With the ongoing implementation of the Wayland and ICC profile support in Plasma 6, I would like to propose adding direct support for Adobe .cube format 3D LUTs (17x17x17, 33x33x33, 65x65x65) for display calibration.
Rationale:
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Industry Standardization: The
.cubeformat is the de facto standard in broadcast, post-production, and color-critical workflows (Adobe, DaVinci Resolve, Calman, ColourSpace, LightSpace). -
Elimination of CMM/ICC Overhead & Degeneration: Encapsulating a high-resolution 3D LUT into an ICC profile (via 3D CLUT) is prone to interpolation errors, gamut clipping, and tone-curve misinterpretation by color management engines. It also introduces unwanted CMM round-trip conversions when the intended workflow is a strict 1:1 hardware or post-process calibration pass.
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Pipeline Efficiency: Native
.cubeingestion allows KWin to load calibration data directly into the GPU’s hardware color pipeline (DRM/KMS3D_LUTCRTC/plane property where supported by the driver/hardware) or apply it seamlessly as a post-tonemapping fragment shader pass prior to scanout, ensuring a zero-contamination calibration chain at the compositor level.
Providing an interface in System Settings > Display and Monitor to load a .cube file directly onto a display output would make Plasma the leading desktop environment for broadcast and color-grading professionals on Linux.