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Gamma correction, or often simply gamma, is a nonlinear operation used to encode and decode luminance or tristimulus values in video or still image systems.[1] Gamma correction is, in the simplest cases, defined by the following power-law expression:

${\displaystyle V_{\text{out}}=AV_{\text{in}}^{\gamma },}$

where the non-negative real input value ${\displaystyle V_{\text{in}}}$ is raised to the power ${\displaystyle \gamma }$ and multiplied by the constant A to get the output value ${\displaystyle V_{\text{out}}}$. In the common case of A = 1, inputs and outputs are typically in the range 0–1.

A gamma value ${\displaystyle \gamma <1}$ is sometimes called an encoding gamma, and the process of encoding with this compressive power-law nonlinearity is called gamma compression; conversely a gamma value ${\displaystyle \gamma >1}$ is called a decoding gamma, and the application of the expansive power-law nonlinearity is called gamma expansion.

This procedure is useful for making a monitor display images approximately correctly, on systems in which profiles are not used (for example, the Firefox browser prior to version 3.0 and many others) or in systems that assume untagged source images are in the sRGB colorspace.

In the test pattern, the intensity of each solid color bar is intended to be the average of the intensities in the surrounding striped dither; therefore, ideally, the solid areas and the dithers should appear equally bright in a system properly adjusted to the indicated gamma.

Normally a graphics card has contrast and brightness control and a transmissive LCD monitor has contrast, brightness, and backlight control. Graphics card and monitor contrast and brightness have an influence on effective gamma, and should not be changed after gamma correction is completed.

The top two bars of the test image help to set correct contrast and brightness values. There are eight three digits numbers in each bar. A good monitor with proper calibration shows the six numbers on the right in both bars, a cheap monitor shows only four numbers.

Given a desired display-system gamma, if the observer sees the same brightness in the checkered part and in the homogeneous part of every colored area, then the gamma correction is approximately correct.[15][16][17] In many cases the gamma correction values for th

In a typical system, for example from camera through JPEG file to display, the role of gamma correction will involve several cooperating parts. The camera encodes its rendered image into the JPEG file using one of the standard gamma values such as 2.2, for storage and transmission. The display computer may use a color management engine to convert to a different color space (such as older Macintosh's γ = 1.8 color space) before putting pixel values into its video memory. The monitor may do its own gamma correction to match the CRT gamma to that used by the video system. Coordinating the components via standard interfaces with default standard gamma values makes it possible to get such system properly configured.

This procedure is useful for making a monitor display images approximately correctly, on systems in which profiles are not used (for example, the Firefox browser prior to version 3.0 and many others) or in systems that assume untagged source images are in the sRGB colorspace.

In the test pattern, the intensity of each solid color bar is intended to be the average of the intensities in the surrounding striped dither; therefore, ideally, the solid areas and the dithers should appear equally bright in a system properly adjusted to the indicated gamma.

Normally a graphics card has contrast and brightness control and a transmissive LCD monitor has contrast, brightness, and backlight control. Graphics card and monitor contrast and brightness have an influence on effective gamma, and should not be changed after gamma correction is completed.

The top two bars of the test image help to set correct contrast and brigh

In the test pattern, the intensity of each solid color bar is intended to be the average of the intensities in the surrounding striped dither; therefore, ideally, the solid areas and the dithers should appear equally bright in a system properly adjusted to the indicated gamma.

Normally a graphics card has contrast and brightness control and a transmissive LCD monitor has contrast, brightness, and backlight control. Graphics card and monitor contrast and brightness have an influence on effective gamma, and should not be changed after gamma correction is completed.

The top two bars of the test image help to set correct contrast and brightness values. There are eight three digits numbers in each bar. A good monitor with proper calibration shows the six numbers on the right in both bars, a cheap monitor shows only four numbers.

Given a desired display-system gamma, if the observer sees the same brightness in the checkered part and in the homogeneous part of every colored area, then the gamma correction is approximately correct.[15][16][17] In many cases the gamma correction values for the primary colors are slightly different.

Setting the color temperature or white point is the next step in monitor adjustment.

Before gamma correction the desired gamma and color temperature should be set using the monitor controls. Using the controls for gamma, contrast and brightness, the gamma correction on a LCD can only be done for one specific vertical viewing angle, which implies one specific horizontal line on the monitor, at one specific brightness and contrast level. An ICC profile allows to adjust the monitor for several brightness levels. The quality (and price) of the monitor determines how much deviation of this operating point still gives a satisfactory gamma correction. Twisted nematic (TN) displays with 6-bit color depth per primary color have lowest quality. In-plane switching (IPS) displays with typically 8-bit color depth are better. Good monitors have 10-bit color depth, have hardware color management and allow hardware calibration with a tristimulus colorimeter. Often a 6bit plus FRC panel is sold as 8bit and a 8bit plus FRC panel is sold as 10bit. FRC is no true replacement for more bits. The 24-bit and 32-bit color depth formats have 8 bits per primary color.

