How to find the colour profile for your monitor
Monitor manufacturers tend to include the appropriate colour profiles (described as ICM or ICC files) within the driver of the monitor. This is often supplied on a disc with the monitor, but if it is not you may need to go to the Monitor Manufacturers website and download it.
If you have the disk and a disk drive, you can extract the colour profile that way. However, if you don't have the disk, it's recommended to download the file from your manufacturer's support website.
To find and download the correct colour profile for your display, use these general steps:
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Open the manufacturer's support website for your monitor. Here's a list with some of the popular monitor manufacturer's support websites:
- Navigate to the downloads section.
- Using your monitor's model number, search for the latest monitor driver (not graphics driver).
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Download the package, which may be available as a .exe or .zip file format.
In this example I am installing a BenQ monitor driver, but your monitor may be different.
Once downloaded, locate the folder where the file has downloaded to. Then :
- Double-click the downloaded file.
- Continue with the on-screen directions to extract its content.
- Open the folder with the extracted files.
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Locate the .icc or .icm file, which is the colour profile for your monitor.
Once you complete the steps, you can proceed to install the correct colour profile for the monitor. If the installation has a set up file you can run this and this will add it to your list of options. Alternatively if there is no set up file or you are installing the colour profile only you can right click on the extracted .icc or .icm file and install it that way
How to install colour profile for your monitor
After acquiring the profile, the next step is to install it on your device, which you can do using the Colour Management tool.
To install a colour profile on Windows 10, use these steps:
- Open Start.
- Search for Colour Management and click the top result to open the experience.
- Click the Devices tab.
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Use the "Device" drop-down menu and select the monitor that you want to set a new colour profile.
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Quick tip: If you have a multi-monitor setup, and you're not sure which monitor you're about to update, click the Identify monitors button.
- Check the Use my settings for this device option.
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Click the Add button.
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In the "Associated Colour Profile" page, click the Browse button.
Browse to the folder that has the colour profile that you extracted earlier. -
Double-click the .icm file to install the new profile.
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Click the OK button.
You should then see your monitor colour profile and you should set this as default so that it saves the settings correctly on restart.
If you have more than one monitor you can do the same for your other monitor by using the drop down menu to select and follow the same steps again.
You can now see the colour profile in advanced display settings in control panel.
After completing the steps, you may notice a small colour change on your display. This is an expected behaviour because you just told the system to use a different profile to display colours.