ddcci vs ddcutil
ddcci
bhuvanchandradv.github.ioddcutil
ddcutil.comSide by side
| Figure | ddcci | ddcutil |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 2 |
| Spec score · Monitor Control Software | 7.1 (#18) | 8.4 (#3) |
| Installation | The maker's page links to ZIP and tar.gz source downloads and to the GitHub repository. | The maker documents prebuilt packages and source builds; its project maintained packages include builds for some Debian, openSUSE, and Ubuntu releases, with Launchpad and Fedora COPR packages also described. |
| License | The repository README describes the program as GPL-licensed. | ddcutil and ddcui are released under the GNU General Public License, version 2. |
| Monitor controls | The page lists controls including brightness, contrast, input source, speaker volume, and power. | Its commands can detect monitors, report capabilities, read and set VCP feature values, and save or restore color related settings. |
| Purpose | ddcci is a command-line tool for communicating with monitors through the DDC/CI interface. | ddcutil is a Linux program for managing monitor settings such as brightness, color levels, and input source. |
| Support | The maker says they accept patches and directs users to inspect the tool if it hangs or does not work. | The project directs technical support questions, bug reports, and feature requests to its GitHub issue tracker. |
Plans
In their own words
ddcci
ddcci has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
ddcutil
ddcutil is a free Linux program for controlling monitor settings such as brightness, color levels and input source. It communicates with monitors through DDC/CI over I²C and supports monitors implementing MCCS over USB. Commands can find monitors, show capabilities, read or change VCP feature values, and save or restore color-related settings. The companion ddcui provides a Qt graphical interface with Summary, Capabilities and Features views, with the last allowing changes to modifiable values. For profile workflows, dumpvcp saves current settings to a file and loadvcp restores them. Developers can use the C API through libddcutil.so to read and write VCP values and handle profile-related features. The program is released under GNU GPL version 2. Setup requires the Linux kernel i2c-dev module, and non-root users need permissions to run it. It does not support laptop displays, which use a special API rather than I²C, and generally will not run in virtual machines because virtual video drivers do not implement I²C. For MCCS-over-USB table features, support is limited; the capabilities command synthesizes a response.