DreamColor LP2480zx Tool

Fix the pink tint and calibrate the HP DreamColor LP2480zx without HP's calibration kit.

What it does

• Fix the pink or purple tint by eye: move two sliders until white looks white, then save it in the monitor. You don't need a measuring device for this.
• Switch presets and set the brightness from Windows instead of the monitor's buttons, and see what every preset is set to.
• Calibrate the monitor in hardware with an X-Rite i1Pro2. The result is stored inside the monitor, so it works on any computer and any input.
• Touch up a calibrated preset when its white or brightness has drifted.
• Change a preset's tone curve (gamma 1.8 to 2.6, or sRGB) without a measuring device.
• Give the free preset, User-7, any gamut you like, including the full native gamut of the panel.
• Switch the Windows colour profile along with the preset, if you want.
• Measure the result and get a report.

What you need

• Windows 10 or 11.
• An HP DreamColor LP2480zx with its USB cable plugged into the PC. The program talks to the monitor through that cable.
• For calibration only: an X-Rite i1Pro2. The i1Display Pro, ColorMunki Display and i1Display 1 and 2 are supported too, but nobody has tested them yet.

Install

1. Download the zip from Releases.
2. Unzip it into a folder of its own, for example Documents\DreamColor Tool.
3. Run DreamColorTool.exe.

That's all you need to fix the tint by eye. To calibrate with a measuring device:

4. Open the Calibrate tab and press Get newest ArgyllCMS. It downloads the free ArgyllCMS into the program folder.
5. i1Pro2 and i1Display 1 or 2 only: plug the device in, then run ArgyllCMS_install_USB.exe once. It's in the usb folder inside the new Argyll_V... folder. The i1Display Pro doesn't need this.

Before you start: graphics card settings

Set the LP2480zx to RGB, Full range, 8 bpc. On NVIDIA: Control Panel, Change resolution, pick the LP2480zx, choose "Use NVIDIA color settings" and set:

• Output color depth: 8 bpc
• Output color format: RGB
• Output dynamic range: Full

With 10 bpc over HDMI the monitor loses its picture ("No input detected") when the program shows test colours.

NVIDIA sometimes goes back to "Use default color settings" (10 bpc) on its own, for example after the monitor switches presets. The program checks the bit depth before it shows test colours. If it finds 10 bpc, it asks you to set 8 bpc again and then carries on.

How to use it

Fix the tint by eye

1. Open the Adjust white by eye tab and tick the box at the top.
2. Press Grey test window and put it on the LP2480zx.
3. Move Blue / yellow and Pink / green until the grey looks neutral. The change shows up live. Brightness sets how bright the preset is.
4. Press Save to preset to keep it. Undo goes back to what's stored.

Calibrate with a measuring device

1. On the Calibrate tab, pick your measuring device and the preset.
2. i1Pro2: press Calibrate the i1Pro2 with the i1Pro2 on its white tile.
3. Press Full calibration and do what the yellow lines in the log say. Press Continue when you're ready. It takes about 45 minutes, most of it for the grey balance.
4. Press Verify to measure the result. Reports opens the folder with the reports.

Later on, Touch-up fixes drift in white and brightness in about 10 minutes, check included, without redoing everything.

The white point dropdown next to white x and y fills in D50, D55, D60 (ACES), D65 or D75 for you.

Change the tone curve

Pick the preset and a curve under Tone curve on the Calibrate tab, then press Set tone curve. It takes 1 to 2 minutes, and the white, brightness and grey balance stay as they are. Full calibration uses the same curve.

User-7: your own gamut

User-7 (preset 6) is the one preset without a fixed colour space. Pick its gamut under Gamut before a Full calibration:

• Native measures the panel's own red, green and blue and uses those: the largest gamut the monitor can show. On mine that covers 99.6% of Adobe RGB and 95.9% of DCI-P3, which suits print proofing with an ICC profile.
• sRGB / Rec. 709, Adobe RGB and Display P3 use the standard primaries.
• Custom lets you type the red, green and blue x and y yourself.

The other presets keep their standard gamut.

Windows colour profile per preset

Tick Switch the Windows colour profile with the preset at the bottom of the Presets tab. When you switch presets in the program, it makes the newest matching ICC profile the LP2480zx's Windows profile. It matches profile names the way DisplayCAL writes them: the monitor name, the mode and the date, for example LP2480zx rec709 2026-09-26 06-06 .... The last column of the Presets tab shows which profile each preset gets.

Hover over any button for a short explanation.

How it works

HP sold a calibration kit for the LP2480zx, and its software only works with HP's own colorimeter. This program uses HP's own DreamColorDLL.dll to talk to the monitor over its USB cable, but does the measuring with ArgyllCMS, which supports common measuring devices.

• The colours are shown by the monitor's built-in test pattern generator, so Windows, the graphics card and colour profiles don't affect the measurements.
• The calibration goes into the monitor's own 12-bit tables and the backlight settings of the preset.
• The monitor's backlight colour sensor keeps working after calibration, so the monitor still holds its white point by itself.
• After HP's calibration step, the program measures the greys and corrects them step by step. HP's calibration alone leaves them green-yellow.

Command line

dchost.exe does everything the GUI does, from a terminal. dchost help lists every command. The main ones:

Command	What it does
dchost info	Show the presets and their settings
dchost calibrate 4 --yes --greybalance	Full calibration of preset 4
dchost calibrate 6 --yes --primaries native --white 0.3457 0.3585 --curve 2.2 --greybalance	User-7 at the panel's native gamut, D50, gamma 2.2
dchost verify 4	Measure preset 4 and write a report
dchost touchup 4 --yes	Fix white and brightness drift on preset 4
dchost setcurve 4 2.4 --yes	Give preset 4 a gamma 2.4 tone curve, without measuring
dchost patterntest --preset 4	Test the monitor's test pattern, with detailed logging

Every step is written to dchost_log.txt in the program folder.

Problems

If the monitor says "No input detected" as soon as the test colours start, set the graphics card to 8 bpc (see above).

If the program says "Not connected", check that the monitor's USB cable is plugged into the PC, then press Reconnect.

If the measuring device stops answering, the program asks you to unplug it, plug it back in and press Continue. The job carries on after that.

For anything else, tick Detailed log for bug reports, do what went wrong again, and send me the file that Find bug-report file shows.

Build from source

1. Install Visual Studio 2022 (Community or Build Tools) with Desktop development with C++.
2. Get the source: git clone https://git.kemono.online/wearyfax/dreamcolor-lp2480zx-tool.git
3. Make a folder named hp in it and copy DreamColorDLL.dll, MFC71.dll, MSVCR71.dll and MSVCP71.dll from the release zip into it.
4. Run build.bat. The program ends up in the run folder.

License

The source code is under the GPL-3.0 (see LICENSE).

The release zip also contains HP's DreamColorDLL.dll and Microsoft's Visual C++ 7.1 runtime (MFC71.dll, MSVCR71.dll, MSVCP71.dll) from HP's DreamColor software. They belong to HP and Microsoft and aren't covered by the GPL. ArgyllCMS is downloaded separately and has its own license.

This project isn't affiliated with HP or X-Rite.