The representation of color on the screen is one of the most important problems in the professional world where an incorrect representation of it can lead to headaches when choosing the monitor and in some cases even the graphics card. But does the video interface influence this aspect?
The importance of color for design
In the world of graphics in all its aspects, the correct representation of color is one of the most important elements. This is because monitors tend not to be color calibrated, which affects their performance.
This phenomenon does not affect the average user who gets used to different color representations of different brands and graphics cards, but it is important for the professional content creator who cannot afford mistakes when working with the color in his compositions. Whether for editorial design, video editing and other branches of graphics.
For this reason, monitor and graphics card manufacturers seek to offer the correct representation of color as a plus for their professional ranges.
Not all monitors represent the same color
If you have had two different screens, even from the same brand and reproducing the same content, you will have observed how totally different the color representation is from one monitor to another. But in order to display an image on the screen, we have to take into account that three different elements are involved:
- The graphics card that generates the image.
- The video interface that sends the image to the monitor.
- The monitor itself.
The video interface nowadays does not influence the quality of the monitor’s color representation and it is rather a matter of graphics card and monitor quality when talking about the color representation and not the video interface. used is mostly the quality of the screen, which is, after all, what the pictures show us.
So it’s important to look at monitor and graphics card specifications, especially today when all monitors and graphics cards have both HDMI and DisplayPort interfaces.
HDMI vs. DisplayPort
HDMI is a video input interface derived from DVI, which could be defined as DVI with built-in audio support and HDCP. What has been thought for high definition LCD televisions, as well as video players and consoles for these televisions. DisplayPort, on the other hand, is a VESA standard, which was intended for use in computers. This is paradoxical since the DVI from which HDMI is derived was originally considered a successor to VGA, but it was ultimately DisplayPort that became the standard for PC monitors.
Now we are talking about the differences between the two types of interface. HDMI in its latest version, 2.1, can transmit up to 48 Gbps from VRAM to the monitor, but DisplayPort version 2.0 can go up to 80 Gbps, so you don’t have to shoot to cut color definition in. high resolution. Although at the moment no monitor or graphics card that supports DisplayPort 2.0 has appeared.
This has a very simple explanation, internally the GPU when composing the image does not take into account the difference between HDMI and DisplayPort, being the video controller responsible for sending the signal to the HDMI or DisplayPort controller. The problem? Many graphics cards transmit for only one type of video output and through one signal converter they send the image to the other type of interface where it ends up looking exactly the same.
HDMI and DisplayPort represent the same color
In fact, today, no video interface is better than another for the reasons we have already discussed. We don’t want to have repetitive sound, but in general the video signal is treated the same regardless of the video interface used, be it HDMI or DisplayPort. Indeed, in order to reduce the hardware costs, common parts are used for HDMI and DisplayPort internally.
Our advice is that you use the interface that allows you to work better, and it must be said that DisplayPort’s advantage of managing multiple monitors with a single interface is what gives it points of advantage, especially when working at very high resolutions in which HDMI 2.1 has a drawback, but this is from a theoretical point of view, since we do not have displays or GPUs with DisplayPort 2.0 support.
And for color calibration use HDMI or DisplayPort interface, we recommend using hardware color calibrator if you need to work professionally.
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