Whether you’re a designer, photographer, gamer, or unemployed, you’ll often find yourself in need of more display options than Windows 11/10. With newer updates, you may find it difficult to find the right color profile for your monitor, be it any. But the one from the manufacturer is best. In this article, we will show you a complete step by step guide to help you find the correct color profile for your monitor in Windows 11/10. Let’s find out how!
How to find the correct color profile for your monitor in Windows 11/10?
Follow these steps to download and install a color profile:
- Download a color profile for your monitor
- Install downloaded color profile
- Set a color profile for a multi-monitor setup
Make sure you are using an administrator account
1. Download a color profile for your monitor.
Whether it’s an ICM profile or an ICC profile; they are usually provided on a disc that comes with computer monitors. However, you can download it if you don’t have or didn’t receive the disk and drive. Visit the manufacturer’s support website and you will find the right ICM file for Windows 11/10.
- Find the “Software, Firmware, and Driver Downloads”section on the website and open it.
- Find the latest monitor driver that is similar to your monitor’s model number. However, don’t look for a graphics driver. You can find this out using Device Manager.
- Download the monitor driver package. Remember that the file extension will be exe or zip.
- Now navigate to the downloaded file and double click on it.
- You will be prompted to follow some on-screen instructions to get the contents of the file.
- So, open the downloaded folder with the extracted file.
- Find the file in the folder. icm. File. icm is the exact color profile of your monitor.
You must follow the steps correctly. If you have completed them correctly, then you are all set to install the appropriate color profile on your monitor using Windows 11/10.
2. Install the downloaded color profile on Windows 11/10.
Downloading is not enough; you must ensure that you have installed and activated it correctly in order to use the color management profile.
If you are using a Windows 11/10 monitor, follow these steps to install the file. icm:
- Press Win + S to open search
- Type Color Management in the menu and click when it appears in the list. You can also type colorcpl to show
- Now in the pop-up window, select the “Devices”tab.
- You will get a dropdown menu and select a monitor to run
- In the Profiles section, select an already available color profile, or you can add it manually.
- After that, apply the changes and the color profile will be installed.
3. How to set a color profile if you have multiple monitors set up?
If you have multiple monitors in your workspace, setting the color profile to the correct monitor can be difficult. To simplify it, follow these steps:
- Open the Color Management tool.
- Click the Detect Monitors button.
- Check the “Use my settings for this device”box.
- If you don’t need an available profile, click the Add button.
- You will get the associated color profile window; select the “Browse”option on it.
- Navigate to the folder with the color profile you want to install.
- Double click an element. icm to install a new color profile.
- Now click the “Close”button.
After successfully completing the above steps, you will see slight changes in the color profile on the screen. This indicates that you have installed and activated your color profile.
How to fix poor color display on monitor in Windows 11?
If the color display looks bad on your Windows 11/10 PC, you don’t need an ICM file to get the correct color profile and you need to color calibrate with the following method:
- Go to the start menu, search for “Calibrate display color”and select the first option from the list.
- Now move this window to the appropriate display and click Next.
- Follow some given instructions and click Next and Windows will help you manage your display settings; however, you need to click the Next button again.
- The Windows Color Profile application will load, for which you need to change the display settings, primarily the gamma settings. You will see three boxes giving you an idea of what your screen will look like if the gamma is too low, correct and high. Once you have a good understanding, you can click the “Next”button again.
- You will then see a slider button on the left side of this window; drag it up or down to change the screen gamma settings. You can even select the Reset option to reset it to its default values for greater accuracy. It would be helpful if you had the correct gamma for your color profile.
- Consider whether you want to change the brightness and contrast of the screen or not. If yes, you can only do this if your monitor gives you options. Otherwise, you need to navigate and select the Skip Brightness and Contrast option. Now click Next to continue.
- You will receive instructions on how to change the brightness. After reading the instructions on the screen, click Next.
- Now you will get a screen to change the brightness settings. If there are no controls on your monitor, click Next.
- Similarly, you will get a screen to change the contrast settings. The process here will be similar to the Brightness process. After implementation, click the “Next”button.
- Windows will now tell you how to make color balance changes. After viewing, click the “Next”button.
- You will now have three sliders. You will have to drag them up or down to change the red, green and blue colors as you wish. But make sure the bars are greyed out. If they have a tint, this indicates an unbalanced color(s). Click Next again.
Everything is ready to complete the process. However, before proceeding, you should check and compare both color profiles. Don’t worry about it and you will see a “Display Color Calibration”option with two buttons: “Previous Calibration”and “Current Calibration”.
You can click them both at the same time to compare them. If you want to continue, you must click the Finish button. If you are not satisfied, you can click the “Cancel”button and your new color calibration will not be completed.
You have completed screen calibration and applied a new color profile.
How to reset color profile settings using Windows 11/10?
If you want to reset your color profile and set it to default, then our guide will help you. Follow the instructions in the guide below to restore your monitor’s default color profile:
- Go to the start menu and search for Color Management.
- Click to open it and another window will open. Go to the “Devices”tab.
- On the Devices tab, select the Profile option.
- Now examine the drop-down menu shown in the “Device”option.
- Select the monitor you want to reset.
- Now select Reset my settings to the default system settings button.
After successfully applying these steps, you will see a screen with a default color profile.