DisplayCAL vs OpenColorIO
DisplayCAL
displaycal.netOpenColorIO
opencolorio.orgSide by side
| Figure | DisplayCAL | OpenColorIO |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 3 |
| Spec score · Color Management Software | 7.7 (#11) | 8.3 (#5) |
| Integrations | The site documents madVR and DaVinci Resolve (10.1+) as pattern generators and Chromecast support as an optional dependency. | The supported-application list includes Blender, Nuke, Maya, Houdini, Katana, Mari, Silhouette, Substance Designer, Unreal Engine, V-Ray, and many other tools. |
| License | DisplayCAL is free software under GNU GPL version 3 or later and is supplied without warranty. | OpenColorIO is licensed under the BSD-3-Clause license. |
| Purpose | DisplayCAL is a display calibration and profiling solution built on ArgyllCMS. | OpenColorIO is a color management solution geared toward motion picture production, especially visual effects and computer animation. |
| Support | The site links to forums, a wiki, documentation, help, and an issue tracker; it also invites voluntary contributions toward development and technical assistance. | The project directs users to its Slack channel, user and developer mailing lists, or GitHub issues for help and contact. |
Plans
In their own words
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.
OpenColorIO
OpenColorIO is a free color management solution for motion picture production, particularly visual effects and computer animation. It supports artists managing color, studios integrating color management into pipelines, and developers building or upgrading color management frameworks. Its Python API can connect a studio pipeline or modify a configuration. Config merging is in preview, with controls for name and alias conflicts and duplicate color spaces. The GPU renderer supports the Khronos Vulkan graphics API, and the project describes ACES 2.0 support as feature complete, including ACES 2.0 Output Transforms as OCIO views. OpenColorIO also supports Color Interop ID and attributes for ICC and AMF. Listed integrations include Blender, Autodesk Maya, Houdini, Nuke, Photoshop, and Unreal Engine, with some version requirements, including Blender 2.64 and up, Maya 2016 and up, and Unreal Engine 4.22 and up. It is available as an API and for Linux, macOS, and Windows under the BSD-3-Clause license. Prebuilt libraries are available through package managers; Python bindings and command-line tools can be installed from PyPI.