Black Level

The Black Level test determines how well your monitor can distinguish between absolute black and “near-black” shades. This is essential for seeing detail in dark video games, noir movies, and professional color grading work.

🧪 Test Patterns & Layout

🔲 The Grid: We display 20 squares with increasing RGB values (1, 2, 3… up to 40, and a 255 reference).

⬛ The Background: The background is set to absolute black (RGB 0, 0, 0).

🏷️ Labels: Tiny labels indicate the RGB color value of each box.

📋 Instructions: What to Look For

1. 🌙 Prepare your room: For the most accurate results, view this screen in a dark or dimly lit room.
2. 👀 Find the visibility limit: Look at the box labeled “1”. Ideally, you should be able to see this square as being very slightly brighter than the absolute black background.
3. ⚫ Check for Black Crush: If the boxes from 1 to 5 are completely invisible or look identical to the background, your display is “crashing blacks.” This means you are losing 10-20% of the detail in dark movie or game scenes.

🧠 Expert Interpretation & Calibration

🖤 OLED Displays: These should easily show Box 1 against the background because they have infinite contrast. If they don’t, check your “Black Level” or “Luminance” settings.

🖥️ IPS/LCD Displays: These often have a “Minimum Luminance” (IPS Glow). Box 1 might be hard to see because the background itself is slightly gray.

🔧 Troubleshooting: If you see a heavy “gray haze” instead of deep black, ensure your PC is outputting a “Full Dynamic Range” (0-255) signal in your GPU settings, not “Limited” (16-235).

Free online black level calibration, fix crushed blacks, monitor shadow detail test, display brightness setup tool.