Wide Colour Gamut On LCD Monitors

In our previous article we said that when it comes to image quality, colour gamut is an important factor, however it alone does not determine image quality. 

When looking at a monitor with a wide colour gamut it's important to find out if the monitor has a color-gamut conversion function.

This function controls  the LCD monitor's color gamut based on the target color gamut, such as Adobe RGB or sRGB. What this means is even an LCD monitor with a wide colour gamut and high Adobe RGB coverage can be switched to sRGB mode so that the colours displayed on screen fall within the sRGB colour gamut. A monitor which has compatibility with both Adobe RGB and sRGB color gamuts is essential for applications demanding accurate colour generation such as when retouching images as well as other design work.

For purposes requiring accurate colour generation, an LCD colour monitor that has a wide colour gamut but lacks any colour gamut conversion function can actually be a disadvantage in some cases. Why? Well the colours generated are often too vivid for displaying images in the sRGB color gamut. In other words, the sRGB colour gamut cannot be reproduced accurately. 
 

Shown above is an sRGB colour gamut photograph displayed on an sRGB-compatible LCD monitor (photo at left) and on an LCD monitor which has a wide colour gamut, is incompatible with sRGB and has no colour gamut conversion function (photo at right).

While the photograph on the right appears vivid, saturation is unnaturally high in parts of the photo. We also see a significant departure from the colours envisioned by the photographer, as well as so-called memory colours.

The difference are easier to see in the animation to the right which flicks between the two shots. 

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