The Little Argyll GUI

The Little Argyll GUI is a front end for the ArgyllCMS color management system. It uses graphic elements to simplify the creation and use of the ArgyllCMS command line. Different sets of parameters may be saved for different tasks, including calibration and profiling of displays and printers, and profiling input devices such as cameras and scanners. Links to the Argyll documentation are provided throughout.

Bonus features include the ability to create custom spectrum files for daylight series illuminants with any amount of ultraviolet filtering (such as D60 with 25% U.V., for example). You may also create custom patch sets for grays and near-grays, or specific tones such as sepia, and add them to a printer profile patch set.

Little Argyll GUI 1.0.1 is a Python 3 script (LittleArgyllGUI.py) with a GTK 3 user interface (a.k.a. PyGObject).

If you are using Linux and have Python 3 installed (by default with most distros; check via python3 --version), you should be able to make it executable (right click – Properties – Permissions – Allow executing file as program) and run it out of the box (double click – Run); Argyll then runs in the built-in VTE terminal.

Installation instructions are provided at the PyGObject Getting Started page, but they are written for GTK 4; the instructions below should work for GTK 3. Then run the script via python3 LittleArgyllGUI.py; Argyll then runs in the same terminal. I have tested these on Windows 10 and my Mac mini, but I do not regularly use those operating systems so I am not any sort of expert. If you have trouble, my advice is to switch to Linux. 🙂

To run script.py using Python 3 and GTK 3:

Windows

Go to http://www.msys2.org/ and download the x86_64 installer
Follow the instructions on the page for setting up the basic MSYS2 environment
Run C:\msys64\mingw64.exe - the MinGW terminal window should pop up
Execute pacman -Suy
Execute pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-gtk3 mingw-w64-x86_64-python3 mingw-w64-x86_64-python3-gobject
Copy script.py to C:\msys64\home\<username>
In the MinGW terminal execute python3 script.py

Note: MSYS2 no longer supports Windows 7 and 8.0.
You may have some luck with the 2022-10-28 release. See also repo.msys2.org.
For compatible Python releases, see www.python.org/downloads/windows.

macOS

Go to https://brew.sh/ and install homebrew
Open a terminal
Execute brew install pygobject3 gtk+3
Optionally, execute brew install vte3
Change the working directory to where script.py can be found (e.g. cd Desktop)
Run python3 script.py

Ubuntu / Debian

Open a terminal
Execute sudo apt install python3-gi python3-gi-cairo gir1.2-gtk-3.0
Change the working directory to where script.py can be found (e.g. cd Desktop)
Run python3 script.py

Fedora

Open a terminal
Execute sudo dnf install python3-gobject gtk3
Change the working directory to where script.py can be found (e.g. cd Desktop)
Run python3 script.py

Arch Linux

Open a terminal
Execute sudo pacman -S python-gobject gtk3
Change the working directory to where script.py can be found (e.g. cd Desktop)
Run python3 script.py

openSUSE

Open a terminal
Execute sudo zypper install python3-gobject python3-gobject-Gdk typelib-1_0-Gtk-3_0 libgtk-3-0
Change the directory to where script.py can be found (e.g. cd Desktop)
Run python3 script.py

(It is possible to compile the script into a Windows or Mac executable, but my attempts resulted in download sizes from 20 to hundreds of megabytes.)

When using the working environments above, clicking text links may result in warnings: Couldn't export handle, unsupported windowing system and Unable to show '': Operation not supported; ignore them.

In my Windows 10, using MinGW-w64, the background selector does not work; everything else does.

Little Argyll GUI 1.0.1 is an update for Argyll 3.0.0. A few parameters are not present in older Argyll versions.

Now all you need is a gadget, such as an i1 Pro 3 or ColorChecker Studio from X-Rite or Calibrite.
And while you’re at it, get a ColorChecker target for your camera.