Optimal and acceptable white-point settings of a display

Abstract

This study demonstrates that the preferred white-point for optimised colour rendering depends on image content. In general, people want to compensate for the average colour of the image, i.e. they choose a white-point that shifts the average colour towards a more neutral colour. The range of white-points that people tolerate was found to be extremely large. The region that was acceptable to 75% of the participants was about 0.04 wide along the daylight curve and about 0.02 perpendicular to the daylight curve (in terms of du'v'). The results suggest that, if one has to choose between the most common white-point settings of a TV, a white-point of 6500 K or 8700 K will be reasonable, whereas a white-point of 11000 K will be less optimal