Color display Linux/Ubuntu Vs MAC OS SL Vs Win7 ?

[z.onichi]

Hi everyone,

I have been researching about this topic for quiet a while now and I still haven't found an answer anywhere.

I have been using all possible platforms and computers within the past 10 years.
And I am a big linux fan, especially ubuntu.

I use it mainly as my real os, here and there I do try out stuff on win7 and Mac OS snow leopard.
However I like tweaking the ubuntu and adjusting it to make it most convenient then any other os.

What I have noticed, that all these oses somewhat use a different color profile I guess.
Since using the exact same computer, with a different os, if i open a picture, the colors, contrast and brightness look a lot different.

I find that the Mac OS snow leopard, has the best quality when it comes to contrast and brightness and color hue.

I would like to know why that is and how I could make my ubuntu look the same.

At first I wasn't sure of it when I did notice it on occasion. However I have tried loading the different os on the same computer, I noticed that the mac os just looks much better.

Anyone who hasn't tried it, feel free to take the same picture file and open it with a different os and observe the details of the picture.

Any feedback would be much appreciated.

Thank you guys.

[handy]

You asked for it:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...ibrate+monitor

[z.onichi]

Hi thanks for the link.

It does show how to calibrate the monitor. Which I tried, but for som reason, no matter how much I tried to calibrate it, it just never looks as good as the mac os.

I'm wondering why is there a difference at the operating system level of how to display colors.
I can understand that different brands / models of monitors display the colors/contrast... differently.

However I would more like to know the specific difference between the OS level output.
Without guessing and trying to match it, but rather have it set to the exact same setting or using the exact same profile on both.

If you have a macbook with and a ubuntu box, or ask a friend to open the same picture with his os, and try to calibrate ur notebook to the best u can, and you will see that there is no way to match the mac os range of colors and contrast.

I would like to upload some pics maybe but it would be pointless to look at it on the screen, it would need to be in real on the product.

Thanks

[shantiq]

well hardware could be the simple answer

since you pay up to 4 times the price for a mac compared to a pc surely all the parts must/should be of higher grade

and this could explain the difference

mac boxes/screens are just better quality maybe

i think one day i will buy one and put ubuntu on it

Have you tried running Ubuntu on a mac see about image quality there (i am not clear; is this what you are doing?)

Maybe someone who does can answer that ?

I would put money on hardware in this case not OS unless all of what you describe is happening on a mac box then ignore me OR their OS is better for pictures and therefore justifies their really high prices

[handy]

I run Arch on a 2007 24" iMac. It looks fine to me.

When I use OS/X, I think that the Arch fonts are rendered better.

Having said that; I finally got around to upgrading to OS/X 10.6.8 last night, (from 10.5.8). & I have to say that the richness of colour on the web has improved dramatically from what it was previously.

Increasing the amount of red in your colour balance is one way to get richer colours.

I would think that providing you have identical GPU drivers, you should be able to make any two systems present the same by fine tuning your monitor's output.

You could also spend a long time in the pursuit of that result I think...

Photographers buy hardware/software that they use to be able to get the same colours that they see on screen on paper via their printer (& for other media as well). Here's a link to something to do with that:

http://dispcalgui.hoech.net/

[z.onichi]

Hi guys,

thanks for the replies.

Yeah it's hard to make this clear what's going on.

I also though it is the hardware. What happens I do have a mac and if i put windows or ubuntu on it, the quality is just not as good as if I use Mac OSx.

As well I have tried to intall mac os " hackintosh" on my desktop pc, and even using the big external LCD, when running Mac OS X, the contrast color range is by far superior to the other operating systems.

Any ideas how could I demonstrate? I can take pictures side by side

I wish my ubuntu would look as nice, then ubuntu would be perfect!

aight thanks guys

[handy]

You don't have to demonstrate it.

If you want to make your other installations look the same as OS/X, you have to learn about how to adjust your display settings & monitor to get the results you want.

First thing I'd do is attempt to find out everything I could about how Apple setup their hardware & OS/X. (This is not the best place to source that info'.)

Here is a simple place to start, you will learn a lot using expert mode, whether you will get all of the numbers you need or not from there remains to be seen:

http://www.computer-darkroom.com/col...olorsync_1.htm

Once you have all of the numbers you need, then you can try to apply them in an effort to duplicate the Apple hardware / OS/X display quality.

Good luck.

[z.onichi]

Thanks for the link.

I tried messing with the calibration on the mac to try to configure it to the best possible picture.
After trying a few attempts and follow all the steps in the calibration wizard. I still find the default profile on the mac looks the best.
I think the calibration wizard on the mac is way to sophisticated. When looking at the file it generates manually. I can see that for each color there is a few sets of settings across the whole range of depth. Unfortunately, there isn't any option to configure the colors and lighting to such a precise level on the other platforms.

I guess my real question would be, why is it that the macbook is just simply using a better profile out of the box. Even if it was possible to fine tune it on the other platforms to make it look the same. It would be nice if it came like that out of the box.
But yeah, I've spend now quite a few hours and there isn't just any setting that can make it look that good. The options are limited.

Best way to see it, get a friend with a mac, and try to tune ur ubuntu on a mac to look the same as the other mac running osx. And you'll see that it'll never look as nice.

I hope ubuntu developers will have a look into that and try to improve it and make it look even nicer than the max