Best Monitors for Color Grading – Ultimate Buying Guide
Finding the best monitor for color grading might seem daunting at first, but we’ve made it much easier with this user-friendly buying guide. Every graphic designer, photographer, videographer, and other visual artists understand the importance and impact of color. You can add or remove specific colors to create the desired effect, atmosphere, or emotion. Advertisers and movie directors definitely comprehend it to the highest degree. So to implement the right colors, you need the right tools. Specifically, you need a monitor that is geared for color grading. With that in mind, we’ve provided more info regarding color grading and product reviews below.
- Best Monitors for Color Grading – Ultimate Buying Guide
- Best Monitor for Color Grading 2023 – Quick List
- Best Monitor for Color Grading 2023 – Reviews
- 1. Philips 276E9QDSB – Best Overall
- 2. Philips 226E9QDSB – Best 22 inch
- 3. ASUS ProArt PA248QV – Best 24 inch
- 4. ViewSonic VP2768-4K – Best 27 inch
- 5. Philips 288E2E – Best 28 inch
- 6. VIOTEK GNV30CBXA – Best 30 inch
- 7. AOC CU32V3 – Best 32 inch
- 8. LG 34WN80C-B – Best 34 inch
- 9. Sceptre C355B-QUN168 – Best 35 inch
- 10. LG 49WL95C-WE – Best 49 inch
- What is Color Grading?
Best Monitor for Color Grading 2023 – Quick List
- Philips 276E9QDSB – Best Overall
- Philips 226E9QDSB – Best 22 inch
- ASUS ProArt PA248QV – Best 24 inch
- ViewSonic VP2768-4K – Best 27 inch
- Philips 288E2E – Best 28 inch
- VIOTEK GNV30CBXA – Best 30 inch
- AOC CU32V3 – Best 32 inch
- LG 34WN80C-B – Best 34 inch
- Sceptre C355B-QUN168 – Best 35 inch
- LG 49WL95C-WE – Best 49 inch
Best Monitor for Color Grading 2023 – Reviews
1. Philips 276E9QDSB – Best Overall
Philips monitors are phenomenal for accurate color reproduction, while still being amazingly affordable. The Philips 276E9QDSB has an ample screen that provides 124% sRGB and 93% NTSC color gamut coverage. With those color specs, you can be extremely confident that you can adjust the color grading with high fidelity. The Philips 276E9QDSB is literally comparable to monitors costing in the thousands. Unbelievably, this is lowest priced monitor from this list.
2. Philips 226E9QDSB – Best 22 inch
The Philips 226E9QDSB may look the same as our Best Overall pick, but it’s actually a smaller “cousin” with a 22 inch screen, compared to 27 inches for the 276E9QDSB. The 22 inch display actually provides a higher color gamut coverage of 129% sRGB and 108% NTSC. It’s one of the best in the industry, and most affordable. If you’re looking for a compact 22 inch monitor, that is incredible for color grading, look no further.
3. ASUS ProArt PA248QV – Best 24 inch
The ASUS ProArt monitor lives up to its name by providing you everything it can to facilitate with color grading within a 24 inch “frame”. It’s Calman Verified and delivers 100% sRGB/Rec.709 ΔE < 2. Combine the color accuracy with a high resolution, highly adjustable, IPS display panel, and you will be color grading like a pro from every angle. Incredibly, you can currently get it all for around 250 dollars.
4. ViewSonic VP2768-4K – Best 27 inch
The ViewSonic VP2768-4K is for the professional that appreciates every aesthetic and technical detail. It delivers the professional standards for color grading in 4K resolution, and then some. It’s color calibrated for sRGB (100%), EBU, SMPTE-C, Rec. 709, and DICOM-SIM color spaces. The 14-bit LUT & 3D LUT (Look-Up Tables) generate an amazing amount of 4.39 trillion colors. It even features versatile color adjustability, with 6-axis color enhancement, so that you can individually adjust red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and magenta to exactly how you want it.
