Projector Color Temperature Test — White Balance Calibration

White is the colour our eyes judge most harshly, and a projector set too "cool" turns whites icy blue while a warm setting makes them yellow. This tool fills the screen with eight reference white points along the Planckian locus — 2700K, 3200K, 4000K, 5000K, 5500K, 6500K (D65), 7500K and 9300K — so you can see exactly where your image looks like clean, paper-white neutral. D65 is the white point that film, TV and the web are mastered to, so a correctly set projector should look colourless there; if it leans blue or amber, your white balance gain and bias need adjusting in the OSD.

How to calibrate white balance

1
Project D65 first

Open the 6500K field full-screen. Hold a sheet of plain white paper in the beam — image and paper should look the same neutral white.

2
Judge the tint

Bluish image means colour temperature is too high; yellow or pink means it is too low or a single channel is off.

3
Adjust gain and bias

In the projector's white-balance menu, trim the RGB gain (highlights) and bias/offset (shadows) until the cast disappears at D65.

4
Sanity-check the neighbours

Step to 5500K and 7500K — the shift should be smooth and even, with no channel jumping ahead of the others.

Find a neutral white point and chase out colour casts

D65 (6500 K) is the broadcast/cinema standard — your projector should look neutral here. Other points let you compare. Use a colorimeter for precise calibration.

Features

Eight white points
Warm 2700K tungsten through 5000K print, the 6500K/D65 video standard, up to icy 9300K — every preset a projector menu is likely to offer.
Planckian-locus accuracy
Each field is computed from blackbody chromaticity, so the warm-to-cool progression matches what real lighting and calibrated displays produce.
D65 neutral check
A correctly calibrated projector shows the 6500K field as pure, tint-free white — the fastest way to spot a colour cast against a sheet of white paper.
Keyboard and swipe stepping
Arrow keys, space or a swipe move between temperatures so you can A/B neighbouring points without leaving the projected image.

Why this white-balance test

A single neutral reference is worth more than a colourful chart when you are hunting a tint: this tool floods the screen with one pure white point at a time so even a faint blue or amber cast jumps out against white paper. Eight temperatures span the entire range a projector menu can reach, all derived from real blackbody chromaticity rather than rough guesses, and D65 is called out as the target everything is mastered to. Step between points with the keyboard or a swipe to compare presets quickly. It runs full-screen in the browser with nothing to install — get most of the way by eye, then refine with a colorimeter if you have one.

FAQ

What is D65 and why 6500K?

D65 is a standard daylight white point near 6504K used as the reference for HDTV, sRGB and almost all video and web content. Mastering is done to D65, so matching it on your projector is what makes whites and skin tones look correct.

Should I pick the "Warm" or "Cool" preset?

On most projectors the "Warm" preset lands closest to D65 and is the right choice for film and TV. "Cool" is usually around 9300K and pushes everything blue — fine for a bright sales floor, wrong for movies.

Can I get it right by eye alone?

You can clearly catch a gross blue or yellow cast against white paper and remove most of it. For a precise, repeatable result use a colorimeter (such as an i1Display or X-Rite) with free software like HCFR, which reads the actual chromaticity.

Why does my white look fine but skin tones look off?

White balance fixes the white point, but if individual red, green or blue channels track unevenly across brightness, mid-tones and skin can still drift. Set white balance here first, then verify with the gamma test and, ideally, a full grayscale measurement.

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📽️ Projector Owners
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