Why ColourSpace is the Professional Choice for Display Calibration and Colour Management

Display calibration and colour management are essential processes for anyone working in film, TV, broadcast, post-production, AV installation, virtual production, photography, design, gaming, home cinema, as well as medical, scientific and industrial display applications.

Accurate calibration ensures the colours and contrast of a display are correct, consistent, and appropriate for the intended viewing environment and content.

Not all calibration software is created equal. Alternatives such as Portrait Displays' Calman, DisplayCal, Argyll, HCFR and Calibrite Profiler vary considerably in accuracy, 3D LUT capability, workflow flexibility, hardware integration and total cost of ownership. ColourSpace was designed from the outset as a professional colour management system, and remains substantially more capable than any alternative in each of those areas.

ColourSpace Options

Accuracy and Consistency

ColourSpace is the most accurate professional display calibration system available, used by leading broadcasters, post-production facilities and reference monitor manufacturers worldwide.

The defining principle, in place since ColourSpace's predecessor LightSpace CMS, is accuracy of the actual displayed image across the entire colour volume — not just accuracy of the measurement report. It is entirely possible to produce excellent dE numbers, flat grey-scale graphs and a report full of green ticks while the real picture still shows banding, colour errors between the measured points, or artefacts on real moving content. There is no point having good-looking numbers and graphs if the pictures look wrong. Every ColourSpace design decision serves getting the picture right:

  • True volumetric profiling: ColourSpace profiles each display once, builds a true volumetric model, and derives the calibration LUT from that model. The same profile can generate LUTs for any target colour space or gamma without re-measuring — saving time and avoiding the drift introduced by repeated measurement.
  • Body-Centred Cube (BCC) patch arrangement: A more efficient and accurate patch distribution than the fixed grid used by alternative systems, with independent grey-axis patch counts. A 14 BCC volumetric profile (~4,941 patches) can pair with any number of grey-axis patches as required, letting the calibrator allocate measurement effort to where the specific display needs it.
  • Single integrated engine: ColourSpace uses one advanced volumetric colour engine across the whole colour volume, rather than separating grey scale from volumetric colour to mask engine limitations — so there are no hidden errors in the dimensions a user is less likely to inspect by eye.
  • Single-pass profiling: ColourSpace does not require iterative re-measurement of patches with guess-and-check adjustments between each, an approach used by some legacy systems that produces no re-usable model afterwards and amplifies the effect of display drift.
  • Composable workflow tools: Hint, Drift, Augment, Pre-Roll, Stabilisation, Active LUT, Reduced-Gamut and Focused Patch Sets can be combined as needed for the specific display, without baking workflow choices into the calibration process.
  • Verification: ColourSpace directly verifies display performance against any target colour space or bit depth, including post-calibration verification of the active LUT itself, enabling rapid isolation of any error in the calibration chain.
ColourSpace 3D CIE volumetric profile graph

Advanced Features Found in No Alternative System

ColourSpace's open architecture and continuous development have produced a range of capabilities with no equivalent in any other calibration system:

