How do I change the colour/gamma/contrast? / The colours look so washed out!

[OneWayGamer]

Hey guys! OneWay here
Please note that I'm pretty new to linux mint
So I installed Linux Mint today
For some reason the colours look super washed out and it looks bad
Compared to Windows atleast. On windows I use the graphic driver settings to change the colour/gamma/contrast
How do I change these on Linux mint?
The colour calibration doesn't work

Any help would be awesome!

[Schultz]

A good place to start is to enter inxi -Fxzd in a terminal window, press enter, and paste back the results here (in code tags please to keep it neat and easy to read). The long-timers here on the forum will need this info to see if the Mint version you're using, as well as which DE you chose, is a good match for your hardware. The kernel version might also come into play with this issue. All this info should be provided initially to get good responses.

One question I have is did the colors looked washed out when running Mint from a live disc/USB drive, before you installed it?

[OneWayGamer]

A good place to start is to enter inxi -Fxzd in a terminal window, press enter, and paste back the results here (in code tags please to keep it neat and easy to read). The long-timers here on the forum will need this info to see if the Mint version you're using, as well as which DE you chose, is a good match for your hardware. The kernel version might also come into play with this issue. All this info should be provided initially to get good responses.

One question I have is did the colors looked washed out when running Mint from a live disc/USB drive, before you installed it?

I am using linux mint 18.3 cinnamon edition
Is there any way to change the Colour and contrast?
That would fix my problem

[all41]

Hello OneWayGamer,
Does your monitor's osd menu not offer these adjustments?

[trytip]

A good place to start is to enter inxi -Fxzd in a terminal window, press enter, and paste back the results here (in code tags please to keep it neat and easy to read).

[OneWayGamer]

Hey guys,
I'm fairly new to linux mint. I've been using it for about a month
Recently I noticed that the images and videos look super washed out compared to windows...
On Windows I usually use my graphic driver settings to change the colour/gamma/contrast to make the images and videos more appealing and colurful
Unfortunately right now when I view an image or video it just looks bad which is a big problem for me as I watch a lot of YouTube videos and do photoshops.
So if there's any way to change those setting it would be super helpful for me

However if there's no way then I'll have to use other operating system because the washed out colour is making my work harder as the colour is less accurate

Any kind of help would be awesome!

Some extra informations:
I am running Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon edition on a pretty old laptop with Intel i3 2nd gen with 4gb of ram and 500GB HDD

[Moem]

Menu => preference => color
Check out the options given as color profiles for your laptop/screen. Choose a different one and see if it helps; if not, let us know and we can go from there. We would probably need to know actual brand and model of your laptop. It would be smart to post the results from inxi -Fxzd like people have been asking; please help us help you!

Mod note:
I've merged your threads because they are about the same problem, please do not double post. We will be happy to move a topic to a different section for you, all you have to do is ask.

[dacut]

I'm having this same issue after upgrading to Tara (19) Cinnamon. No amount of fiddling with the color profiles seems to help. The boot logo looks fine (vivid green on black); it's when Xorg starts that this happens, and it's present on the lightdm login screen as well. This is an Intel HD 5500-based system, so nVidia driver issues aren't in play.

Code: Select all

% sudo inxi -Fxzd
System:    Host: nuc-1 Kernel: 4.15.0-20-generic x86_64 bits: 64 gcc: 7.3.0
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.8.8 (Gtk 3.22.30-1ubuntu1) Distro: Linux Mint 19 Tara
Machine:   Device: desktop Mobo: Intel model: NUC5i5MYBE v: H47797-202 serial: <filter>
           UEFI: Intel v: MYBDWi5v.86A.0038.2017.0726.1622 date: 07/26/2017
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i5-5300U (-MT-MCP-) arch: Broadwell rev.4 cache: 3072 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 9178
           clock speeds: max: 2900 MHz 1: 1484 MHz 2: 1446 MHz 3: 1488 MHz 4: 1501 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel HD Graphics 5500 bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.19.6 driver: intel Resolution: 3840x2160
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 5500 (Broadwell GT2)
           version: 4.5 Mesa 18.0.5 Direct Render: Yes
Audio:     Card-1 Intel Wildcat Point-LP High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Card-2 Intel Broadwell-U Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:03.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.15.0-20-generic
Network:   Card: Intel Ethernet Connection (3) I218-LM driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k port: 3080 bus-ID: 00:19.0
           IF: enp0s25 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 256.1GB (48.0% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: M4 size: 256.1GB temp: 0C
           Optical: No optical drives detected.
Partition: ID-1: / size: 100G used: 9.5G (10%) fs: xfs dev: /dev/dm-0
           ID-2: /boot size: 473M used: 141M (32%) fs: ext2 dev: /dev/sda2
           ID-3: /home size: 123G used: 91G (75%) fs: xfs dev: /dev/dm-2
           ID-4: swap-1 size: 16.03GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/dm-1
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 73.0C mobo: 27.8C
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 221 Uptime: 9 min Memory: 1338.9/14966.2MB Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 7.3.0
           Client: Shell (sudo) inxi: 2.3.56 

[dacut]

Ok, figured out where this went awry. This might help others.

