DisplayCAL vs pacsDisplay
DisplayCAL
displaycal.netpacsDisplay
pacsdisplay.orgSide by side
| Figure | DisplayCAL | pacsDisplay |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Display Calibration Software | 8.0 (#5) | 7.5 (#14) |
| Calibration | It measures displays with supported instruments and creates calibrations and ICC profiles. | Its tools measure display luminance response and generate DICOM GSDF calibration LUTs. |
| License | DisplayCAL is free software under GNU GPL version 3 or later and is supplied without warranty. | The software is distributed under the GNU General Public License v3.0. |
| Purpose | DisplayCAL is a display calibration and profiling solution built on ArgyllCMS. | pacsDisplay is an open-source project for generating and installing DICOM grayscale LUTs and performing quality control on DICOM-calibrated displays. |
| Support | The site links to forums, a wiki, documentation, help, and an issue tracker; it also invites voluntary contributions toward development and technical assistance. | Users can report bugs through GitHub Issues and contact the maintainer by email at nick 'at' pacsdisplay.org. |
| Uniformity | It can check display uniformity through measurements. | The uniLum program collects luminance uniformity measurements and reports deviation from median and mean luminance deviation. |
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.
pacsDisplay
pacsDisplay is an open-source project for calibrating DICOM grayscale displays and checking their image quality. Its calibration tools measure luminance response and create DICOM GSDF lookup tables. The iQC tool shows interactive quality-control patterns, including TG270-pQC, TG270-sQC, and TG270-ULN. For uniformity checks, uniLum collects luminance measurements and reports deviation from the median and mean luminance deviation. Other tools assess ambient lighting and measure luminance and illuminance. The listed compatible photometers include X-Rite i1Display Studio, Pro, and Plus; NEC SpectraSensor Pro; ColorMunki Display; Calibrite Display Pro and Plus HL; and rebranded meters. Version 6A supports external-display measurements in lumResponse and uniLum. The current release supports Windows 10 and 11. Its pdQC toolkit can be deployed from a USB drive or network without installation. The Windows installer places files in Program Files, the Public Users folder, and the Start Menu without modifying the registry or system services. Development began in 1999, and the project is distributed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.