Hello, On Fri, Oct 20, 2017 at 11:17 AM, Helmut Jarausch <jarau...@skynet.be> wrote: > Hi, > I'm considering buying a new monitor (and graphics card) which supports > 10 bits per color channel. > Will Gimp on a Linux machine (X11) support this now or in the near future. > Or is it just waste of money to buy a monitor with more than 8 bits/color > channel? > Many thanks for some hints, > Helmut >
It is my understanding the software itself needs to support this. It is rare enough that I do not know how it is done in practice, but, generally, it would be necessary to specify relative colors or colors by name and leave implementation up to a layer that translates the color spaces. This would be similar to what has to happen for high DPI displays. If a program is not aware that pixels can be different sizes, it will not make use of the extra resolution properly. High end graphics cards have implemented features related to what you are asking about. Some support transformations that happen directly on the tuples that represent the color model of the human eye, or the model of the reflectivity of pigments used in printing. I have yet to see any programs which actually use these features. Checking the Wiki, "deep color" capable graphics cards have existed since the 1990s. Also at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_depth#Deep_color_.2830.2F36.2F48-bit.29 are compatibility notes that seem to indicate that color depth is mediated by the graphics card and screen. It is up to the program to ask for colors of that depth to be displayed. Short answer: Open bug reports on the trackers for the programs you are interested in. Cheers, R0b0t1.