5. Philips 288E2E – Best 28 inch
The Philips 288E2E is yet another Philips that has made our list, which is a strong testament to their increased focus on color grading. It’s similar in size to our Best Overall choice, but the Philips 288E2E has an increased resolution of 3840×2160, making it a 4K monitor. Combine the UHD display that delivers 1.07 billion colors, with 120% sRGB and 107% NTSC, and you have a strong contender for one of the best color grading monitors available.
6. VIOTEK GNV30CBXA – Best 30 inch
Perhaps you want a computer monitor that is great for grading, but you’re also a pretty serious gamer… we’ve got you covered. Many creative types are avid gamers, we totally get it, and the VIOTEK GNV30CBXA can give you the best of both worlds. The VIOTEK GNV30CBXA covers 112% of sRGB and 85% of NTSC to make sure all your color corrections and modifications are “spot on”. On the gaming side, there’s a 200Hz refresh rate, FreeSync & GSYNC compatibility, and a curved, ultrawide, VA panel. What more could you want?
7. AOC CU32V3 – Best 32 inch
Bigger is often better, and the AOC CU32V3 will not disappoint if you’re looking for what is considered the largest of “standard” size monitors, which is currently 32 inches. The AOC CU32V3 is definitely made for color grading in mind with: 121% of sRGB, 99% NTSC, 90% Adobe RGB, and 90% DCI-P3. The curved, 4K, VA panel is highly viewable from just about every angle. It’s perfect for color grading professionals that are looking for high value and affordability.
8. LG 34WN80C-B – Best 34 inch
The LG 34WN80C-B is a color grading & productivity pro’s dream come true. It has a 99% sRGB coverage, and HDR10 compatibility which of course is great for color grading. The LG 34WN80C-B really begins to stand out, when you consider it as an essential piece of a productivity hub. There’s a plethora of connectivity ports including: 1x USB-C, 2x USB 3.0, 1x DisplayPort, 2x HDMI, and a headphone jack. Combine that with a 34 inch, curved, ultrawide, WQHD display, and you’re in business.
9. Sceptre C355B-QUN168 – Best 35 inch
The Sceptre C355B-QUN168 is another fantastic combination of color grading and gaming features. There is HDR400 and 99% sRGB for color grading, and a 120Hz refresh rate and built-in speakers for gaming. There’s plenty of connectivity options too, including: 2x HDMI, 2x Displayport, and a 3.5mm headphone port. The Sceptre C355B-QUN168 is actually quite affordably priced, so you could create the ultimate battlestation/workstation with multiple monitors side by side.
10. LG 49WL95C-WE – Best 49 inch
If you literally want of the largest displays possible for color grading, you should take a serious look at the 49 inch LG 49WL95C-WE. It comes with HDR10 and covers 99% of the sRGB color gamut, so you’re plenty good for the color grading space. What really is amazing, is that whatever you want to work on, stream, or play, will be greatly enhanced by the 49 inch screen. Just imagine yourself using it. You don’t even need multiple monitors to multi-task because of the sheer size of the LG 49WL95C-WE.
What is Color Grading?
Color grading is the process of improving the appearance of an image for presentation in different environments on different devices. Various attributes of an image such as contrast, color, saturation, detail, black level, and white point may be enhanced whether for motion pictures, videos, or still images. Color grading and color correction are often used synonymously as terms for this process and can include the generation of artistic color effects through creative blending and compositing of different images. Color grading is generally now performed in a digital process either in a controlled environment with programs such as Adobe Photoshop, or in any location where a computer can be used in dim lighting.
Primary & Secondary Color Grading
Primary color grading affects the whole image by providing control over the color density curves of red, green, blue color channels, across the entire frame. Secondary correction can isolate a range of hue, saturation and brightness values to bring about alterations in hue, saturation and luminance only in that range, allowing the grading of secondary colors, while having a minimal or usually no effect on the remainder of the color spectrum.
