# Color, gamut and HDR > A monitor can show many colors and still show the wrong ones. Color quality rests on two distinct notions, the range of colors a screen can produce and the accuracy with which it places each of them. Source: https://monitorselector.com/us/color-gamut-hdr/ (Monitor Selector, 2026-11-14) ## In short - Gamut is the range of colors a screen can show; accuracy (Delta E) is whether it shows the right one. A wide gamut without color management makes everything oversaturated. - sRGB for the web and office work, DCI-P3 for video and current photography, Adobe RGB for print. - A Delta E under 2 is invisible to most eyes. Demand a factory calibration report for color work. - DisplayHDR 400 is not real HDR. Look for DisplayHDR 1000 with local dimming, or True Black on OLED. ## Gamut: the range of displayable colors A screen makes all its colors by mixing three primaries, a red, a green and a blue. On the chromaticity diagram, which maps every color the eye can see, the three primaries form a triangle: the screen can display the colors inside it, and none outside. This triangle is its **gamut**. ***Fig. 1.** Color spaces on the CIE 1931 chromaticity diagram. Each triangle holds the colors a screen covering that space can show.* Standards define reference triangles, the **color spaces**, so that an image means the same colors everywhere. - **sRGB**, defined in 1996, is the space of the web, of office software and of most games and consumer photographs. Any image without other indication is assumed to be sRGB. - **DCI-P3** comes from digital cinema. It extends sRGB toward more saturated reds and greens, about a quarter more surface. Under the name Display P3 it is the space of recent phones, of Apple devices and of HDR video. - **Adobe RGB**, 1998, extends sRGB toward greens and cyans to cover the colors of four-color process printing. It is the space of photographers who print. - **Rec. 2020** is the container of ultra-high-definition video. No monitor covers it entirely; it is a target rather than a specification. Specification sheets give the share of a space the screen can show, “99% sRGB,” “95% DCI-P3.” Read **coverage**, not “volume” or “relative area”: a screen can claim “125% sRGB” because its triangle is larger overall while missing part of sRGB itself. ## The wide-gamut trap A color value has no meaning by itself. “Red 255” means “the most saturated red of the space this image was made for.” Sent unchanged to a wide-gamut screen, it becomes that screen’s most saturated red, far more vivid than intended. Skin tones turn orange, logos glow, every photograph looks retouched by a heavy hand. **Color management** prevents this: the system knows the profile of the screen and converts each image from its space to that of the panel. macOS does it for the whole display. Windows does it only in applications that take charge of it (photo and video software, most browsers); the desktop, many games and much software send their values straight to the panel. Two conclusions. For office work, the web and games, a screen limited to sRGB, or a wide-gamut screen with a proper **sRGB mode** that restrains its primaries, shows correct colors without any setting. And a wide gamut is an advantage only if your work uses it: P3 video, photographs developed for print or for recent phones. ## Accuracy: Delta E Delta E (ΔE) measures the distance between the color requested and the color displayed, in a space built so that equal distances correspond to equal perceived differences. The current formula is ΔE 2000. - ΔE below 1: imperceptible, even side by side. - ΔE between 1 and 2: perceptible by a trained eye in direct comparison. - ΔE between 2 and 4: visible at a glance on side-by-side patches. - ΔE above 5: a different color. Manufacturers announce an average “ΔE < 2”; the maximum matters just as much. Serious color monitors ship with an individual calibration report measured on the unit in the box. That sheet of paper is worth more than any figure on the product page. Accuracy has two other conditions. The **white point** should be D65, a daylight white of 6500 K, and the **tone curve** a gamma of 2.2 (or the sRGB curve): they determine the neutrality of grays and the contrast of mid-tones. And **uniformity** matters: a panel that is accurate at its center and 10% darker or pinker in a corner is useless for retouching. Monitors intended for color work include a uniformity