Contrast Ratio Test
Test your monitor's contrast ratio and brightness uniformity with professional gradient patterns
💡 Why This Test?
Contrast ratio is the difference between the darkest black and brightest white your display can produce. High contrast (1000:1+) shows rich blacks and detailed shadows. Low contrast (<600:1) makes images look washed out with gray blacks.
This test uses 20 gradient patterns to check if your display can distinguish all brightness levels from 0-100%. Crushed blacks lose shadow detail (dark grays all look black). Clipped whites lose highlight detail (bright areas all look white). Good contrast preserves detail at both extremes.
✅ What You'll Check:
- Whether gradients show smooth transitions or visible steps
- If you can distinguish levels 1-5 (dark) and 95-99 (bright)
- Crushed blacks (darkest areas merge into pure black)
- Clipped whites (brightest areas merge into pure white)
- Overall dynamic range capability
📖 How to Use This Test
- Test in a completely dark room for best results
- Set your monitor brightness to normal usage (50-75%)
- Click "Start Test" to enter fullscreen
- Navigate through all 20 gradient patterns using arrow keys
- Look for smooth transitions without visible banding
- Count how many distinct gray levels you can see (ideally all)
- Note any areas where detail is lost (crushed/clipped)
💡 Tip: IPS panels typically have 1000:1 contrast, VA panels 3000:1+, and OLED infinite (true black). If you can't see levels 1-5, increase brightness slightly. This is normal testing - real content doesn't need to show every single level.
Click to start fullscreen contrast testing. Navigate through 20 different gradient patterns.
👁️ What You're Looking For
✅ Good Contrast (Normal)
Clear distinction between all brightness levels
❌ Crushed Blacks (Poor)
Dark areas merge together, losing shadow detail
⚠️ Washed Whites (Poor)
Bright areas merge together, losing highlight detail
📊 Contrast Standards
🎨 Pattern Types
- ● Gradients: Basic 0-100% transitions
- ● Split Patterns: Complex multi-section tests
- ● Fine Steps: 1% precision testing
- ● Directional: Horizontal and vertical
🔍 Quick Tips
- • View in completely dark room
- • Look for smooth transitions
- • Check shadow and highlight detail
- • Test at normal viewing distance
📋 How to Test
Start Fullscreen Test
Click the test button and enable fullscreen for accurate contrast assessment.
Dark Room Testing
Test in a completely dark room to see the full contrast range accurately.
Check All 20 Patterns
Navigate through gradients, split patterns, and fine-step tests using arrow keys.
Look for Detail Loss
Watch for crushed blacks, clipped whites, or missing steps in gradients.
Navigate
Use arrow keys, navigation buttons, or click anywhere to cycle patterns. Press ESC to exit.
📊 Understanding Results
🏆 Excellent
- • All steps visible
- • Rich black levels
- • Bright white levels
- • Smooth transitions
👍 Good
- • Most steps visible
- • Decent black levels
- • Minor detail loss
- • Acceptable for general use
⚠️ Poor
- • Missing dark/bright steps
- • Washed out blacks
- • Clipped highlights
- • Poor contrast ratio
🔧 Common Issues & Solutions
⚫ "Can't distinguish dark levels 1-5, they all look black"
What's happening: Crushed blacks from incorrect brightness settings or limited contrast ratio. IPS monitors (1000:1 typical) show 3-4 distinct levels at 0-5% range. VA panels (3000:1) show 5 levels. TN panels (600:1) may only show 1-2 levels. This affects shadow detail in dark game scenes and movie blacks.
Brightness vs. Black Level: Monitor "Brightness" controls backlight intensity, "Contrast" controls white level. Setting Brightness < 20 crushes blacks on LCD. Setting Contrast > 90 clips whites. Factory "Standard" mode often has Brightness 50, Contrast 80 - not calibrated for your room lighting.
✅ Solution: In dark room: set Brightness 30-40, Contrast 75. Bright room: Brightness 50-70. Use monitor's "Black Equalizer" or "Shadow Boost" (ASUS, BenQ) to raise blacks without washing out image. Run "EOTF" calibration on HDR monitors - some default to BT.1886 gamma 2.4 crushing near-blacks.
🌫️ "Blacks look gray/washed out, poor contrast" (IPS glow vs low contrast)
What's happening: Two different issues: (1) IPS glow - natural LCD backlight bleed making corners grayish-purple in dark scenes. Inherent to IPS, worse at 45° viewing angles. (2) Low native contrast - panel can't produce deep blacks. Budget IPS/TN: 700-900:1. Good IPS: 1100-1300:1. VA: 2500-6000:1 (Samsung Odyssey G7: 4500:1).
