Possible to increase saturation of built-in Mac display?

[miretogo]

Is there a simple way to increase the saturation of a Mac's built-in display?

Under System Preferences -> Displays I can unselect "Show profiles for this display only" (on my 2017 iMac using Mojave) and then select one of the other display profiles, some of which seem to offer significantly more saturation then the iMac's default profile. But this is an indirect way and thus doesn't allow for direct control.

When I click on "Calibrate...", I can adjust the native white point, but nothing more. I also searched for third-party tools without result. I tried DisplayCAL but it seems that one needs a colorimeter to do created a custom colour profile with the app.

Any ideas?

 

[appltech]

Is there a simple way to increase the saturation of a Mac's built-in display?

Under System Preferences -> Displays I can unselect "Show profiles for this display only" (on my 2017 iMac using Mojave) and then select one of the other display profiles, some of which seem to offer significantly more saturation then the iMac's default profile. But this is an indirect way and thus doesn't allow for direct control.

When I click on "Calibrate...", I can adjust the native white point, but nothing more. I also searched for third-party tools without result. I tried DisplayCAL but it seems that one needs a colorimeter to do created a custom colour profile with the app.

Any ideas?

I think you described the only way to regulate saturation on Mac without third-party apps. Just to be clear - you go to System Preferences → Accessibility → Display → Open Display Preferences → Color. You didn’t like any of the pre-installed display profiles, did you?
In older versions of MacOS you could calibrate saturation in the Expert mode of the “Calibrate” function, but apparently it’s not available in newer OS X.
My only suggestion in this case would be to use a third-party app called SuperCal (not trying to advertise anything) - I’ve found it exceptionally good at correcting LCDs and CRT displays. Normally to calibrate on Mac you’d have to get special hardware (e.g. X-Rite, Colorton) that is often quite pricey (up to $1000). SuperCal’s license is just $19.
I know it’s not much but I hope this helps!

 

[miretogo]

Thanks, appltech. However, your tipps don't help me, unfortunately.

Some of the pre-installed offer more saturation and are a little better for my purpose than the default profile but I'd really like to be able to control saturation (and ideally also contrast and brightness) with a slider like I can on Windows (using the graphics card software).

The options under System Preferences → Accessibility → Display → Open Display Preferences → Color don't change saturation.

Finally, I don't see how SuperCal allows me to change saturation. If I am overlooking anything then please tell me.

 

[miretogo]

In the meantime, I discovered the app Gamma Control which offers sliders but not for saturation, brightness, etc. but for black point luminance, gray balance and white point balance. Using the sliders, it doesn't seem possible to get the result I want.

Moreover, I read that holding the Option key while clicking on System Preferences → Displays → Color → Calibrate unhides expert options. However, using the additional options, I still can't get the colours I want.

 

[luislodosm]

Did you find any solution to change screen saturation in macOS?

 

[miretogo]

No, unfortunately not.

 

[luislodosm]

A note. Using Windows with Bootcamp I have found that it is possible to correct clipping on the iMac and external displays with the AMD graphics card control panel.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Have you tried this?

a. open the display preference pane
b. click "color"
c. hold down the option key and click calibrate (invokes "expert" mode)
d. click "continue" and start "clicking through" the procedure
e. at some point, could be the gamma screen, etc., you can play with the settings to manually "force" a greater screen saturation which you might prefer.
f. when done, save the custom profile you've just created with a recognizable name.
(it might take more than one try to get this as you like)

My sister's old (2010) white MacBook had a display that was looking "washed out" with the default color profile. By doing what I describe above, I was able to invoke a screen "saturation" that was more pleasurable to view (even if it was NOT technically "correct" from a color-calibration standpoint)...