Using digital grading, objects and color ranges within a scene can be isolated with precision and adjusted. Color tints can be manipulated and visual treatments pushed to extremes not physically possible with laboratory processing. With these advancements, the color correction process has become increasingly similar to well-established digital painting techniques, ushering forth a new era of digital cinematography.
Masks & Mattes
The evolution of digital color grading tools has advanced to the point where the colorist can use geometric shapes (such as mattes or masks in photo software such as Adobe Photoshop,) to isolate color adjustments to specific areas of an image. These tools can highlight a wall in the background and color only that wall, leaving the rest of the frame alone, or color everything but that wall. Subsequent color correctors (typically software-based) have the ability to use spline-based shapes for even greater control over isolating color adjustments. Color keying is also used for isolating areas to adjust.
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Color grading is the process of improving the appearance of an image for presentation in different environments on different devices. Various attributes of an image such as contrast, color, saturation, detail, black level, and white point may be enhanced whether for motion pictures, videos, or still images.
color grading monitor
Color grading and color correction are often used synonymously as terms for this process and can include the generation of artistic color effects through creative blending and compositing of different images.
color grading monitor
Color grading is generally now performed in a digital process either in a controlled environment such as a color suite, or in any location where a computer can be used in dim lighting.
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The earlier photochemical film process, referred to as color timing, was performed at a film lab during printing by varying the intensity and color of light used to expose the rephotographed image.
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Since, with this process alone, the user was unable to immediately view the outcome of their changes, the use of a Hazeltine color analyzer was common for viewing these modifications in real time.
Color timing
Color timing is used in reproducing film elements. “Color grading” was originally a lab term for the process of changing color appearance in film reproduction when going to the answer print or release print in the film reproduction chain. By the late 2010s, this film grading technique had become known as color timing and still involved changing the duration of exposure through different filters during the film development process. Color timing is specified in printer points which represent presets in a lab contact printer where 7-12 printer points represent one stop of light. The number of points per stop varied based upon negative or print stock and different presets at Film Labs.
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In a film production, the creative team would meet with the “Lab Timer” who would watch a running film and make notes dependent upon the team’s directions. After the session, the Timer would return to the Lab, and put the film negative on a device (the Hazeltine) which had preview filters with a controlled backlight, and pick exact settings of each printer point for each scene. These settings were then punched onto a paper tape and fed to the high-speed printer where the negative was exposed through a backlight to a print stock. Filter settings were changed on the fly to match the printer lights that were on the paper tape. For complex work such as visual effects shots, “wedges” running through combinations of filters were sometimes processed to aid the choice of the correct grading.
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This process is used wherever Film materials are being reproduced.
Telecine
With the advent of television, broadcasters quickly realised the limitations of live television broadcasts and they turned to broadcasting feature films from release prints directly from a telecine. This was before 1956 when Ampex introduced the first Quadruplex videotape recorder (VTR) VRX-1000. Live television shows could also be recorded to film and aired at different times in different time zones by filming a video monitor. The heart of this system was the kinescope, a device for recording a television broadcast to film.[1]
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The early telecine hardware was the “film chain” for broadcasting from film and utilized a film projector connected to a video camera. As explained by Jay Holben in American Cinematographer Magazine, “The telecine didn’t truly become a viable post-production tool until it was given the ability to perform colour correction on a video signal.”[2]
How telecine coloring works
In a Cathode-ray tube (CRT) system, an electron beam is projected at a phosphor-coated envelope, producing a spot of light the size of a single pixel. This beam is then scanned across a film frame from left to right, capturing the “vertical” frame information. Horizontal scanning of the frame is then accomplished as the film moves past the CRT’s beam. Once this photon beam passes through the film frame, it encounters a series of dichroic mirrors which separate the image into its primary red, green and blue components. From there, each individual beam is reflected onto a photomultiplier tube (PMT) where the photons are converted into an electronic signal to be recorded to tape.
