ArgyllCMS vs ColorThink
ArgyllCMS
argyllcms.com
ColorThink
chromix.comSide by side
| Figure | ArgyllCMS | ColorThink |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 3 | 10 |
| Spec score · Color Management Software | 9.1 (#1) | 7.7 (#10) |
| Founded | 2000 | 1998 |
| Instrument support | The documentation lists direct support for color measurement instruments from JETI, Klein, X-Rite and Calibrite, DataColor, and other manufacturers. | Listed instruments include X-Rite i1Pro, iO, iSis and eXact; Barbieri Spectro LFP; Konica Minolta MYIRO-9; Techkon SpectroDens; and Color Sentinel CSS-110. |
| Purpose | ArgyllCMS is an open-source ICC-compatible color management system for creating profiles and calibrating devices. | ColorThink is a color graphing and analytics tool that helps users calibrate printing systems, verify accuracy, and prepare measurements for ICC profiling or use as color references. |
| Support | The maker directs support and bug reports to the ArgyllCMS mailing list and offers direct email contact with Graeme Gill. | The maker provides a ColorThink 4 User Guide and ColorThink discussion forums, and lists weekday support hours of 9:30–6:00 Pacific. |
Plans
ArgyllCMS
- ArgyllCMSFree
- ArgyllCMSFree
- Commercial/non-AGPL licensingPriced on request
ColorThink
- ColorThink 4 Photo$249, paid once
- ColorThink 4 Photo XPlat Bundle$334, paid once
- ColorThink 4 Photo + MeasPack Bundle$448, paid once
- ColorThink 4 Pro$449, paid once
- ColorThink 4 Photo + MeasPack XPlat Bundle$601, paid once
- ColorThink 4 Pro XPlat Bundle$602, paid once
- ColorThink 4 Pro + MeasPack Bundle$628, paid once
- ColorThink 4 Pro + PrePress Bundle$673, paid once
- ColorThink 4 Pro + MeasPack XPlat Bundle$842, paid once
- ColorThink 4 Pro + MeasPack + PrePress Bundle$897, paid once
In their own words
ArgyllCMS
ArgyllCMS is a free, open-source ICC-compatible color management system for creating profiles and calibrating devices. Its command-line tools support scanners, cameras, film recorders, displays, and RGB, CMY and CMYK printers. It can create device-link profiles with options such as video calibration standards and 3D LUTs, and work with spectral samples, selectable illuminants and observer types, and paper fluorescent-whitener compensation. Color conversion tools handle 8-bit raster data and fully accurate 16-bit conversion. Documentation lists direct support for measurement instruments from JETI, Klein, X-Rite and Calibrite, DataColor and other manufacturers; some chart results can be converted into Argyll CGATS format. ArgyllCMS runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, but does not include a graphical interface. DisplayCAL, The Little Argyll GUI and CoCa are listed as front ends that use it. The package is licensed under AGPLv3; commercial licensing is available for code copyrighted by Graeme Gill through ArgyllPRO. On Linux, native display calibration and profiling under Wayland are not currently supported; the maker recommends X11 for color-managed displays.
ColorThink
ColorThink is a color graphing and analytics tool for calibrating printing systems, checking accuracy, and preparing measurements for ICC profiling or color references. ColorThink 4 measures directly from connected instruments and sends results to a worksheet or graph. Color Assets organizes installed profiles and other color assets, with metadata filtering and sorting. Pro licensing adds gamut comparison by subtraction or addition and calculates a Gamut Comparison Index. Image animation is available across license levels, showing transitions between normal display and Lab color values in the grapher. PrePressPack adds nColor and color-list handling, device-link and ColorCast profile creation, white-point editing and remapping, and patch tuning. Listed instruments span X-Rite, Barbieri, Konica Minolta, Techkon, and Color Sentinel. The software runs on macOS and Windows; version 4.2 is listed for both. Photo licensing starts at $249, paid once.