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.
Black Level Patterns & Layout
🔲 The Grid: We display 16 near-black squares focused on the most useful shadow-detail range: RGB 1-8, then 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24, and 28.
⬛ The Background: The background is set to absolute black (RGB 0, 0, 0).
🏷️ Labels: Tiny labels indicate the RGB color value of each box.
Black Level Instructions: What to Look For
- 🌙 Prepare your room: For the most accurate results, view this screen in a dark or dimly lit room.
- 👀 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.
- ⚫ Check for Black Crush: If the boxes from 1 to 5 are completely invisible or look identical to the background, your display is crushing blacks. If even 6-8 are hard to separate, the black level is still too low.
Black Level 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.