23
submitted 3 days ago by podbrushkin@mander.xyz to c/linux@lemmy.ml

Ubuntu, Gnome, Wayland, nVidia, Intel integrated graphics.

I have a wide-gamut OLED screen. When regular sRGB is mapped to it, it leads to oversaturation. I can use color profiles in color managed applications to get accurate colors, but it's not system-wide and it have no effect on most of the apps. On Windows 11, I was able to change hue/saturation both in Intel Command Center and in ASUS preinstalled bloatware. On Linux, I've spent a lot of time, built below markdown file and I still have no suitable saturation control. Did I miss something?

If you're using KDE and you have a swappedRedAndGreen.icc color profile preinstalled in your color management settings, can you enable it to check if it affects whole system or only color managed applications (like some of image viewers)? If you have SDR Color Intensity in your KDE Display settings and it works, can you check if CTM is supported by your system (xrandr --properties | grep ctm)?

Gnome Extensions

There are some saturation extensions which work nice for X11 but bad for Wayland+fractional scaling, they degrade performance in any case: https://extensions.gnome.org/ https://github.com/zb3/gnome-saturation-extension

nVidia Settings

In some systems nVidia control panel has color settings:

nvidia-settings

Should look like this: https://askubuntu.com/a/664299 but no such option for me. Maybe switching between Open/Proprietary nvidia drivers will enable color settings? When I switch Primary GPU from Intel to nVidia and reboot, new props appear, but no color props. ctm doesn't appear in xrandr either. xrandr display id changes to eDP-1-1. Performance and heat issues appear. Mouse lags a little bit.

xrandr and xcalib

X11 only.

# You can make white less white, but can't change black in xrandr with gamma/brightness props:
xrandr --output eDP-1 --gamma ('{0}:{0}:{0}' -f 1.9) --brightness 0.5

# This one changes black point!
xcalib -brightness 10 -alter 

xcalib defaults: gamma=1.0 brightness=0.0 and contrast=100.0.

To reset xcalib use one of these:

  • Restart PC;
  • Alt+F2 -> xcalib -clear -> Enter;
  • Ctrl+Alt+Delete and wait for 60s or press Right, Enter

xrandr BroadcastRGB

# Check Broadcast RGB available values (default: Automatic):
xrandr --props | sls 'Broadcast RGB' -Context 0,1 | select -f 1
#>       Broadcast RGB: Limited 16:235
#                supported: Automatic, Full, Limited 16:235

# Change to Limited:
xrandr --output eDP-1 --set "Broadcast RGB" "Limited 16:235"
# Black is now less black, white is less white, screen is softer.
# Will reset to default after reboot.

libvibrant

X11 only https://github.com/libvibrant/libvibrant https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/730078

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/libvibrant/libvibrant.git
# sudo apt install cmake
# sudo apt install libx11-dev libxrandr-dev libxext-dev libxi-dev
# sudo apt install nvidia-settings libxnvctrl-dev
cmake ..
& ./build/cli/vibrant-cli --version

# FAIL
# CTM should be supported by driver/display for libvibrant to work:
# xrandr --properties | sls ctm

For non-laptop screens there are ddcutil and ddccontrol. They should work as if you're changing your settings using physical buttons on your display.

KDE has saturation settings? https://zamundaaa.github.io/wayland/2023/12/18/update-on-hdr-and-colormanagement-in-plasma.html "SDR Color Intensity" option. Maybe it relies on CTM?

KDE can affect whole screen appearance with regular ICC profiles without VCGT tag?

top 18 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] Digit@lemmy.wtf 1 points 1 hour ago

Not quite the same, but redshift's interesting.

[-] Zamundaaa@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 day ago

Sounds like you want color management, not just arbitrary saturation changes.

Install KDE Plasma, select the "built-in" color profile, and you're done, no more oversaturated colors. If you want to test how it looks, just use a live boot.

[-] podbrushkin@mander.xyz 1 points 20 hours ago

I've spent a lot of time on color profiles and I didn't include section about them because I came to conclusion it's not possible to affect fullscreen saturation with them. Are you sure you can affect saturation system-wide with color profiles? Because in Gnome it's not possible. I actually asked it in my post originally but no one commented on this matter yet.

[-] oeuf@slrpnk.net 5 points 3 days ago

I would suggest also posting this on discuss.pixls.us - there are some very knowledgeable people there.

[-] podbrushkin@mander.xyz 1 points 2 days ago

I was able to access this forum but I doubt it is related to my question. nvidia-settings was last mentioned in September 2024. 17 mentions of xrandr overall.

[-] oeuf@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 days ago

I would try posting the question. If there's a community anywhere that can help or point you in the right direction it's pixls. There are linux graphics app developers on the forum.

[-] podbrushkin@mander.xyz 1 points 3 days ago

Can't access this url, it never stops loading. Maybe I will try Tor later.

[-] oeuf@slrpnk.net 2 points 3 days ago

Yeah or change VPN location. It's a fairly standard forum site.

[-] just_another_person@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Why wouldn't you just change the settings on your monitor? Seems much easier.

[-] swelter_spark@reddthat.com 1 points 1 day ago

Also, if you use multiple DEs, color settings may look very different even with the same monitor settings unless you make changes via software.

[-] podbrushkin@mander.xyz 7 points 3 days ago

My laptop screen doesn't have physical buttons and ddcutil and ddccontrol don't work either.

[-] just_another_person@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Good point!

[-] boomzilla@programming.dev 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Those color settings in nvidia-settings are only available on X11 which is basically the only reason (apart from the long postponed switch to an AMD GPU) I haven't switched to Wayland. Though desktop effects in KDE are more fluid under Wayland and frametimes in games maybe a bit better I just can't live with the washed out colors when gaming.

[-] podbrushkin@mander.xyz 1 points 3 days ago

In X11 there is no Color tab for me either.

[-] airbornestar@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 hours ago

Perhaps the required KCM (KDE configuration module) for that is not installed in your system. That did happen to me in my minimal Debian setup.

I don't really remember the name of the package, though. I think it was kscreen, but I might be wrong.

[-] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)
[-] podbrushkin@mander.xyz 2 points 3 days ago

wlr-randr doesn't work: compositor doesn't support wlr-output-management-unstable-v1. Probably wrandr (it's not even in apt repo) will not work either, also gamma is about contrast, not saturation.

[-] CaptainBasculin@lemmy.bascul.in 1 points 3 days ago

Need this a lot for sway, it's the reason I stick with i3wm instead of sway on my laptop.

this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2025
23 points (100.0% liked)

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