Flux turns blue into purple
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Basically what the title says. All the colors look perfectly fine except pure blue and it's derivatives. Light blues look good, only the blues closer to purple change, and I guess it's because Flux adds red to them, but does it happen to everyone? Do you just cope with it? .
As an example, this is approximately how 0000ff blue looks in my monitor with flux on: http://www.color-hex.com/color/663399
It's really annoying because for example, if I play fortnite, the sky will be purple and not blue, if I watch a movie, a video, whatever thing that contains strong blues, my screen will show them as purple. This is turning me off and leaves me no choice to disable Flux, but then all the blue light makes my eyes hurt, so I don't really know what to do. Any help?
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This is normal. You can't expect any sort of color accuracy whatsoever with f.lux set to a very warm (orange/red) color temperature. At 2300K, I see what you're seeing for 0000FF (but I had to try all of the different color temperatures to find it). I have never noticed this before reading your post though because as I said, you can't expect any sort of color accuracy, so I have never looked for or expected any kind of color accuracy while using f.lux. You especially have to expect and accept that pure blue is going to appear to be the most altered because the original and sole purpose of f.lux was to reduce the amount of blue light being emitted by the monitor so that you can still "safely" use the computer before bed without being blasted by "alerting" blue light. Color accuracy must be sacrificed for this. It's a choice you have to make: be "alerted" and stimulated by blue light, or sacrifice color accuracy for the sake of not being exposed to that alerting and stimulating light.
So in other words, you cannot expect to still have accurate blues when you are using an extremely warm color temperature setting. To add to this, as you go warmer and warmer down past 2300K, color accuracy diminishes more and more. Check out 1900K. Check out 1200K. Check out 800K (using Shift+Alt+Page Down). There's nothing that can be done about this.
I recommend that you use a higher color temperature. Start at 3400K and go up from there, or use Movie Mode. Movie Mode is a modified/altered version of 4400K to help with color accuracy (at least it was a modified version of it the last time I asked). Note: it seems Movie Mode only works if the color temperature is set to 4400K or lower.
You should also always reduce your monitor's brightness. Even at 800K, you could still have "alerting" affects from the light being emitted by a gaming monitor set to 100% brightness. It's especially evident that your monitor brightness is too high if the blue light is hurting your eyes. 800K is pure red, so yes, the brightness level is very important.
Ultimately, I recommend that you experiment to find the best compromise between color accuracy and blue light reduction - but again, with a reduced monitor brightness to help further reduce alerting light. Remember, f.lux cannot discriminate. It affects everything. So, if you want to be able to "safely" use your computer right before bed by using f.lux to make that possible, then you must accept that you have to sacrifice some or all of your color accuracy (depending on the color temperature you use).
When I'm getting ready for bed, I use 800K (with my monitor brightness all the way down). You might wonder how I can tolerate it. I just do because I get the best feeling in my body from 800K because I am also using a pure red LED light (just one) in my room at the same time. It's the same feeling in my body as having all the lights off. I use this one: https://www.amazon.com/Feit-Electric-A19-LED-Red/dp/B00FA5UMB2 It's a 40W equivalent pure red LED light. I wish it were a 10-20W equivalent, but it's the best red LED light I could find.
Anyway, so yeah, what you're experiencing is normal and it should be expected. You're going to get this same result no matter what software you use to reduce/eliminate blue light.
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This sounds a little unusual - can you post your "options > driver info" so we can see which kinds of monitor you're using?
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@herf said in Flux turns blue into purple:
This sounds a little unusual - can you post your "options > driver info" so we can see which kinds of monitor you're using?
I don't think it's unusual. When I go to the 0000FF color page and choose very warm color temperatures like 1900K or 2300K, I find that 0000FF becomes a little bit purple, exactly as he is describing. I wouldn't say it's obviously purple like at http://www.color-hex.com/color/663399, but it's still leaning toward being purple. It's less blue. Purplish. Blurple, perhaps. Or maybe, Plue. I personally still see it as blue, but not so much anymore after becoming so aware of it thanks to this thread (I can't really unsee it now). Even so, it's not a problem at all for me, so I guess it's just a matter of how sensitive you are to this sort of thing. I honestly believe I will forget over time and go back to seeing it as blue again. For now, no.
Now sure, if my eyes and mind are completely adjusted to something like 1900K and then I go to 2300K or 2700K, blue looks perfectly blue again.
I think it's easiest to see this when you're completely adjusted to 6500K and then go straight to like 1900K or 2300K instantly. If the transition is extremely gradual, you might never notice it. Even worse, having red/green and blue/purple colorblindness makes this even harder to see.
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@herf This is my driver info:
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. 24.20.13011.1009: AMD Radeon R9 200 Series (20180827)
Monitor PnP genérico, 927 x 521mm, built 2013
Chromaticities:
R=0.645508 0.335938
G=0.292969 0.557617
B=0.140625 0.074219
W=0.280273 0.290039sRGB gamut: 81%, AdobeRGB gamut: 52%
Windows Build: 7601
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@twocables I think it makes sense if F.lux adds red color to blue and they mix into purple. Its a shame that i cant use it while editing pictures in lightroom for hours and it gets tiring pretty quickly
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@ramagarcia said in Flux turns blue into purple:
@twocables I think it makes sense if F.lux adds red color to blue and they mix into purple. Its a shame that i cant use it while editing pictures in lightroom for hours and it gets tiring pretty quickly
It is impossible to have the benefits of f.lux (or other similar programs) while retaining perfect color accuracy, at least on this planet with our current level of technology. For all we know, it could remain impossible even with thousands of years of advancements in technology into our future due to the way this universe works.
So the best you can do is, disable or exit f.lux and just use a very low monitor brightness.
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@twocables It is possible to do much, much better. We have had prototypes and shaders to do this for many years. Some more is possible soon.
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@ramagarcia can you see what happens if you turn off "Use display data for better color accuracy" in f.lux Options?
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@herf said in Flux turns blue into purple:
@twocables It is possible to do much, much better. We have had prototypes and shaders to do this for many years. Some more is possible soon.
Right, but maintaining perfect color accuracy while using a very warm color temperature like 2300K or lower seems to be something that will always be impossible. Sure, it should be possible to get reasonably good color accuracy for casual use, but not for professional use where color accuracy is absolutely critical.