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In a charge-coupled device (CCD) telecine, a white light is shone through the exposed film image onto a prism, which separates the image into the three primary colors, red, green and blue. Each beam of colored light is then projected at a different CCD, one for each color. The CCD converts the light into an electronic signal, and the telecine electronics modulate these into a video signal that can then be color graded.
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Early color correction on Rank Cintel MkIII CRT telecine systems was accomplished by varying the primary gain voltages on each of the three photomultiplier tubes to vary the output of red, green and blue.
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Further advancements converted much of the color-processing equipment from analog to digital and then, with the next-generation telecine, the Ursa, the coloring process was completely digital in the 4:2:2 color space. The Ursa Gold brought about color grading in the full 4:4:4 color space.[2]
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Color correction control systems started with the Rank Cintel TOPSY (Telecine Operations Programming SYstem) in 1978.[1] In 1984 Da Vinci Systems introduced their first color corrector, a computer-controlled interface that would manipulate the color voltages on the Rank Cintel MkIII systems. Since then, technology has improved to give extraordinary power to the digital colorist.
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Today there are many companies making color correction control interfaces including Da Vinci Systems, Pandora International, Pogle and more.
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Some telecines are still in operation in 2018.
Color correction
Some of the main artistic functions of color correction (digital color grading):[1]
- Reproduce accurately what was shot
- Compensate for variations in the material (i.e., film errors, white balance, varying lighting conditions)
- Compensate for the intended viewing environment (dark, dim, bright surrounds)
- Optimize base appearance for inclusion of special visual effects
- Establish a desired artistic ‘look’
- Enhance and/or alter the mood of a scene — the visual equivalent to the musical accompaniment of a film; compare also film tinting
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Note that some of these functions must be prioritized over others; for example, color grading may be done to ensure that the recorded colors match those of the original scene, whereas other times, the goal may instead be to establish a very artificial stylized look.
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Traditionally, color grading was done towards practical goals. For example, in the film Marianne, grading was used so that night scenes could be filmed more cheaply in daylight. Secondary color correction was originally used to establish color continuity, however the trend today is increasingly moving towards creative goals, such as improving the aesthetics of an image, establishing stylized looks, and setting the mood of a scene through color. Due to this trend, some colorists suggest the phrase “color enhancement” over “color correction”.
Primary and secondary color grading
Primary color grading affects the whole image by providing control over the color density curves of red, green, blue color channels, across the entire frame. Secondary correction can isolate a range of hue, saturation and brightness values to bring about alterations in hue, saturation and luminance only in that range, allowing the grading of secondary colors, while having a minimal or usually no effect on the remainder of the color spectrum.[1]
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Using digital grading, objects and color ranges within a scene can be isolated with precision and adjusted. Color tints can be manipulated and visual treatments pushed to extremes not physically possible with laboratory processing. With these advancements, the color correction process has become increasingly similar to well-established digital painting techniques, ushering forth a new era of digital cinematography.
Masks, mattes, power windows
The evolution of digital color grading tools has advanced to the point where the colorist can use geometric shapes (such as mattes or masks in photo software such as Adobe Photoshop) to isolate color adjustments to specific areas of an image.
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These tools can highlight a wall in the background and color only that wall, leaving the rest of the frame alone, or color everything but that wall. Subsequent color correctors (typically software-based) have the ability to use spline-based shapes for even greater control over isolating color adjustments. Color keying is also used for isolating areas to adjust.
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Inside and outside of area-based isolations, digital filtration can be applied to soften, sharpen or mimic the effects of traditional glass photographic filters in nearly infinite degrees.
Motion tracking
When trying to isolate a color adjustment on a moving subject, the colorist traditionally would have needed to manually move a mask to follow the subject. In its most simple form, motion tracking software automates this time-consuming process using algorithms to evaluate the motion of a group of pixels.
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These techniques are generally derived from match moving techniques used in special effects and compositing work.