Modern Xorg installs don't use /etc/X11/xorg.conf, but I had to stick one in there (way back on 18.0) because my monitor's EDID information wasn't interpreted correctly (it's a HiDPI Dell P2415Q). During the upgrade process, something decided to "helpfully" include DisplaySize 530 300 and Gamma 2.20 directives and rewrite my modelines. The DisplaySize is roughly correct and innocuous and the Modeline name changes are annoying but (again) innocuous, but the Gamma is either wrong or is interfering with the other color corrections applied.

Commenting out the added Gamma directive solves this issue. In case anyone else is curious, here's my /etc/X11/xorg.conf:

Code: Select all

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "Dell P2415Q"
    DisplaySize 530 300
    # Gamma 2.20
    Option "DPMS" "true"
    Option "UseEDID" "false"
    Option "UseEDIDFreqs" "false"
    Option "IgnoreEDID" "true"
    Horizsync 30-140
    VertRefresh 29-76
    Modeline "Mode 22" 297.00 3840 4016 4104 4400 2160 2168 2178 2250 +hsync +vsync 
    Modeline "Mode 20" 148.50 1920 2008 2052 2200 1080 1082 1087 1125 +hsync +vsync 
    Modeline "Mode 0" 262.75 3840 3888 3920 4000 2160 2163 2168 2191 +hsync -vsync 
    Modeline "Mode 1" 148.500 1920 2008 2052 2200 1080 1084 1089 1125 +hsync +vsync
    Modeline "Mode 2" 74.250 1920 2008 2052 2200 1080 1082 1087 1125 +hsync +vsync interlace
    Modeline "Mode 3" 74.250 1280 1390 1420 1650 720 725 730 750 +hsync +vsync
    Modeline "Mode 4" 27.027 720 736 798 858 480 489 495 525 -hsync -vsync
    Modeline "Mode 5" 27.027 1440 1478 1602 1716 480 484 487 525 -hsync -vsync interlace
    Modeline "Mode 6" 27.000 1440 1464 1590 1728 576 578 581 625 -hsync -vsync interlace
    Modeline "Mode 7" 25.200 640 656 752 800 480 490 492 525 -hsync -vsync
    Modeline "Mode 8" 74.250 1920 2448 2492 2640 1080 1082 1089 1125 +hsync +vsync interlace
    Modeline "Mode 9" 148.500 1920 2448 2492 2640 1080 1084 1089 1125 +hsync +vsync
    Modeline "Mode 10" 27.000 720 732 796 864 576 581 586 625 -hsync -vsync
    Modeline "Mode 11" 74.250 1280 1720 1760 1980 720 725 730 750 +hsync +vsync
    Modeline "Mode 12" 72.000 1920 1952 2120 2304 1080 1103 1108 1250 +hsync +vsync interlace
    Modeline "Mode 13" 74.250 1920 2558 2602 2750 1080 1084 1089 1125 +hsync +vsync
    Modeline "Mode 14" 74.250 1920 2448 2492 2640 1080 1084 1089 1125 +hsync +vsync
    Modeline "Mode 15" 74.250 1920 2008 2052 2200 1080 1084 1089 1125 +hsync +vsync
    Modeline "Mode 16" 27.027 720 736 798 858 480 489 495 525 -hsync -vsync
    Modeline "Mode 17" 27.027 1440 1478 1602 1716 480 484 487 525 -hsync -vsync interlace
    Modeline "Mode 18" 27.000 720 732 796 864 576 581 586 625 -hsync -vsync
    Modeline "Mode 19" 27.000 1440 1464 1590 1728 576 578 581 625 -hsync -vsync interlace
    Modeline "Mode 21" 74.25 1920 2008 2052 2200 540 542 547 562 +hsync +vsync interlace
    Modeline "Mode 23" 241.50 2560 2608 2640 2720 1440 1443 1448 1481 +hsync -vsync 
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "NUC"
    Driver "intel"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device "NUC"
    Monitor "Dell P2415Q"
    DefaultDepth 24
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth 24
        Modes "Mode 22"
    EndSubSection
EndSection