Do monitor gamma loader utilities still matter in Windows 7/8?
Asked 2/22/2013
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Some monitor calibration/profiling packages install a startup gamma loader in Windows 7 or 8. In Windows XP, these utilities were commonly needed to load the monitor profile’s video card LUT corrections. I’ve read that the newer Windows color management system may handle this automatically, which would make separate gamma loader tools unnecessary. Under Windows 7/8, does the OS reliably load and maintain the display LUT from the active monitor profile, or can the vendor’s gamma loader still have a purpose?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
2
Good question, Andrey,
I worked on some of this for Vista, and to the best of my knowledge, WCS is largely unchanged since then. It's challenging dredging up memories of what we did (vs. what we wanted to do). I do remember it was always very difficult to get support to do color management work.
Since there is only one application (I believe to this day) that ships with Windows and is color managed (Windows Photo Viewer), I think it is safe to say that things are largely as they were with XP.
I'm not aware of any 3rd party apps (ie. Photoshop) that use the new WCS color management engine, so any advantages of the new system remain unavailable until/unless it sees more widespread use.
Hope that helps, -Brad
Originally by user13555. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user13555
13y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
A gamma loader can still have a purpose in Windows 7/8.
Windows 7 introduced the Windows Color System (WCS), but in practice color management on Windows remained fairly limited. The system did not make third-party calibration loaders broadly obsolete, and software support for the newer color-management stack was not widespread. In real-world use, Windows was still much like XP for many applications.
So while Windows 7/8 may provide improved color-management infrastructure, that does not mean every application uses it, or that a separate loader is guaranteed to be redundant. Vendor utilities are often installed because they still help ensure the monitor calibration curves/LUT corrections are actually loaded and kept active.
In short: no, you should not assume gamma loaders are unnecessary on Windows 7/8. They can still affect calibration behavior, especially given uneven application and system support for color management.
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