What is Display Color Calibration?

Calibrating your display helps to ensure that colors are represented accurately on your monitor. In Windows, you can use Display Color Calibration to calibrate your display.

Before starting Display Color Calibration, make sure that your display is set to its native resolution. This helps to improve the accuracy of the resulting calibration. For more information about determining the native resolution for a display and setting the screen resolution, see Change screen resolution.

Notes

• If you have a display calibration device that came with other software, consider using the color measurement device with the accompanying software instead of Display Color Calibration. Using the calibration device with the accompanying calibration software that often comes with it can help you get the best color on your display. In general, using a color measurement instrument to calibrate your display will result in a better calibration compared to the results of doing a visual calibration (which is done in Display Color Calibration).

• Display Color Calibration is not available in Windows Server 2008 R2.

To start Display Color Calibration

1. Click to open Display Color Calibration.‌ If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
2. In Display Color Calibration, click Next to continue.

Use Display Color Calibration to adjust color settings

Display Color Calibration improves your display color by enabling you to change different color settings. After you adjust the different color settings using Display Color Calibration, you will have a new calibration that contains your new color settings. The new calibration will be associated with your screen display and used by color-managed programs.

The color settings that you can change, as well as how you change those color settings, depend on your monitor's display and its capabilities. Not all monitors have the same color capabilities and settings, so you might not be able to change all the different color settings when using Display Color Calibration.