- Table of Contents
- Intro
- When It Matters
- Our Tests
- Additional Information
- How To Get The Best Results
- Conclusion
- Comments
- 4.0% sRGB Coverage xy
- 1.0% Adobe RGB Coverage xy
A monitor's color gamut describes a specific range of colors it can display. A wider color gamut means the monitor can display more colors within that space. It will produce a more true-to-life image if it's properly calibrated. This article shows how we measure the color gamuts most used in SDR content, the difference between sRGB and Adobe RGB, and their respective uses. Although knowing a monitor's coverage of a specific color gamut isn't as useful for most users since most monitors easily cover over 95% sRGB, it's an important metric for content creators, especially those working in Adobe RGB.
If you're interested in learning more about other color gamuts, check out our monitor article on HDR color gamut testing and our TV article on color gamut testing.
Test results
When It Matters
Most content, like webpages, online videos, and desktop applications, uses the sRGB color space. The Adobe RGB color space was created to encompass a wider range of colors, which is why it's mainly used for print media by professional photographers and photo editors. A monitor with better coverage can produce colors more accurately within that color space, as intended by the creator.
Our Tests
Our SDR color gamut test includes the commonly-used sRGB color space and the Adobe RGB color space. Measuring a monitor's color gamut is fairly simple, as we only use a Colorimetry Research CR-100 colorimeter and the Octave software. We perform this test after calibration with the monitor's brightness set to max.
sRGB
The sRGB color space is the first one we measure and is likely the most important one for average users since most content is in sRGB. With only a few exceptions, most monitors easily cover over 95% of the sRGB color gamut. The difference between 95% and 100% coverage is small and won't be noticeable unless you look for it.
We show the monitor's sRGB coverage using the CIE 1931 xy chromaticity diagram, the right-most graph in each image below. The diagram's outer lines encompass all the colors the human eye can see. The white lines define the sRGB color range, and the black lines contain the colors the monitor can display in its sRGB mode. There are seven 'points': white, red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, and yellow. The dE 2000 graph on the left shows how much each color point deviates from the target color value. A dE higher than 3 is noticeable to a trained eye, and a dE above 5 is evident to anyone.
In the examples below, the ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM has full sRGB coverage, meaning it can accurately display all the colors within that color space as long as it's calibrated. In contrast, the Gigabyte GS27QC has to approximate the colors that it can't produce.
Adobe RGB
We measure a monitor's Adobe RGB coverage using the same process as with the sRGB color space. Adobe RGB is mostly used for professional photography in print media because it encompasses a wider range of colors. It's rarely used for online content, as most websites convert the image to sRGB or DCI-P3.
The ASUS has considerably greater coverage in red than the Adobe RGB gamut, as you can see in the bottom right graph by the right-most black dot significantly exceeding the bounds of the white box. If a monitor's coverage is greater than the color space, then colors will appear inaccurate and oversaturated. This is the case for this monitor, and you can tell by looking at the red bar in the dE2000 chart extending beyond the other colors, indicating less accuracy.
Additional Information
Gamut Vs. Volume
While color gamuts detail the range of colors a monitor can display, they don't cover how brightly a monitor displays those colors. For this, we turn to another metric: color volume. Color volume indicates how brightly a monitor displays colors across a given gamut. This isn't as relevant with sRGB in particular, as it's a very limited color space, and it's easy for monitors to have high color volume in sRGB. As part of our new Test Bench 2.0, we stopped testing SDR color volume, as nearly all monitors produce fantastic color volume in the sRGB color space. However, color volume is more relevant for wider gamuts such as DCI-P3 and Rec. 2020.
Limitations Of SDR Color Gamuts
Adobe RGB isn't normally used in media intended for digital viewing, and sRGB has a very limited range of colors. If you're looking for a monitor that displays a wide range of colors and are designing content for the digital environment, a monitor's performance with wider color gamuts such as DCI-P3 and Rec. 2020 are more important to look at. Modern wide-gamut displays target these newer color spaces, and they're increasingly being used on popular sites like YouTube and Instagram.
How To Get The Best Results
Many monitors don't automatically limit colors to the sRGB color space when viewing sRGB content. These monitors produce images that appear oversaturated, and you may even prefer this look if you don't require high color accuracy, like for editing work.
However, oversaturated images prevent accurate editing, so you'll want to turn on the display's sRGB mode or calibrate it if you're doing any editing work. If you're looking for a monitor that doesn't require calibration for an accurate image, check our Color Accuracy (Pre-Calibration) test in each review, which covers how accurate a monitor is in its sRGB mode. Some professional monitors have multiple color space presets built-in, allowing you to switch between them easily.
Conclusion
Nearly all monitors cover over 95% of the sRGB color space, with only a few outliers. However, content creators should look for 100% sRGB coverage and at least 90% Adobe RGB coverage if they work in that color space. That said, HDR color spaces such as DCI-P3 and Rec. 2020 are more commonly used today for wide color gamut work with digital media and should be your focus if you're looking at gamut coverage. We test a monitor's SDR gamut using a colorimeter and the Octave software after calibration.