Radeon Settings Color Temperature vs ICM Profile

[Componentgirl90]

I see there is a colour temperature slider in Radeon Settings. If I slide this, will it affect the ICM profile for my monitor? (I don't really know what colour temp is tbh)

 

[Solandri]

There is no such thing as "white" light. Your brain looks at the color of everything around, takes an average, and decides that that is white. So sunlight (color temp about 6500 K) looks white during daytime when everything is sunlit. But if you use a 6500 K light bulb at night, it looks blue because most artificial lights are around 2500-3500 K (orange-red). Most of the things your brain is seeing are lit by orange-red light, so your brain decides that orange-red light is white. Then when it sees the 6500 K light, it sees that as blue.

A color profile (ICM profile) is different. The monitor's representation of different brightness colors does not fall on a line (I'm simplifying - the actual brightness scale is logarithmic.) A medium red might be too bright, while high red might be too dim. A color profile tweaks the brightnesses your video card sends the monitor so that these brightnesses are the correct amount.

That said, a color profile is usually created for a specific color temperature (balance of red, blue, green brightness). If you've created an ICM profile for the purpose of doing graphics work, then that profile is only good for that one color temperature. Changing the color temperature with the Radeon settings will mean the ICM profile is no longer valid. It may still be fine for non-accurate work like watching a movie. But if you dislike the color temp of the original ICM profile, you really should create a new one at a different color temp using a colorimeter, instead of tweaking an existing one with the Radeon color temp setting.

Speaking professionally, most CCFL and LED backlights have a color temperature around 7000-7500 K. People are used to this, so the first time they see a monitor which is calibrated for 6500K (sunlight) or 5500K (daylight = sunlight + blue sky), it looks too orange/brown to them.