The sole purpose of this program is to check the quality of a visual calibration gamma chart.
A simple gamma chart consists of black and white pixel rows. When looking at the chart from a close distance,
the human eye can distinguish the black and white lines. When viewing the chart from a grater distance, the human
eye will integrate the luminance of the black and white lines to a medium gray. Usually, the black and white lines
are surrounded by medium gray pixels. The pixel values of the medium gray pixels have been calculated according to
the target gamma. When the gamma chart is viewed on a monitor with exactly the same gamma as the target gamma, the
medium gray pixels will have the same luminance as the integrated black and white lines and the whole chart will
look like a homogeneous gray area. There are more complex gamma charts available, but all are based on the same
principle.
Integrating the odd and even lines of a gamma chart by luminance will produces the same result as the human eye
when viewing the chart from a greater distance.
Viewing the luminance integrated gamma chart on any un-calibrated monitor will reveal the quality of the gamma
chart. The image should look exactly like described in the program using the gamma chart. If it does not look
exactly as described, the chart doesn't work and should not be used at all.
To use this program, just click on start. A file dialog to select the gamma chart and another file dialog to
select the "save as" file name will be displayed. After the files have been selected, the gamma chart will be
luminance integrated and will be saved into the chosen "save as" file.
The original gamma chart as well as the luminance integrated gamma chart will be then be displayed instead of
this text. The charts will be centered in their respective region and will be displayed as real size images.
If the size of a chart is greater than its region size in the window the chart will be cropped.
On a calibrated monitor with a gamma of 2.2, both images should look alike. If the monitor gamma is not 2.2
the left image will be brighter or darker than the right image, especially in the mid-tones.
To assess the gamma chart quality in greater detail, use your favorite imaging program to view the output file.
The monitor does not need to be gamma adjusted for assessing the gamma chart quality.
