What Is My Display Color Gamut Checker – Test Color Accuracy
What Is My Display Color Gamut Checker. Open this color gamut checker to see the Widest Gamut Detected on your display: sRGB, Display-P3 or Rec.2020. The scrollbar width checker online runs entirely in your browser — nothing you enter is ever sent to a server.
Interactive Tool
Your Display’s Color Gamut
On a wide-gamut screen the left swatch looks deeper and more saturated. On a standard sRGB screen your browser silently falls back to the same red on both, so they’ll look identical.
The Color Gamut Checker detects the widest color gamut your browser reports — sRGB, Display-P3, or Rec.2020 — and backs that reading up with two red swatches rendered side by side so you can judge the difference with your own eyes. On a genuinely wide-gamut screen the Display-P3 swatch looks visibly deeper and more saturated than the plain sRGB one; on a standard screen they'll look identical.
Wondering why a photo looks richer on your phone than on your desk screen? The What Is My Display Color Gamut Checker asks your browser which range of colors your display device can show and gives you a plain answer: sRGB, P3 or Rec. 2020, plus the bit depth it reports. You don't need to measure anything or calibrate first; it reads the spectrum of colors your system says it can reach, and the guide below explains what that means, how to spot color shifts and when to dig deeper.
How the What Is My Display Color Gamut Checker Works
When you open the page, the checker runs the same tests websites use to decide which image to serve you. Nothing is uploaded; the result comes from what your operating system and monitor tell the browser. A quick pass through the free hdr checker catches issues before they become real problems.
Reading the Color Gamut Result in Your Browser
The tool queries the CSS color-gamut media feature, which answers in three steps: srgb, p3 or rec2020. Each answer means the panel can show approximately that color gamut of screen or more. Most office displays stop at srgb, many recent Mac and Windows laptop screens reach p3, and very few monitors report rec2020 today. If your monitor offers a wide mode in its OSD menu, switch it and reload to see whether the answer changes.
What Bit Depth the Checker Reports
The checker also reads screen.colorDepth. A value of 24 means 8 bits per channel; 30 means a 10-bit pipeline, and 12-bit signals appear only on mastering setups. More bit depth gives you smooth gradients instead of visible banding in skies and shadows.
HDR Support and Dynamic Range
A third test checks the dynamic-range: high query. A match means the system has a high dynamic range display mode switched on, which pairs a wide gamut with higher peak brightness and stronger contrast ratios than a standard monitor.
Color Spaces Your Screen Can Report: sRGB, DCI-P3 and Rec. 2020
A color space is a fixed recipe of three primaries and a white point. Comparing your monitor against these color spaces tells you which content it can show faithfully and which colors it will clip. The free viewport size checker checks your input against current best practices and flags anything worth fixing.
sRGB for Web and Consumer Displays
sRGB, defined in 1996, is still the baseline for consumer displays, consumer-grade displays in offices and almost everything posted to social media. It assumes a gamma of about 2.2. If your monitor reports srgb only, ordinary pages and photos still look correct.
Adobe RGB for Print Photography
Adobe RGB extends sRGB mainly in the cyan-green region that offset printing can reproduce. Photographers preparing files for a lab use it, though the browser test can't detect it.
DCI-P3 and Digital Cinema
DCI-P3 came from digital cinema, where a cinema-grade projector needed deeper reds and greens than sRGB for filmmaking. Smartphones, TVs and many creator monitors now target it, usually with a D65 white instead of the theater white.
Rec. 2020 and UHD Television
Rec. 2020, also written BT.2020, is the wider color gamut defined for UHD television. No consumer monitor shows all of it yet; it serves as a container color space that leaves room for future color gamuts.
Measuring Gamut Size With a Worked Example
A browser answer is a yes-or-no label. To know how close a panel really gets, reviewers measure its red, green and blue primary colors and draw them as a triangular color gamut, then compare that triangle with each standard. A quick pass through the monitor count detector tool catches issues before they become real problems.
Plotting Primaries on the CIE 1931 Chart
The CIE 1931 chart turns tristimulus values into x,y coordinates, with the curved edge holding the pure wavelengths of the visible color spectrum. Say a colorimeter measures a monitor at red (0.668, 0.322), green (0.281, 0.652) and blue (0.151, 0.058). The area of any triangle on the chart is:
$$A = \frac{1}{2}\left|x_R(y_G - y_B) + x_G(y_B - y_R) + x_B(y_R - y_G)\right|$$For this monitor, A = 0.1364, against 0.1121 for sRGB.
