The Amazing Gamma Measuring Applet

Have you ever noticed that when you view the same image (say a picture off the net) on two different monitors the image can appear very differently? Well, that's because different monitors have different gamma values (especially, if they are of different brands). This is OK though, because if you are using xv or some other good viewing program, you can "gamma-correct" the image. The question is, what do you set it to? In other words, what is the gamma of your monitor? This little Java applet will try to help you figure out the gamma of your monitor.

Stand back, defocus your eyes (so that the screen appears blurry) and use the slider to match the gray on the right with the gray on the left. When they look the same, read out the value at the bottom. This is your gamma.

Other Resources

For more information about gamma and gamma correction, you can look at the Gamma Correction Home Page which has a lot of useful stuff. Greg Ward has a very nice Gamma Chart that uses the same idea as my applet but has no "moving parts". Another good resource is Pete Shirley's Gamma Information Page. Actually, Pete was the one who gave me the idea for this applet (inspired by Ricardo Motta).

NOTE: This applet sucks on 8-bit monitors since Java can't grab all 255 gray-levels it needs from the color table thus you may see some blues and/or yellows in there. If you know how to correct this problem, please drop me a note.

This applet is written by Alyosha Efros, back in his care-free undergrad University of Utah days.