Introducing the ColorHug

The ColorHug is an open source display colorimeter. It allows you to calibrate your screen for accurate color matching.

The ColorHug is a small accessory that measures displayed colors very accurately. It is held on your display and plugged into a spare USB port on the computer for the duration of the calibration.

Have you ever taken a photo and wondered why it does not look the same on your screen as it did the camera?

It's probably because the LCD display on your computer has never been calibrated. This means colors can look washed-out, tinted with certain shades or with different color casts.

About 2 years ago I began working on color management in Linux. It soon became apparent that there was no integrated color management system. The color management support which did exist was often disabled by default in many applications. I have worked hard to make calibrating displays easy ever since. It is my goal to make color management accessable to end users. The hardware for color managing screens was bulky, slow and expensive. With a background in electronics, I thought I could create a device which was smaller, faster and cheaper.

Using the ColorHug it takes about a minute to take several hundred measurements from which the client software creates an ICC color profile. This color profile file can then be saved and used to make colors look correct on your monitor.

Competitor Comparison

How do other products compare?

	Hughski ColorHug	Datacolor Spyder Pro	Pantone Huey	X-Rite ColorMunki
Screen calibration
Printer calibration
Self calibration mode
Ambient capture	(Lux and XYZ)	(Just Lux)	(Just Lux)	(Lux and XYZ)
Supported calibration matrices	64 flash (LCD, CRT, Projector + 5 reserved types)	2 fixed (LCD and CRT)	2 fixed (LCD and CRT)	n/a
Compatible display technologies	LCD, LED	LCD, LED, CRT	LCD, LED, CRT	LCD, LED, CRT, Projector
IR filtered
Licencing	Open source	Proprietary	Proprietary	Proprietary
Speed to measure 400 samples	80 seconds	5 minutes	5 minutes	3 minutes
Client software support	Linux	Microsoft Windows	Microsoft Windows, Apple OSX	Microsoft Windows, Apple OSX
Price (including tax)	£60*	£90	£115	£280

* There is a currently a 20% developer discount (so the price you pay is £48). This is on the understanding you're helping out testing the hardware and software and it might be a bit more complicated than just plug-and-play. You will always be able to update the firmware to the latest versions as the software is improved.

The above table demonstrates how the Hughski ColorHug compares to other similar products on the market. The key advantages are the speed at which it measures samples, the open source licence which means you can access and change the code, and the lower price. The low price is achieved from using commercial off-the-shelf components and free software.

The Hughski ColorHug packs a huge amount of functionality into such a small size. It's just 32mm wide, 43mmm tall and 21mm deep.

How it works

The Colorhug contains a color sensor with 64 pixels - 16 red, 16 blue, 16 green, and 16 clear. Each different color sensor effectively counts photons, and so by counting the number of photons there are for each sensor we can work out the true color shown on the screen. This photon count is converted to an XYZ color value by the processor on the ColorHug and the set of measurements can be processed into an ICC file. The colorhug takes just 16 seconds to sample 400 colors and performs an order of magnitude faster than it's competitors.

There are no Microsoft Windows or Apple OSX drivers included with this product. You can use the LiveCD sent with the device on any modern PC or use the built in software available in Fedora 16 or newer. The display.icc file can then be saved and used with Linux, Mac or even Windows.

What do I get with my order?

• ColorHug device with 5 year warranty
• Linux live CD with all required software
• 2 meter USB cable

What if my ColorHug stops working?

• Check the device is plugged in!
• Check dmesg to see if the device is detected, if so check the permissions on the USB device.
• Check the LEDs briefly flash when the device is plugged in.
• Use a different USB cable to the one supplied in order to check whether the cable is at fault.

If the device does not work, or is otherwise faulty please email us for advice. If we agree that the ColorHug is faulty and you return it to us then you can request a full refund or a replacement device.