Digital intermediate
The evolution of the telecine device into film scanning allowed the digital information scanned from a film negative to be of sufficient resolution to transfer back to film. In the early 1990s, Kodak developed the Cineon Film System to capture, manipulate, and record back to film and they called this the “Digital Intermediate”.
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This term stuck. The first Digital Intermediate of any form was the Cinesite restoration of “Snow White and The Seven Dwarves” in 1993. [Previously in 1990 for “Rescuers Down Under”, the Disney CAPS system had been used to scan artwork, color and composite it, and then record it to film, but this was also intermixed with a traditional lab development process over a length of time]
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In the late 1990s, the films Pleasantville and O Brother, Where Art Thou? advanced the technology to the point that the creation of a digital intermediate was practical, which greatly expanded the capabilities of the digital telecine colorist in a traditionally film-oriented world. After 2010, almost all feature films go through the DI process, while manipulation through photochemical processing is rare or used on archival films.
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In Hollywood, O Brother, Where Art Thou? was the first film to be wholly digitally graded. The negative was scanned with a Spirit DataCine at 2K resolution, then colors were digitally fine-tuned using a Pandora MegaDef color corrector on a Virtual DataCine. The process took several weeks, and the resulting digital master was output to film again with a Kodak laser recorder to create a master internegative.
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Modern motion picture processing typically uses both digital cameras and digital projectors and calibrated devices are essential to predict whether the appropriate colors are appearing.
Hardware-based versus software-based systems
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Color grading with Scratch
In early use, hardware-based systems (da Vinci 2K, Pandora International MegaDEF, etc.) have historically offered better performance but a smaller feature set than software-based systems. Their real time performance was optimised to particular resolution and bit depths, as opposed to software platforms using standard computer industry hardware that often trade speed for resolution independence, e.g. Apple’s Color (previously Silicon Color Final Touch), ASSIMILATE SCRATCH, Adobe SpeedGrade and SGO Mistika. While hardware-based systems always offer real-time performance, some software-based systems need to pre-render as the complexity of the color grading increases. On the other hand, software-based systems tend to have more features such as spline-based windows/masks and advanced motion tracking.
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The line between hardware and software no longer exists as many software-based color correctors (e.g. Pablo , Mistika, SCRATCH, Autodesk Lustre, Nucoda Film Master and FilmLight‘s Baselight) use multi processor workstations and a GPU (graphics processing unit) as a means of hardware acceleration. As well, some newer software-based systems use a cluster of multiple parallel GPUs on the one computer system to improve performance at the very high resolutions required for feature film grading. e.g. Blackmagic Design‘s DaVinci Resolve. Some color grading software like Synthetic Aperture’s Color Finesse runs solely as software and will even run on low-end computer systems. High-speed RAID arrays are an essential part of the process for all systems.
Hardware
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Hardware systems are no longer common because of the price/performance of software systems. The control panels are placed in a color suite for the colorist to operate the telecine remotely.
- Many[citation needed] telecines were controlled by a Da Vinci Systems color corrector 2k or 2k Plus.
- Other hardware systems are controlled by Pandora Int.’s Pogle, often with either a MegaDEF, Pixi, or Revolution color grading system.
- For some real-time systems used in “linear” editing, color grading systems required an edit controller. The edit controller controls the telecine and a VTR(s) or other recording/playback devices to ensure frame accurate film frame editing. There are a number of systems which can be used for edit control. Some color grading products such as Pandora Int.’s Pogle have a built-in edit controller. Otherwise, a separate device such as Da Vinci Systems‘ TLC edit controller would be used.
- Older systems are: Renaissance, Classic analog, Da Vinci Systems‘s: The Whiz (1982) and 888; The Corporate Communications’s System 60XL (1982–1989) and Copernicus-Sunburst; Bosch Fernseh‘s FRP-60 (1983–1989); Dubner (1978–1985?), Cintel‘s TOPSY (1978), Amigo (1983), and ARCAS (1992) systems. All of these older systems work only with standard-definition 525 and 625 video signals, and are considered near obsolete today.