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Apple-approved accuracy From Studio Display to Macbook Pro, Calibrite’s affordable Display Plus HL gives next-level colour consistency using your Mac’s built-in calibration workflow
All serious photographers and content creators will know that colour accuracy is vital. Whether you’re preparing images for print, editing a wedding album or grading a video, displays need to show colours exactly as they should appear. Now, thanks to a major milestone for Calibrite, achieving that level of accuracy on Apple displays has become significantly easier and more affordable. The Calibrite Display Plus HL is the first colorimeter to receive official Apple approval for use with Apple’s built- in display calibration system. This means that it can perform true hardware-level calibration on supported Apple displays, which includes the Apple Studio Display, Studio Display XDR, Pro Display XDR and compatible Macbook Pro models. The difference is significant. Traditional display profiling works by creating a correction profile that sits on top of the display output. Apple’s
calibration workflow instead writes adjustments directly to the display hardware itself for a more precise and consistent image across the entire brightness range, from SDR workflows through to HDR content reaching up to 2000 nits. Beyond calibration Until recently, this level of colour
calibration has been largely restricted to specialist colour facilities that possessed professional spectroradiometers, which could cost thousands of pounds. Except the Display Plus HL changes all this. At just £309, it brings professional-grade calibration within reach of creatives working on Apple systems. The Display Plus HL has also been designed with the future in mind. It supports Apple’s next-generation colour- matching function, ensuring compatibility with evolving display technologies and colour standards. For anyone who needs a complete colour management workflow, Calibrite’s Display Plus HL also works seamlessly with Calibrite Profiler software for ICC profiling, display validation and reporting. This maintains colour consistency across multiple devices and outputs. With Apple approval, hardware- level accuracy and a price point that makes professional colour management accessible to more users than ever, the Calibrite Display Plus HL represents an important step forward for anyone serious about their images. The Display Plus HL brings pro-grade calibration within reach of Apple system users
Colour revolution: The core of the breakthrough
Calibrite’s general manager Stefan Zrenner answers our questions on this landmark achievement with Apple. The partnership between Calibrite and Apple – what does it actually mean? It’s simple: Apple built a professional display calibration tool right into MacOS, and the Calibrite Display Plus HL is the device that drives it. You connect this compact sensor to your Mac, place it on the screen and Apple’s built-in software retunes your display to be colour-accurate, automatically, in about 45 minutes; no extra software or expert knowledge required. For many years, that precision lived only in high-end studios. Now it works natively on your own Mac, with a device most creatives can actually afford. Apple displays already look stunning out of the box. Why would a photographer, videographer or designer need to calibrate it? They do look beautiful but ‘looks good’ and ‘is accurate’ aren’t the same. Every display drifts a little over time and
no two screens are identical. If your screen is even slightly off, the print comes back wrong, the client sees different colours than you did, or your edit looks great on your Mac and dull everywhere else. Calibration removes that guesswork. What makes this different from calibration tools people have used for years? Firstly, it’s hardware-level. Traditional tools lay a correction layer on top of the picture, like putting a tinted filter in front of the screen. Our approach with Apple writes the correction into the display itself, fixing the colour at the source. It’s cleaner, and it updates every display mode at once. Second of all, it’s accessible. Apple’s calibrator officially supports only one affordable device – the Calibrite Display Plus HL.
Accurate, hardware-level colour was locked behind professional colour- grading suites. By bringing it into MacOS and onto a device under £400, we’re handing the same precision to the freelance photographer, the indie filmmaker, the designer working from a home studio. More people than ever create on Apple hardware, and the bar for visual quality keeps rising. Where is this heading? What does the future look like? This is a foundation, not a finish line. Apple is moving the whole industry forward with a new modern colour standard that finally moves past a measurement model from the thirties, and the Display Plus HL is built to work with it. As Apple’s displays evolve, this device evolves with them. For professionals who want to go even further, it pairs with the Calibrite Profiler software for fine- tuning, profiling and reporting, so you get one accurate foundation plus the freedom to build on top of it. This is the start of a long-term, future-proof colour pipeline for Apple users.
Every display drifts a little
over time and no two screens are identical
calibrite.com
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