  • Native 3D LUTs to 2563 and beyond: ColourSpace has no internal cap on LUT cube size. 2563 is in routine use and 3003 has been tested and verified to work. Calman by comparison is internally capped at 333 across every edition; larger exported LUTs are mathematically extrapolated from that 333 internal LUT, not natively generated.
  • Custom Filters: Programmable mathematical formula-based filtering of profile data, using ColourSpace-specific tokens (input RGB, measured and target XYZ/xy/uv, luminance in absolute nits, dE 1976, dE 2000, dE ITP, dE LUV), functions (GREY, PRI, SEC, OTHERS, IN_TG) and full mathematical and logical operators. Unique to ColourSpace.
  • Point Adjust: Interactive manual correction of erroneous probe readings within any of the profile graphs (CIE xy, CIE uv, EOTF, Dif EOTF, RGB Balance, Drift) and on the 1D LUT graph for post-LUT correction. Lets the user fix a single bad reading without re-profiling the whole display.
  • Image Sequence Probe: Cameras, scanners, telecines and similar devices function as virtual measurement probes. The only method that provides colour guarantees for LED Volumes, Virtual Sets, and Video Walls by profiling the entire image capture path: screen, lens and camera. Also used for camera profiling, camera matching, telecine and film scanner profiling, and Look LUT generation.
  • Extended Probe Dynamic Range: Probe Matching combined with a cheap external ND filter extends any low-dynamic-range probe (i1Display Pro, Calibrite, etc.) into accurate HDR measurement, without compromising low-light sensitivity. Klein-class probe accuracy from i1Display Pro hardware.
  • Camera Spaces: Generates technically correct Camera LUTs from manufacturer-supplied colour and gamma data for ARRI LogC, Sony S-Log, RED, Canon Log and others. Distinct from manufacturer-supplied Look LUTs which contain undocumented manipulations. Full SDR and HDR (HLG, PQ ST2084) workflow support.
  • Sub-Space profiling: Targeted profiling within specific areas of the colour volume, for displays where overall calibration is constrained by pre-existing internal processing that cannot be disabled.
  • DICOM GSDF calibration: Included in every ColourSpace tier with calibration capability. Used for radiology, endoscopy, tomography, ultrasound, dentistry, surgical imaging, microscopy and veterinary applications. 3D LUT calibration via internal-LUT displays or external LUT boxes materially exceeds traditional grey-scale-only DICOM.
  • ACES, ARRI Looks, CDLs: Full support for ACES colour management, ARRI Look creation and on-set/post-production use, and CDL import/export.
  • Multi-threading: Native parallel processing for profile generation, LUT generation, colour accuracy assessment and verification. Higher CPU thread counts directly translate to faster workflows.
  • Open data formats: All ColourSpace data file formats are human-readable. Third-party plugin development is actively supported, and a number of plugins already exist — including JVC, Sony and Epson projector integration, the Spyder24_4_CS probe addon, the CS Patch Translator and others. See ColourSpace Addons.
ColourSpace control and customisation

Control and Customisation

ColourSpace gives the user full control over the calibration process and the result, rather than walking them through a prescriptive workflow:

  • Freeform workflow: ColourSpace assumes the user wants to learn the craft. There are no fixed "do this, then do that" workflows imposed on the calibrator. This is a deliberate choice — calibration is a craft, and a calibrator who only knows how to follow a script can't solve problems when the script doesn't fit the display.
  • Custom patch sets: Every ColourSpace licence with calibration capability supports custom user-defined patch sets, including the unique Patch Preset .csv import. No need to upgrade to a top tier just to define your own measurement set.
  • Customisable UI language: The entire ColourSpace user interface can be presented in any language. Rather than being confined to a preset list, ColourSpace provides an editable source language file — users in any language can fully customise every interface element. Existing localisations include 簡體中文, 繁體中文, Deutsch, Español, Français, Italiano, 日本語, 한국어, Nederlands, Português and others.
  • Customisable reports: Calibration reports are user-definable PDFs, with pre-built templates as a starting point or bespoke layouts built from scratch. Useful for client deliverables, manufacturer documentation and quality assurance.
  • Unmatched graphical visualisation: Interactive 3D volumetric graphs with full zoom, position and rotation control, tangent error lines and error colour-coding. Profile and LUT performance can be interrogated in detail at every point in the colour volume.

Compatibility and Integration

ColourSpace integrates with a wider range of displays, probes and LUT-loading hardware than any alternative calibration system:

  • Display technologies: LCD, OLED, WOLED, QD-OLED, miniLED, LED LCD, plasma, RGB-laser cinema projector, LED wall. Target colour spaces include Rec.709, sRGB, P3, Rec.2020, DCI, EBU, SMPTE-C, with SDR, HDR (PQ ST2084 and HLG) and Dolby Vision workflows.
  • Direct closed-loop display integration: ASUS ProArt, Flanders Scientific (FSI), EIZO, BenQ, Boland, Konvision, Postium, TVLogic, AEQ Kroma, Craltech, Lilliput, LG Pro monitors, Dell, LG TVs (via direct LG API), Brompton and Megapixel LED wall processors, AJA ColorBox, Lumagen Radiance, madVR Envy, madVR HTPC software, Videworks Tetratune. Selected TCL TVs supported via 3D LUT export and USB upload.
  • Probe support: Admesy, BasICColor DISCUS, Calibrite (full i1D3 range), Colorimetry Research, DataColor Spyder (up to SpyderX2 directly, plus newer models via the Spyder24_4_CS addon), hsg labs, Jeti spectroradiometers, Klein K10-A and K80, Konica Minolta, MYIRO-1, Photo Research, UPRtek, X-Rite, and the built-in probes within selected ASUS ProArt, Dell and EIZO monitors.
  • Test pattern generation: Direct HDMI output from the ColourSpace machine, plus PGenerator (Raspberry Pi), Murideo SIX-G and SEVEN-G, DVDO AVLab TPG, AccuPel, IS-mini, AJA ColorBox, Lumagen Radiance, madVR Envy, Videworks Tetratune, and software TPGs including the ColourSpace Calibration Client, Dogegen and PatternSpace.
  • 3D LUT output formats: All industry-standard formats including .cube, .3dl, .lut, .csp, .icc (via SpaceMan), and any other format used by current calibration LUT targets.