Overlap Versus Color Volume
Size alone misleads, because a triangle can be large but point the wrong way. To check color gamut coverage properly, you clip the monitor's triangle against the standard's and keep only the shared area:
$$\text{Overlap} = \frac{A_{\text{monitor}} \cap A_{\text{standard}}}{A_{\text{standard}}} \times 100$$- sRGB: 100% overlap, while the triangle is 121.7% the size of sRGB
- DCI-P3: 89.6% overlap
- Adobe RGB: 83.4% overlap
- Rec. 2020: 64.4% overlap
So this panel has a wide color gamut by area, yet misses about a tenth of P3, mostly in deep green. A flat triangle ignores luminance; true color volume adds a third axis.
What a Percentage Score Means for You
A listing that says "121% sRGB" quotes size, not overlap. Look for the overlap percentage instead: around 95% sRGB is fine for office work, while about 90% DCI-P3 gives vibrant video without obvious clipping.
Color Accuracy Beyond Gamut: Delta E, Uniformity and White Point
A big triangle doesn't guarantee color accuracy. Accuracy asks whether each color lands where it should inside that space, and good color fidelity depends on the metrics below as much as on raw color reproduction.
Delta E and Reference Colors
Delta E is the distance between a displayed color and its standard reference, calculated in CIE LAB. The software shows a patch, reads it back and compares it with reference colors. A Delta E below 2 is hard to see, which is why professional displays ship with a color accuracy report showing average Delta E under that mark; at 3 or more you can spot the difference side by side.
Uniformity Across the Screen
Uniformity measures whether brightness and tint stay even from the center to the corners. IPS panels often drift a few percent at the edges, so check uniformity before you judge color accuracy from one spot.
White Point and Color Temperature
The white point sets the color temperature of white. Most standards use D65, roughly 6500K. A panel set to a cool preset or showing color temperature drift as it heats up tints every gray and skews skin tones.
Black Crush and Shadow Detail
Black crush happens when near-black steps merge into one, which hides shadow detail. Poor gamma correction also causes banding artifacts in gradients. An OLED handles pure black well, while an LED-backlit monitor can lift blacks; showing secondary colors on a dark field reveals both problems.
Using the Checker's Color Space Result Before a Print Order
I have 24 landscape files due at a print lab on Friday, delivered as Adobe RGB TIFFs, and one question: can my 14-inch laptop soft-proof them, or do I need an external photo monitor for the week? The short answer turned out to be yes for 18 of the files, no for the 6 glacier-lake frames.
First I open the checker. It reports p3 and a color depth of 30, so the panel runs a 10-bit pipeline. That result is my first filter: it rules out an sRGB-only panel, but the browser can't query Adobe RGB or show which hues fall short, so I borrow a colorimeter, run a profile and read the measured primaries from the report: red (0.6512, 0.3297), green (0.2338, 0.6604), blue (0.1497, 0.0571).
I put those into the triangle formula myself. The laptop's area is 0.1398, 124.8% the size of sRGB, and clipping it against each standard gives:
| Standard | Shared area, CIE 1931 x,y | Shared area, CIE 1976 u'v' |
|---|---|---|
| sRGB | 100% | 100% |
| Adobe RGB | 90.7% | 95.8% |
| DCI-P3 | 87.0% | 89.7% |
The second column is the catch. The same color gamut scores 5.1 points higher on the u'v' chart, because that diagram shrinks the green region where this laptop falls short. My cutoff for print soft-proofing is 95% Adobe RGB, so one chart says pass and the other says fail. A spec sheet rarely tells you which chart it used, which is why I re-ran the numbers rather than trust the box.
This per-hue gap is what no browser check can show; the checker's answer stops at one label. To size it, I solved for the green primary that would reach 95% on the x,y chart: about (0.223, 0.683). The red and blue corners are fine; the shortfall is entirely in saturated cyan-green, exactly the water and ice in the 6 glacier frames.
So I split the job. The 18 forest and desert files get soft-proofed on the laptop against the lab's printer profile. The 6 glacier frames go into a separate folder, and I switch on the out-of-range warning in the soft-proof view; anything flagged gets checked on the lab's calibrated station when I drop off the order. In my judgment, the input that matters most here is the green primary, not the headline percentage, because a laptop can post a big size figure and still miss the one hue a portfolio depends on.
Color Checker Tools and Monitor Calibration Methods
The browser test is the quick color checker. When you need numbers, these options add the measurement hardware and software that a browser can't provide, and most of them end with calibration.
Manufacturer Specifications and Reviews
Manufacturer specifications usually list overlap with each standard. Independent reviewers publish each monitor's color gamut report, showing what a sample unit measured; check it against the box claim.
