ColourSpace vs DisplayCAL
ColourSpace
lightillusion.com
DisplayCAL
displaycal.netSide by side
| Figure | ColourSpace | DisplayCAL |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 3 | 1 |
| Spec score · Display Calibration Software | 8.0 (#4) | 8.0 (#5) |
| Spec score · Color Management Software | 7.8 (#8) | 7.7 (#11) |
| Integrations | The maker lists integrations with displays and video systems including ASUS ProArt, EIZO, BenQ, LG TVs, AJA ColorBox, Lumagen Radiance, and madVR Envy. | The site documents madVR and DaVinci Resolve (10.1+) as pattern generators and Chromecast support as an optional dependency. |
| Purpose | ColourSpace provides display calibration and colour management for professional film, post-production and broadcast work, medical environments, Pro AV, and home cinema. | DisplayCAL is a display calibration and profiling solution built on ArgyllCMS. |
| Support | Direct purchases include a multi-level support contract with remote training, discussion forums, email, and phone support. | The site links to forums, a wiki, documentation, help, and an issue tracker; it also invites voluntary contributions toward development and technical assistance. |
Plans
ColourSpace
- ColourSpace ZROFree
- ColourSpace DPSPrice not published
- ColourSpace RentalPrice not published
In their own words
ColourSpace
ColourSpace is display calibration and colour management software for professional film, post-production, broadcast, medical, Pro AV, and home cinema work. It profiles display performance and uses those measurements to generate calibration LUTs. Interactive volumetric 3D graphs help assess measured colour points and their errors; higher license levels support native LUT generation at 1024³ and beyond. The maker lists integrations with displays and video systems including ASUS ProArt, EIZO, BenQ, LG TVs, AJA ColorBox, Lumagen Radiance, and madVR Envy. ColourSpace is a native Windows x64 application. The maker says Mac use is possible through full Windows emulation and describes a native macOS version as in development. ColourSpace ZRO is free for manual calibration and verification, but has no LUT capability, volumetric graphs, or calibration reports. Standard licenses cover one PC, require internet access for activation and periodic checks, and can be moved through up to five deactivation and activation cycles. Pricing is listed from £125.
DisplayCAL
DisplayCAL is a free display calibration and profiling solution built on ArgyllCMS, available for Linux, macOS, and Windows. With a supported measurement instrument, it measures displays and creates calibrations and ICC profiles, including for multi-display setups. Users can verify profiles and display devices, measure screen uniformity, and create video 3D LUTs with optional CIECAM02 gamut mapping. Colorimeter corrections can be imported from vendor software or created from measurements when a spectrometer is available. A test chart editor makes patch charts and accepts pasted data from CGATS, tab-delimited CSV, and spreadsheet applications. Documented pattern generators include madVR and DaVinci Resolve 10.1 or later; Chromecast support is optional. DisplayCAL requires ArgyllCMS 1.0 or newer and a supported measurement instrument. The software is licensed under GNU GPL version 3 or later and comes without warranty. The download page provides SHA-256 checksums, while the site links to forums, a wiki, documentation, help, and an issue tracker.