Question : Gnome 4x (40-44) : Is color management working for Darktable application and Gnome 40 to 44 desktop on X11?

Background:
Long ago I tried Debian testing (Debian 12) and color management did not work for me with RawTherapee (Sept 21):

There is this thread about Gnome 40 color management, also fairly old (Apr 21 - 2023 Feb 17):

I am on Debian 11, with X11 and Gnome version 3.38.5, so I am safe. My system is working well. However I want to prepare for Debian 12 and Gnome 4. Debian testing is currently using Gnome 43.3-3. Before I upgrade to Debian 12 and Gnome 43.3 I would like to collect some feedback.

My question:
Is Gnome 4x Color Management (40-44) working with Darktable application on Debian or other Linux distros for X11?

I wish I could have a technical definition of ‘working’ ( I am open for input), but when I tried Gnome 40 on Debian testing (1.5 years ago) my wide color profile TIFF pictures (Adobe ProPhoto output profile) were rendered in a very undersaturated way (By Geeqie color managed viewer) and my pictures with sRGB output profile were oversaturated. The RawTherapee application main window behaved as if it did not find the system icc profile (like no profile selected). (I have a calibrated wide Gamut monitor with built in Built-in Calibration Sensor). I did not try Darktable at that time. My usual setup is:

  • Calibrated Wide Gamut monitor and an icc profile generated using EIZO software.
  • Gnome → Settings → Color point to the icc profile.
  • I make sure that darktable picks up system profile, checking result of darktable-cmstest, i.e., Your system seems to be correctly configured

i.e., Your system seems to be correctly configured

What more does darktable-cmstest report, i.e. not only the last line?

My current Debian 11, Gnome 3 system on X11 works fine. This is the output:

./darktable-cmstest 
darktable-cmstest version 4.3.0+1783~g66a2d4b3ce
this executable was built with colord support enabled
darktable itself was built with colord support enabled

primary CRTC is at CRTC 0
CRTC for screen 0 CRTC 1 has no mode or no output, skipping
CRTC for screen 0 CRTC 2 has no mode or no output, skipping
CRTC for screen 0 CRTC 3 has no mode or no output, skipping

DP-2	the X atom and colord returned the same profile
	X atom:	_ICC_PROFILE (8416 bytes)
		description: CG279X(35945120)10Display-100-D65
	colord:	"/home/magnus/.local/share/icc/CG279X(35945120)10Display-100-D65.icc"
		description: CG279X(35945120)10Display-100-D65

Your system seems to be correctly configured

My Gnome 4 question is theoretical. My issue is that I have picked up so much negative feedback regarding Gnome 4 and color management (edit: but a bit dated, maybe fixed now?). This makes me interested in what someone skilled in the art of color management thinks about current state of Gnome 4, color management and Darktable.

Anyone?

Is Gnome 4x Color Management (40-44) working with Darktable application on Debian or other Linux distros for X11?

Not only Debian but as far as I know on X11 the color management is working fine since well before GNOME 3.x. I’m on Debian, using X11 and GNOME 43.4 color managed with colord without any issue.

1 Like

Thank you for the feedback regarding Debian, using X11 and GNOME 43.4 color managed with colord. Good to know.

I agree that Gnome 3.x and X11 works very well when it comes to color management.

I will upgrade when Debian stable moves from version 11 to version 12.