Affordability and Support

  • Single-purchase licence: ColourSpace is a one-off purchase. No annual maintenance fees, no software subscription, no re-purchase requirement. All updates are free for the life of the product. ColourSpace's predecessor LightSpace CMS has had over a decade of free updates on the same basis.
  • Light Illusion has never charged for support beyond the first year. After the initial flurry of questions immediately following purchase, the workflow becomes intuitive and very little further support is typically required.
  • Licence levels for every use case: From the entry-level ColourSpace ZRO and DPS (manual calibration and verification), through HTL and HTP for home cinema, LTE and CAL for entry-level professional, PRO for full professional use, XPT (Expert) for facility-level and INF (Infinity) for the maximum capability set. Plus manufacturer-specific licences for ASUS, AEQ Kroma, AJA ColorBox, BenQ, Boland, Brompton, Craltech, Dell, EIZO, FSI, Konvision, LG Pro monitors, Megapixel, Postium, TVLogic, LG TVs, Lumagen, madVR and Videworks Tetratune.
  • Rental option: Try ColourSpace before purchase across any market segment. A full refund of the rental cost is made if a full licence is purchased within 10 days of the rental.
  • Educated support model: Light Illusion's support style is to educate rather than spoon-feed — pointing users to relevant guides, asking the question that prompts the user to work out the answer, and avoiding 'do this, then do that' instructions that produce dependent users. The aim is that ColourSpace users grow into calibrators who can solve their own problems.
  • Active user community: The Light Illusion Forums have an active community of professional users and Light Illusion developers, with comprehensive guide pages, manuals, video tutorials and a long history of unsolicited user feedback comparing ColourSpace to alternative systems.

Future-Proof Architecture

ColourSpace is built on a modern, scalable code base, designed for continuous development without the legacy constraints that limit older calibration systems:

  • Emerging display technologies: Multi-primary colour systems, RGB-laser cinema, LED volumes and other new display technologies are already supported, with the architecture designed for further capabilities as new technologies emerge.
  • Open third-party integration: ColourSpace's open architecture allows the user community and third-party developers to extend the system — producing capabilities such as community-developed JVC, Sony and Epson projector integration, the Spyder24_4_CS probe addon and various workflow utilities. Calman, by contrast, is a closed system with no third-party integration support.
  • Native macOS in development: ColourSpace is currently Windows-only, runs on macOS via Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion, and a native macOS version is in development and near release.

Who Uses ColourSpace?

ColourSpace and its predecessor LightSpace CMS are used by leading broadcasters and post-production facilities worldwide, including BBC, ITV, Sky, HBO, Disney, Warner Bros., Park Road Post, ILM and The Look.

Specialist reference monitor manufacturers including FSI, Boland, Konvision, Craltech and Lilliput use ColourSpace for factory calibration. Mainstream display manufacturers including ASUS, EIZO and BenQ are Light Illusion partners, enabling end-user re-calibration of their displays with ColourSpace to a higher standard than their commercial pricing allows them to deliver at the factory. Postium and TVLogic are also ColourSpace-integrated, with end-user calibration to professional accuracy fully supported.

See Customers and Manufacturing Partners for the full current list.

Find Out More

For specific questions about ColourSpace, see the comprehensive FAQ, which covers licensing, probes, supported displays, 3D LUT capability, HDR, Dolby Vision, professional and home cinema workflows, and detailed comparisons with Calman, DisplayCal, Argyll, HCFR and Calibrite Profiler.

For the full ColourSpace licence range, pricing and feature breakdown, see ColourSpace Licence Options.

For first-hand user experience, see the unsolicited user comments thread on the Light Illusion forums, and the ongoing AVS Forum ColourSpace thread.

ColourSpace Licence Options   ColourSpace Rental