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I'm developing a new advanced review website for all kind of devices. And for that, I want to measure the accuracy of colors from displays (for example a smartphone or a normal screen). I already have a built-in system to calculate the delta e of two colors.

My plan is to display some standard test colors patches at the screen (where I already know the color HEX code) and then compare this to some kind of color measurement. The problem is I need a device which can measure this color from a screen (something glowing...) but normal color meters aren't designed for that. Such a device must exist because notebookcheck actually do this somehow - but I have no idea what they use.

So my question what devices do I need for that purpose? Also if this isn't the right place to ask I'm sorry for that.

The device requirements are:

  • Should give me HEX color codes
  • Also more like 2019 tech with a nice interface (app) if possible
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    Welcome to Superuser! Unfortunately, hardware shopping suggestion questions like this are off-topic for this site. We do have a hardwarerecs.stackexchange.com site though, which should be able to help you out. Apr 11, 2019 at 22:06
  • Ok sry for that, I will consider this in future.
    – Game Unity
    Apr 12, 2019 at 8:34

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Shopping requests are off-topic here, but you're after a "colorimeter".

When it comes to measuring a display's ability to represent color, you're not likely to get "hex codes" back, at least not in the way that you're thinking (due to the sensor's dynamic range and potential for saturation that needs to be avoided).

For example, displaying #00FF00 (pure / bright green in 24-bit color) will not likely result in a simple output value of #00FF00 from the tool, because if the display is too bright there is no way to represent this fact - you've run out of dynamic range. A tool could provide this value against a gamut, but there will need to be other information alongside to indicate artefacts that cannot be accurately represented in 24-bits alone.

Another aspect (as touched on in the Eizo page linked below) - what happens if a display renders "green" at a wavelength that is not the agreed upon wavelength? This cannot be accurately represented with 24-bit color.

This is also emphasised by the fact that many consumer displays (e.g: smart phones) produce massively over-saturated images, along with the incoming trend for consumer displays to support HDR, with 10-bit or 12-bit color.

There are a large number of things that will make simply displaying "test patches" awkward and likely invalid.

These devices (and their accompanying software) will provide you with information on the display's ability to render a gamut - for example a coverage of 97% of sRGB is quite reasonable for modern consumer displays, with high end displays targeted at professional use (aka "wide gamut") achieving good coverage of Adobe RGB.

Gamut Plots

Without meaning to be rude, I'd suggest you read up on the topic before turning your hand to writing reviews - Eizo have a decent write up: The Ability to Display Color Correctly Is Vital: Understanding the Color Gamut of an LCD Monitor

With ΔE* you should understand that the complexities of human color vision also play their role... for example we are far more sensitive to some wavelengths (green) than others (blue / red), and this must be accounted for in the model.

Human Color Sensitivity

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  • "you're not going to be getting "hex codes" back" -- Not an accurate statement. I've used colorimeter software that provided the RGB measurement as a hexadecimal triplet.
    – sawdust
    Apr 12, 2019 at 1:41
  • Ok, thank you for your effort! About the color patches: in photography, you have such test charts with certain color patches for quality checking - therefore my thought was to do the same on a screen (). But it's seems to be way more complex than that
    – Game Unity
    Apr 12, 2019 at 8:24
  • @sawdust - thanks, I've expanded on what I meant somewhat... I hope that resolves it, if not please let me know.
    – Attie
    Apr 12, 2019 at 11:22

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