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CG Artist2020-10-14 09:37:37
Monitors
CG Artist, 2020-10-14 09:37:37

Monitor 8 bit with 3D LUT or 8 bit with FRC - which is better for design and graphics?

Greetings!

Which is better: 8 bit with 3D LUT or 8 bit with FRC?
Is the difference in color reproduction between IPS and AH-IPS matrices very critical, if compared with each other?

I'm choosing a monitor and I still can't figure out which monitor configuration will display colors better:
AH-IPS monitor , 8 bit with 3D LUT . • IPS
monitor , 8 bit with FRC . Please take a look at the specifications in comparison – which monitor is better for design and graphics work? Help, please, to understand. Thanks to!


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CG Artist, 2020-10-14
@Sannyasin

So far I have not found information on comparing an 8-bit monitor with a 3D LUT or an 8-bit monitor with FRC.
But, I figured out a little that there is a LUT and that a 14-bit LUT in the monitor itself and a 10-bit input are not a luxury, but a necessity.
If accurate work with color is critical for a designer, then you should choose a monitor with 3D LUT support on a 10-bit matrix.

Speaking of tuning, it is worth mentioning the existence of software and hardware calibration tools. Color shifts, brightness changes and other deviations are inevitable phenomena during operation. This affects the color reproduction, and hence the result. It is recommended to calibrate at least once a year, but many professional content creators calibrate monthly.
To perform debugging, you need a colorimeter or spectrophotometer, as well as appropriate software. After the procedure is completed, the new values ​​are written to the LUT tables and used in the future to decode the original signal. Tables may be 1D 1D LUTs, but advanced hardware uses 3D 3D LUTs. The values ​​are stored in the graphics adapter or the monitor itself. Of course, it is desirable for a professional designer to have a monitor with rewritable 3D LUTs, which ensures identical image reproduction when using different devices.
Almost all top models use a 14-bit LUT (or higher) and 3D LUT, which provides smoother transitions. In addition, the bit depth of the internal LUT is higher than the bit depth of the video card.
As a rule, calibration equipment is purchased separately, but some manufacturers may include the necessary hardware and software with the monitor itself. Such a system, for example, is able to perform debugging automatically during off-hours.
LUT ("Look Up Table", "3D LUT", "Lookup Table", "Color conversion table", "Lookup table", "LUT correction")
is a color correction tool that allows you to convert color signal values ​​transmitted as digital code into displayed colors. Digital monitors use two types of LUTs: 1D LUTs (one-dimensional) and 3D (three-dimensional) - the difference lies in the way the correct color value is found.
You can learn more about LUT in the video: https://youtu.be/yZQkE4BrPSc
8-bit 1D LUT
The 1D LUT uses unique shades of red, green, and blue to determine individual color matching on a one-dimensional scale. This works great for everyday monitor use, but professional color professionals or those who work with modern video editing software require the most accurate color display that 3D LUTs can provide.
Imagine that each color has three variables (RGB) that determine its value at the output. For example, if the input value is 100, then the variables could be R=88, G=26, and B=10 to reproduce that original color.
Traditionally, 8-bit or 10-bit LUTs are also used, which use 16.77 million or 1.07 billion colors, respectively, to reproduce color.
The color potential is very high, but all 1D LUTs use a linear process with more error and less tonal range than 3D LUTs. Also, with 8 bits per input RGB color signal, expressive multi-gradation is not possible because it only uses a scale of 256 colors. Using the alternative 10-bit result is closer to the original, but because Windows has moved away from 8-bit only with recent updates, this may still be lacking for color professionals. With a recent Windows update, users can use higher-bit LUTs to take full advantage of the color processor's capabilities for both 1D LUTs and 3D LUTs.
14-bit LUT (4.39 billion color palette)
The advantage of using more bits (14-bit table) is more accurate hue transitions and wider available color palette. Thus, it is desirable to use a LUT with a higher bit count, because as the number of colors increases, smoother color transitions are created, especially in dark gradients. The use of LUTs with a large number of bits provides ideal color management, relevant for programs that require highly accurate color processing. More bits also produce more accurate gamma transitions, resulting in smoother grayscale representation. This RGB color mixing helps users accurately match desired colors while reducing the chance of error and faithfully reproducing the original color.
Thanks to the state-of-the-art 12-bit color processing engine (as used, for example, in ViewSonic monitors), color monitors provide even more efficient results by using a wider color gamut - even if the input signal from the computer has fewer bits, color reproduction remains high due to using more bits and an extended LUT. In addition, by using an advanced 12-bit color engine and scaler, color accuracy is increased and delta E is reduced, allowing for more efficient color manipulation and surprisingly accurate color reproduction.
3D LUTs
When a color is rendered in a linear fashion, errors are likely to occur when trying to find the correct hue value for each color. It is much better to use 3D LUTs, which use a 3D color space to create color, as this gives a more accurate result and reduces the chance of calibration errors. 3D LUTs help you create more dramatic color gradations and express non-linear values ​​that exist in real life. They display a wider color gamut and saturation, providing accurate hue matching for superior color reproduction, especially when the user is editing images or adjusting color depth, hue, and brightness. It is more efficient to convert from one color space to another. With this transformation, 3D LUTs provide a more accurate result by reducing the loss of color information from the original color gamut. The non-linear nature of the 3D LUT improves intermediate color gradation, resulting in more accurate greyscale.

Adobe RGB is considered a standard in printing, due to the fact that the coordinates of the primary colors for are chosen in such a way as to exactly overlap swopCMYK - the color gamut standard for 4-ink printing. In the blue area, sRGB has very big problems. Even a cheap home inkjet printer produces richer blues than an expensive sRGB-only designer monitor.
The white point in Adobe RGB is not D65 but D50 as corresponding to white on high quality paper. Which can cause a lot of trouble even in amateur print because of the principle of its work. This is a substance that converts the ultraviolet part of the spectrum to blue, which makes yellowish bond paper appear bright and white, and prints on such paper change colors greatly depending on the light source.
An image destined for sRGB with color management turned off on such a monitor will be noticeably different from the original color, due to the fact that the green component is not only further from the white point, but also slightly shifted away from the white point / white point line. green."
Such a space is not suitable for content consumption, the colors are not only more saturated, but also change shades, which is most noticeable on faces, to the color of which the eye is more sensitive. For the same reason, for non-print content creators, this space will cause more problems than benefits - almost no one will see the image in its original form.
To use such a monitor properly, it will require a colorimeter-spectrophotometer to accurately calibrate both the monitor itself and the printer, D50 and D65 light sources to control prints, a windowless room painted with gray paint. And all this in order to exclude the influence of external lighting on the perception of color. Otherwise, it will just be a monitor with rich greens and blues.
Due to too wide coverage, the effect of posterization can be observed on 8-bit panels, and calibration through the LUT of a video card into more “narrow” spaces only enhances this effect. Therefore, in such monitors, a 14-bit LUT in the monitor itself and a 10-bit input are not a luxury, but a necessity.
But all these tricks are not enough when it comes to multi-color printers. Even a typical consumer 6-color printer can go beyond the capabilities of entry-level professional monitors, so going beyond the standard monitor coverage is highly desirable.

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