Room lighting impact: Glossy screens (Apple Studio Display) show deeper blacks with reflections vs matte (Dell UltraSharp) which scatter light. Dark room at 5 lux reveals glow. 300+ lux office lighting masks contrast issues. Measured contrast 1000:1 in dark room becomes 250:1 in bright room due to reflection raising black level.
✅ Solution: For IPS glow: View straight-on at 90°, reduce brightness to < 40 in dark rooms. For contrast: Enable "Dynamic Contrast" (BenQ), "Adaptive Contrast" (Dell), or "Black Stabilizer" - these darken backlight in dark scenes. Consider VA panel (MSI MAG274QRF-QD, Samsung Odyssey) or OLED (LG 27GR95QE, Asus ROG Swift OLED) for 3x+ better contrast.
📊 "Gradients show distinct steps/bands instead of smooth transition"
What's happening: 6-bit + FRC (Frame Rate Control) dithering artifacts. True 8-bit panels display 16.7M colors smoothly. Budget monitors use 6-bit (262k colors) + temporal dithering to "fake" 8-bit, causing visible 2-4% brightness steps in gradients. Common on cheap IPS gaming monitors (AOC 24G2, Gigabyte G24F).
Bit depth detection: TFTCentral tests show 6-bit+FRC has posterization in 5-15% gray gradients. True 8-bit smooth up to 2% steps. 10-bit panels (professional monitors: BenQ SW270C, ASUS ProArt PA279CV) show no banding even at 1% steps. Also check GPU: HDMI 1.4 limits to 8-bit, DisplayPort 1.4 does 10-bit.
✅ Solution: Enable "Dithering" in NVIDIA/AMD control panel. Set "Output color depth" to 10-bit (DP 1.4 required). Lower overdrive setting - aggressive overdrive (Extreme/Ultra) worsens FRC artifacts. Use DisplayPort over HDMI. For content creation, upgrade to true 8-bit or 10-bit panel verified by RTINGS/TFTCentral reviews.
📐 "Calibrated monitor still fails gradient test" (Gamma vs EOTF)
What's happening: Monitor gamma setting doesn't match content. Gamma 2.2 (sRGB standard) displays 50% gray at luminance 22% (218 cd/m² on 1000 cd/m² panel). Gamma 2.4 (darker, for dark rooms) shows 50% gray at 18% luminance. BT.1886 (HDR EOTF) has variable gamma. Mismatch causes gradients to look compressed or expanded.
Testing vs. real content: Browser test patterns use sRGB gamma 2.2. HDR10 content uses PQ EOTF (much darker near-blacks). SDR movies often mastered at gamma 2.4. Your monitor set to gamma 2.4 will crush web test gradients but look correct for movies.
✅ Solution: For web/gaming: Set monitor gamma to 2.2 or "sRGB" mode. For movies: Gamma 2.4. For HDR: Enable "HDR" mode in Windows (Win + Alt + B). Use monitor's gamma presets: "Standard" = 2.2, "Cinema" = 2.4. Professional calibration with i1Display Pro or X-Rite ColorMunki targets gamma 2.2 ± 0.05 across 10-90% range.
💡 "SDR looks fine but HDR has crushed blacks/clipped whites"
What's happening: HDR tone mapping issues. SDR uses 0.1-100 nits range (80 nits typical white). HDR10 uses 0.005-1000+ nits but monitor can't actually display < 0.1 nits (black level) or > 400-600 nits (peak HDR on most monitors). Tone mapping compresses out-of-range values causing detail loss.
Fake HDR displays: VESA DisplayHDR 400 (entry tier) only requires 400 nits peak, no local dimming. Can't display true HDR highlights - just makes SDR brighter. DisplayHDR 600 minimum for decent HDR (BenQ EX3210U, ASUS ROG PG32UQX). DisplayHDR 1000+ with FALD (Full Array Local Dimming) needed for < 0.01 nit blacks.
✅ Solution: Calibrate HDR in Windows: Settings → Display → HDR → Calibrate. Adjust "SDR content brightness" to 25-35 (not 50 default). In games: Set "HDR Brightness" to monitor's peak (400/600/1000 nits in specs). For monitors < DisplayHDR 600: Disable HDR, use SDR with high brightness instead.