With Microsoft Windows 7 and above the user can set the gamma correction through the display color calibration tool dccw.exe or other programs.[18][19][20] These programs create an ICC profile file and load it as default. This makes color management easy.[21] Increase the gamma slider in the dccw program until the last colored area, often the green color, has the same brightness in checkered and homogeneous area. Use the color balance or individual colors gamma correction sliders in the gamma correction programs to adjust the two other colors. Some old graphics card drivers do not load the color Look Up Table correctly after waking up from standby or hibernate mode and show wrong gamma. In this case update the graphics card driver.

On some operating systems running the X Window System, one can set the gamma correction factor (applied to the existing gamma value) by issuing the command xgamma -gamma 0.9 for setting gamma correction factor to 0.9, and xgamma for querying current value of that factor (the default is 1.0). In macOS systems, the gamma and other related screen calibrations are made through the System Preferences.

The test image is only valid when displayed "raw", i.e. without scaling (1:1 pixel to screen) and color adjustment, on the screen. It does, however, also serve to point out another widespread problem in software: many programs perform scaling in a color space with gamma, instead of a physically-correct linear space. In a sRGB color space with an approximate gamma of 2.2, the image should show a "2.2" result at 50% size, if the zooming is done linearly. Jonas Berlin has created a "your scaling software sucks/rules" image based on the same principle.[22]

In addition to scaling, the problem also applies to other forms of downsampling (scaling down), such as chroma subsampling in JPEG's gamma-enabled In addition to scaling, the problem also applies to other forms of downsampling (scaling down), such as chroma subsampling in JPEG's gamma-enabled Y′CbCr.[23] WebP solves this problem by calculating the chroma averages in linear space then converting back to a gamma-enabled space; an iterative solution is used for larger images. The same "sharp YUV" (formerly "smart YUV") code is used in sjpeg. Kornelski provides a simpler approximation by luma-based weighted average.[24] Alpha compositing, color gradients, and 3D rendering are also affected by this issue.[25][26]

Paradoxically, when upsampling (scaling up) an image, the result processed in the "wrong" gamma-enabled space tends to be more aesthetically pleasing. This is because upscaling filters are tuned to minimize the ringing artifacts in a linear space, but human perception is non-linear and better approximated by gamma. An alternative way to trim the artifacts is using a sigmoidal light transfer function, a technique pioneered by GIMP's LoHalo filter and later adopted by madVR.[27]

The term intensity refers strictly to the amount of light that is emitted per unit of time and per unit of surface, in units of lux. Note, however, that in many fields of science this quantity is called luminous exitance, as opposed to luminous intensity, which is a different quantity. These distinctions, however, are largely irrelevant to gamma compression, which is applicable to any sort of normalized linear intensity-like scale.

"Luminance" can mean several things even within the context of video and imaging:

• luminance is the photometric brightness of an object (in units of cd/m²), taking into account the wavelength-dependent

"Luminance" can mean several things even within the context of video and imaging:

One contrasts relative luminance in the sense of color (no gamma compression) with luma in the sense of video (with gamma compression), and denote relative luminance by Y and luma by Y′, the prime symbol (′) denoting gamma compression.[28] Note that luma is not directly calculated from luminance, it is the (somewhat arbitrary) weighted sum of gamma compressed RGB components.[1]

Likewise, brightness is sometimes applied to various measures, including light levels, though it more properly applies to a subjective visual attribute.

Gamma correction is a type of power law function whose exponent is the Greek letter gamma (γ). It should not be confused with the mathematical Gamma function. The lower case gamma, γ, is a parameter of

Likewise, brightness is sometimes applied to various measures, including light levels, though it more properly applies to a subjective visual attribute.

Gamma correction is a type of power law function whose exponent is the Greek letter gamma (γ). It should not be confused with the mathematical Gamma function. The lower case gamma, γ, is a parameter of the former; the upper case letter, Γ, is the name of (and symbol used for) the latter (as in Γ(x)). To use the word "function" in conjunction with gamma correction, one may avoid confusion by saying "generalized power law function".

Without context, a value labeled gamma might be either the encoding or the decoding value. Caution must be taken to correctly interpret the value as that to be applied-to-compensate or to be compensated-by-applying its inverse. In common parlance, in many occasions the decoding value (as 2.2) is employed as if it were the encoding value, instead of its inverse (1/2.2 in this case), which is the real value that must be applied to encode gamma.