Looking for an app to edit ICC profiles

[sebalvarez]

I can't believe that having searched for this several times in the past few months never gave me what I need, since it seems to be a simple thing. I just want an app to edit ICC color profiles, the ones that get saved when you connect a new monitor, or you use that lame "Display Calibrator Assistant" which allows you to select only the color temperature and nothing else (I think it used to be more complete in previous versions of macOS).

The thing is, I don't want to spend $300 on one of those SpiderX something calibrating devices. I have two identical Samsung monitors that suck on many aspects but still have a great picture quality and colors I like and seem real enough for me. But I also have a Dell monitor that was a hand me down and works well as a 3rd monitor. But the colors are drastically different from the two Samsungs. Everything looks greenish, which you can tell especially in the reds, and the monitor only has 5 adjustments when it comes to picture, red, green, blue, brightness and contrast. Bringing down the green level fixes the reds, but then messes up something else. I tried and I tried, and gave up. Separate RGB levels only go so far.

Please understand, I don't want absolute perfection, perfect color accuracy. I just want a program that will allow me more control in adjusting that ICC profile that was generated by the calibrator, or even one of the several that were generated for this monitor, I have no idea why. The Colorsync app in the Utilities folder shows the profiles and certain parameters, but doesn't provide a way to edit them as far as I can tell.

One result I found online about editing ICC profiles said that these .icc files were basically text files, but that doesn't seem to be the case, since I opened one in TextEdit and it gave me this mess:

|applmntrRGB XYZ Ë0acspAPPLAPPLˆ÷”-appldescPqdscmƒHcprt#wtpt0rXYZDgXYZXbXYZlrTRCÄaarg å vcgt ¨0ndin ‹>mmod(vcgpD8bTRCÄgTRCÄaabg å aagg å descDELL P2715Q CalibratedmlucenUS,DELL P2715Q CalibratedtextCopyright Apple Inc., 2024XYZ Û!9ÂXYZ j5„XYZ fπõ5XYZ &Huπcurv #(-26;@EJOTY^chmrw|ÅÜãêïöü£®≠≤∑º¡∆À–’€‡ÂÎˆ˚ %+28>ELRY`gnu|Éãíö°©±π¡…—Ÿ·ÈÚ˙&/8AKT]gqzÑéò¢¨∂¡À’‡Îı!-8COZfr~äñ¢Æ∫«”‡Ï˘ -;HUcq~åö®∂ƒ”·˛ +:IXgwÜñ¶µ≈’ˆ'7HYj{åùØ¿—„ı+=OatÜô¨ø“¯2FZnÇñ™æ“Á˚ % : O d y è § ∫ œ  ˚ ' = T j Å ò Æ ≈ ‹ Û "9QiÄò∞»·˘*C\uéß¿ŸÛ & @ Z t é © √ fi ¯.Idõ∂“Ó %A^zñ≥œÏ &Ca~õπ◊ı1Omå™…Ë&EdÑ£√„#Ccɧ≈Â'Ijã≠Œ4VxõΩ‡&Ilè≤÷˙AeâÆ“˜@eäØ’˙ Ekë∑›*Qwû≈Ï;cä≤⁄*R{£ÃıGpô√Ï@jîæÈ>iîøÍ A l ò ƒ !!H!u!°!Œ!˚"'"U"Ç"Ø"›# #8#f#î#¬#$$M$|$´$⁄% %8%h%ó%«%˜&'&W&á&∑&Ë''I'z'´'‹( (?(q(¢(‘))8)k)ù)–**5*h*õ*œ++6+i+ù+—,,9,n,¢,◊--A-v-´-·..L.Ç.∑.Ó/$/Z/ë/«/˛050l0§0€11J1Ç1∫1Ú2*2c2õ2‘3 3F33∏3Ò4+4e4û4ÿ55M5á5¬5˝676r6Æ6È7$7`7ú7◊88P8å8»99B99º9˘:6:t:≤:Ô;-;k;™;Ë<'<e<§<„="=a=°=‡> >`>†>‡?!?a?¢?‚@#@d@¶@ÁA)AjA¨AÓB0BrBµB˜C:C}C¿DDGDäDŒEEUEöEfiF"FgF´FG5G{G¿HHKHëH◊IIcI©IJ7J}JƒKKSKöK‚L*LrL∫MMJMìM‹N%NnN∑OOIOìO›P'PqPªQQPQõQÊR1R|R«SS_S™SˆTBTèT€U(UuU¬VV\V©V˜WDWíW‡X/X}XÀYYiY∏ZZVZ¶Zı[E[ï[Â\5\Ü\÷]']x]…^^l^Ω__a_≥``W`™`¸aOa¢aıbIbúbcCcócÎd@dîdÈe=eíeÁf=fífËg=gìgÈh?hñhÏiCiöiÒjHjüj˜kOkßkˇlWlØmm`mπnnknƒooxo—p+pÜp‡q:qïqrKr¶ss]s∏ttptÃu(uÖu·v>võv¯wVw≥xxnxÃy*yâyÁzFz•{{c{¬|!|Å|·}A}°~~b~¬#ÑÂÄGĮŠÅkÅÕÇ0ÇíÇÙÉWÉ∫ÑÑÄÑ„ÖGÖ´ÜÜrÜ◊á;áüààiàŒâ3âôâ˛ädä ã0ãñã¸åcå ç1çòçˇéféŒè6èûêênê÷ë?ë®íízí„ìMì∂î îäîÙï_ï…ñ4ñüó óuó‡òLò∏ô$ôêô¸öhö’õBõØúúâú˜ùdù“û@ûÆüüãü˙†i†ÿ°G°∂¢&¢ñ££v£Ê§V§«•8•©¶¶ã¶˝ßn߇®R®ƒ©7©©™™è´´u´È¨\¨–≠D≠∏Æ-Æ°ØØã∞∞u∞ͱ`±÷≤K≤¬≥8≥Æ¥%¥úµµä∂∂y∂∑h∑‡∏Y∏—πJπ¬∫;∫µª.ªßº!ºõΩΩèæ æÑæˇøzøı¿p¿Ï¡g¡„¬_¬€√X√‘ƒQƒŒ≈K≈»∆F∆√«A«ø»=»º…:…π 8 ∑À6À∂Ã5õÕ5ÕµŒ6Œ∂œ7œ∏–9–∫—<—æ“?“¡”D”∆‘I‘À’N’—÷U÷ÿ◊\◊‡ÿdÿËŸlŸÒ⁄v⁄˚€Ä‹‹ä››ñfifi¢fl)fl؇6‡Ω·D·Ã‚S‚€„c„Ήs‰¸ÂÑÊ ÊñÁÁ©Ë2˺ÈFÈ–Í[ÍÂÎpÎ˚ÏÜÌÌúÓ(Ó¥Ô@ÔÃXÂÒrÒˇÚåÛÛßÙ4Ù¬ıPıfiˆmˆ˚˜ä¯¯®˘8˘«˙W˙Á˚w¸¸ò˝)˝∫˛K˛‹ˇmˇˇparaffÚß Y– [vcgt3‰≈3Ôú3ndin6£¿TÄL¿ôÄ&Ä@P@T@ˆˆˆmmod¨@Œ296L—ËTvcgpffffffˆˆˆ

