself. If the problem persists,
please contact BenQ Customer Support for help.
Problem Solution
Check the following:
Cannot connect to the
display(s)
The display is not on the
Display Wall tab
• Check the cable connection. Is the display correctly
connected to the computer?
• Is the display turned on?
• Is the COM port setting in Settings menu >
Connection correct?
Check the display’s ID setting. When calibrating multiple
displays, each display must be given an unique ID for the
Color Management to identify correctly.
Error message24
Error message
If an error occurs, an error message dialog will pop up on the screen. Refer to the table
below for the information about the error messages.
Class Function Error code
Setting
Calibration
Project
Tool
Advance
Others Others O10x
RS-232 RS-232 i1d3 i1d3 initial C10x
adjust BL C12x
measure raw data C20x
produce LUT C30x
write LUT C40x
adjust LUT C50x
tracking C52x
New P10x
Load P20x
Save P30x
Save as P40x
Backup T10x
Restore T20x
Colorimeter A10x
Test pattern A20x
Manual adjust A30x
9/10/13
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