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How do I fix color accuracy issues in Astropad Studio?

What to do if the colors on your iPad look different from what you see on your Mac or PC display.

Updated over 3 weeks ago

If colors appear inaccurate when using Astropad Studio, this is typically caused by display settings on your iPad or Windows PC that alter color output.

If you do not have a third-party color calibration programs on your devices that could be causing issues, try the fixes below to fix color accuracy on each device type.

📱 On iPad

Your iPad may have display features enabled that adjust colors automatically. To ensure accurate color representation:

🌗 Disable True Tone and Night Shift

  1. Open Settings on your iPad

  2. Navigate to Display & Brightness

  3. Turn off True Tone

  4. Turn off Night Shift

What is True Tone?

True Tone uses ambient light sensors to automatically adjust the color temperature and intensity of the display to match the light of your environment, making images appear more natural and comfortable for your eyes.

What is Night Shift?

Night Shift is a setting that reduces the amount of blue light of your display by shifting the colors to the warmer end of the spectrum.

⚙️ Adjust Accessibility Display Settings

  1. Open Settings on your iPad

  2. Navigate to Accessibility > Display & Text Size

  3. Turn off Increase Contrast

  4. Turn off Reduce White Point (this may provide a subtle improvement, but disabling True Tone and Night Shift will make the most significant difference)

What does reducing the White Point do?

Reducing the White Point on your iPad reduces the intensity of bright colors on the screen, making it less glaring in low-light environments. This can be extremely helpful if the colors are too bright and saturated compared to your computer's display.


💻 On Mac

Settings on macOS are similar to the ones on iPad, so we recommend making the same adjustments on your Mac.

🌗 Disable True Tone and Night Shift

  1. Open Settings > Displays

  2. Turn off True Tone

  3. Open Night Shift (button is at the bottom of Mac Display settings)

  4. Set Schedule to Off

⚙️ Adjust Accessibility Display Settings

  1. Open Settings > Accessibility > Display

  2. Turn off Increase Contrast

📊 Adjust Color Profile

Macs come with a default color profile, and it is typically "Color LCD".

Navigate to Settings > Displays > Color Profile

Astropad Studio uses the default iPad P3 color profile, so we recommend adjusting the color profile on your Mac to one that more closely matches your iPad's.


🖥️ On Windows

Several Windows display settings and graphics driver configurations can affect color accuracy:

🔆 Disable HDR and Adjust HDR/SDR Brightness Balance

  1. Go to Start > Settings > System > Display

  2. Click on the HDR-capable display at the top of the screen

  3. Scroll down and click the arrow next to the HDR option

  4. Turn off HDR for the display that Studio mirrors

  5. Next, find the HDR/SDR brightness balance slider

  6. Drag the slider to a higher or lower setting to adjust overall brightness

What is HDR?

HDR, or High Dynamic Range, increases the contrast between the brightest and darkest parts of an image, expanding the range of colors. While this is typically a beneficial feature, it can conflict with the iPad's native color accuracy.

🌙 Disable Night Light

  1. Go to Start > Settings > System > Display

  2. Turn off Night light for the display Astropad Studio is mirroring

What is Night Light?

Night Light is similar to the iOS Night Shift feature, and is a setting that reduces the amount of blue light of your display by shifting the colors to the warmer end of the spectrum.

🎨 Check NVIDIA Color Settings and Update Drivers

Your graphics card may be using custom color settings that interfere with Windows's display adjustments:

  1. Right-click your desktop and open the NVIDIA Control Panel

  2. Navigate to Display > Adjust desktop color settings

  3. Under "Apply the following color enhancements," try selecting "Other applications control color settings"

  4. Alternatively, you can manually adjust the brightness, contrast, and gamma from this menu to your preference

Update your GPUs drivers via the relevant app


Still having issues with color accuracy in Astropad Studio?

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