Since that result was like 14 years old, that makes sense.

So I just want to find an app or way to open and edit this profile. Please don't tell me that I'm not going to get color accuracy unless I buy a color calibration device, because I already know that. Not everybody can just spend $200 or $300 on one of those things. I don't want that kind of perfection, I just want "close enough".

 

[gilby101]

Have you tried creating a new colour profile (rather than changing an existing one) using the Display Calibrator Assistant? See: https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/mac-help/mchlp1109/14.0/mac/14.0

 

[leifp]

Since that result was like 14 years old, that makes sense.

Are you saying the ICC profile is aged 14 years or that one (or all three?) of your monitors are 14 (+?) years old?

 

[chrfr]

So I just want to find an app or way to open and edit this profile. Please don't tell me that I'm not going to get color accuracy unless I buy a color calibration device, because I already know that. Not everybody can just spend $200 or $300 on one of those things. I don't want that kind of perfection, I just want "close enough".

Even with a calibration device, color profile editing for displays is ill-advised. It’s very easy to get the profile in a state where it doesn’t reflect the reality of the display and could end up giving you worse results than having no profile at all. I second the suggestion of trying Apple’s built-in profiler. Otherwise take a look at this page: https://www.color.org/profilingtools.xalter

 

[sebalvarez]

Have you tried creating a new colour profile (rather than changing an existing one) using the Display Calibrator Assistant? See: https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/mac-help/mchlp1109/14.0/mac/14.0

That’s exactly what I said in my first paragraph, that the macOS calibrator assistant is lame and useless because it only allows you to set color temperature and no other settings.

 

[sebalvarez]

Are you saying the ICC profile is aged 14 years or that one (or all three?) of your monitors are 14 (+?) years old?

The Google result was 14 years old.

 

[sebalvarez]

Even with a calibration device, color profile editing for displays is ill-advised. It’s very easy to get the profile in a state where it doesn’t reflect the reality of the display and could end up giving you worse results than having no profile at all. I second the suggestion of trying Apple’s built-in profiler. Otherwise take a look at this page: https://www.color.org/profilingtools.xalter

Is it going to make my monitor explode? Then what's the harm? Right now they look way different. If I can get the Dell to look a little bit different, but not as much, I consider that success.

 

[chrfr]

That’s exactly what I said in my first paragraph, that the macOS calibrator assistant is lame and useless because it only allows you to set color temperature and no other settings.

If you're in macOS Sonoma you can get the expert mode option for calibration by holding the option key and clicking the plus sign in the list of profiles, and this will give you the more advanced settings for using the built in calibrator.

 

[chrfr]

Is it going to make my monitor explode? Then what's the harm? Right now they look way different. If I can get the Dell to look a little bit different, but not as much, I consider that success.

If you don't care about trying to get reasonable color output, like when printing or sharing photos, then there won't be any harm.

 

[leifp]

Try to calibrate the Dell to work well for your wants, without the Samsungs hooked up. Then add them and calibrate them to match the Dell.

 

[sebalvarez]

If you're in macOS Sonoma you can get the expert mode option for calibration by holding the option key and clicking the plus sign in the list of profiles, and this will give you the more advanced settings for using the built in calibrator.

Thanks for the tip! That's actually the calibrator that was accessible to everyone without knowing that you had to press Alt. I'll tinker with it.

 

[sebalvarez]

Try to calibrate the Dell to work well for your wants, without the Samsungs hooked up. Then add them and calibrate them to match the Dell.

Why would I do that? I have two identical Samsungs and one Dell. The Samsungs look better, therefore, I want to make the Dell look as close as possible to the Samsungs, not the other way around.