Colorimeter and Spectrophotometer Calibration Devices
A colorimeter reads light through filters and suits most monitors; a spectrophotometer splits light into its full spectrum and copes better with unusual backlights. Both calibration devices sit on the monitor while the software flashes test colors, and both are the calibration tools reviewers rely on.
Calibration Software and Color Profiling
Calibration software turns those readings into color profiling: it writes an ICC color profile your system applies to every app. Without a profile, wide-gamut monitors oversaturate ordinary sRGB content.
Test Patterns for a Quick Color Accuracy Test
Test patterns give you a visual assessment with no device:
- Solid color blocks show tint and uneven saturation.
- A grayscale ramp reveals a color shift in the grays.
- Compare a reference image you know well with a print or a second screen.
- Adjust contrast and brightness in the on-screen display until each step stays visible.
This color accuracy test catches big faults, not subtle ones.
Range of Colors Each Creative Workflow Needs
Creative professionals in color-critical jobs need far more than someone who reads email.
Graphic Design and Web Design
For graphic design and web design, most output ends up in sRGB, so designers need sRGB color accuracy first and a wider space second.
Photography and Video Editing
Photo editors working toward printing benefit from Adobe RGB, while video editing and color grading for streaming or HDR content need strong DCI-P3 support and a 10-bit signal.
Digital Art and Animation
Digital art and animation usually target P3 phones and tablets, so check your monitor against that device class.
Gaming and Everyday Use With Color-Accurate Monitors
For gaming, a wide gamut adds punch, but color-accurate monitors cost more and need setup. Casual users rarely need more than good sRGB monitors.
Keeping Color Reproduction Consistent Over Time
Color reproduction drifts as backlights age, so a good result today needs upkeep to stay consistent.
Monitor Calibration Schedule
To hold color accuracy, plan a monitor calibration every month. Let the monitor warm up for 30 minutes first; manufacturing tolerances mean two units of one model differ, so calibrate each.
Monitor Placement and Ambient Lighting
Good monitor placement keeps glare and direct sunlight off the monitor. Neutral lighting and stable ambient lighting keep your judgments of color accuracy consistent from morning to evening.
High-Quality Cables, Drivers and Firmware
Use high-quality cables that carry full color depth at your refresh rate, and keep graphics drivers and firmware current, since updates can reset color modes and color accuracy.
How Your Color Vision Affects Color Perception
Your own color vision is the last link. Color perception changes with fatigue, age and surroundings, and about 1 in 12 men has a color vision deficiency. Hue arrangement tests rate your hue discrimination with a color IQ score, where lower means you separate each hue better. The checker reports what the display can show, not what you can see, so if you struggle to tell one hue from the next, get a second opinion on saturated colors before you sign off critical work.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is a color gamut?
- A color gamut is the range of colors a display can reproduce. It is usually drawn as a triangle on the CIE 1931 chart, with corners at the display's red, green and blue primaries, and compared against standards such as sRGB, DCI-P3, Adobe RGB and Rec. 2020.
- What is the difference between sRGB and DCI-P3?
- sRGB is the baseline color space for websites and most consumer displays. DCI-P3 came from digital cinema and adds deeper reds and greens, which is why recent phones, laptops and TVs advertise it for video and HDR content.
- What is the difference between sRGB and Adobe RGB?
- Adobe RGB extends sRGB mainly in the cyan-green region that print can reproduce, so photographers preparing files for a lab or press use it. Browsers cannot report Adobe RGB support, so you need measured primaries or a colorimeter report to check it.
- Is 95% sRGB good?
- Yes for office work, browsing and casual photo viewing, as long as 95% is the overlap figure and not the triangle size. A box claim such as 121% sRGB describes size; overlap tells you how much of the standard the screen actually shows.
- How do I check my sRGB coverage?
- The quickest check is the browser result above: if it reports srgb or wider, your system treats the screen as at least sRGB-capable. For an exact percentage, enter the red, green and blue primaries from a review or a colorimeter report and read the sRGB overlap.
- What is Delta E, and why does it matter?
- Delta E is the distance between a displayed color and its reference value. Below about 2 the difference is hard to see; at 3 or more it is visible side by side. A wide color gamut with a high Delta E still shows colors in the wrong place.
- How often should I calibrate my monitor?
- For paid color work, calibrate about once a month with a colorimeter or spectrophotometer, after letting the screen warm up for around 30 minutes. Backlights age, so color accuracy drifts even on good monitors.
- Can I test monitor color accuracy without tools?
- Partly. Test patterns such as grayscale ramps and solid color blocks reveal big tints and banding, and comparing a familiar reference image with a print helps, but only a measuring device can give you exact primaries or Delta E values.