compensation. ## Bit depth With 8 bits per primary a screen distinguishes 256 levels of red, green and blue: 16.7 million colors. With 10 bits, 1024 levels: 1.07 billion. The difference is not seen in ordinary images but in gradients, a sky or a soft shadow, where 8 bits can produce visible steps (banding), especially in HDR, whose wider brightness range stretches each step. Many “10-bit” panels are 8-bit panels with temporal dithering (8 bit + FRC): they alternate two neighboring levels rapidly to simulate the intermediate one. The result is close to true 10 bits and perfectly suitable outside the most demanding grading work. ## Calibration All screens drift: backlights yellow, organic diodes age. **Calibrating** means measuring the screen with a colorimeter placed on the panel, adjusting it toward a target (white point, gamma, brightness), then recording what remains of its behavior in a profile that color-managed software uses. On ordinary monitors the correction is applied by the graphics card, which sacrifices some levels. Monitors with **hardware calibration** store it in their own electronics, in a table of 14 or 16 bits: no level is lost and the correction follows the screen from one computer to another. A colorimeter costs the price of a good keyboard. It is indispensable for prints and paid color work, superfluous for office use: a recent IPS monitor in its sRGB mode is accurate enough out of the box for everything else. ## HDR: brightness and contrast, not color High dynamic range (HDR) content encodes highlights far brighter than paper white and details in deep shadows. Displaying it properly requires a screen capable of both very bright and very dark, **simultaneously and side by side**: a peak of 600 to 1000 nits or more, and blacks that stay black next to it. The VESA DisplayHDR certification grades monitors by the number that follows its name, their peak brightness in nits. - **DisplayHDR 400** requires 400 nits and no local dimming. Such a screen accepts an HDR signal and displays it with the contrast of an ordinary LCD: the picture is often worse than in standard mode. It is not HDR in any useful sense. - **DisplayHDR 600** requires some form of dimming, generally a few vertical strips. The effect is perceptible, with visible halos. - **DisplayHDR 1000 and 1400** require a dense local dimming, in practice a Mini-LED backlight. This is where HDR becomes convincing on LCD. - **DisplayHDR True Black 400 to 600** is the scale for OLED: moderate peaks but perfect blacks, pixel by pixel. In a dim room the result surpasses LCDs with much higher figures. HDR formats come on top: HDR10 is universal, Dolby Vision and HDR10+ adjust the rendering scene by scene, HLG serves broadcasting. For games and films, HDR on a capable screen is spectacular. For desk work it brings nothing, and Windows desktop in HDR mode often looks washed out: leave it off outside the content made for it. ## What to look for, by use - **Office, web, code:** 99% sRGB coverage, nothing more. A wide gamut is useless without an sRGB mode. - **Photography for the screen, design:** 99% sRGB and 95% DCI-P3, average ΔE under 2, calibration report, uniformity compensation. - **Photography for print:** 99% Adobe RGB, hardware calibration, a hood if the room is bright. - **Video:** 98% DCI-P3, 10 bits; for HDR grading, Mini-LED DisplayHDR 1000 or OLED. - **Games:** sRGB accuracy with an sRGB mode; for HDR, OLED or Mini-LED with at least a thousand zones. Color also depends on the panel that produces it: see [panel types](https://monitorselector.com/us/ips-va-oled-panel-types/) for the contrast and viewing angles of each technology. ## Frequently asked questions ### Do I need a wide-gamut monitor? Only if your work uses colors beyond sRGB: P3 video, photographs for print or for recent phones. For office work, the web and most games, a wide gamut shows oversaturated colors unless the monitor has an sRGB mode or the software manages color. ### Is DisplayHDR 400 worth having? No. It guarantees 400 nits without local dimming, so the screen cannot show bright highlights next to deep blacks, which is the whole point of HDR. Convincing HDR starts at DisplayHDR 1000 on Mini-LED, or True Black on OLED. ### What Delta E is good for photo editing? An average Delta E 2000 under 2, with a maximum under 4, measured on your unit and documented by a calibration report. Below 1 on average, differences are imperceptible.