Re: [Gimp-user] Is a high bit depth monitor worth getting? (was Re: emerge --emptytree : how to ?)

[Elle Stone <ellestone ninedegreesbelow com>]

On 10/20/2017 12:30 PM, Kevin Cozens wrote:
> GIMP is moving towards higher colour depth. Would a high bit depth 
> monitor be worth it? That would depend on your use case(s). Is GIMP the 
> only program you would run that would benefit from a high bit depth 
> monitor? Do you run other programs that would benefit from such a 
> monitor? Will your computers graphical environment (aka. desktop) 
> support full use of a high bit depth monitor?

GIMP 2.9/2.10 does process images at 32-bit floating point. But at this 
point the GIMP code that sends the image to the screen for display works 
at 8-bit integer, using "CAIRO_FORMAT_ARGB32".

Cairo does provide "CAIRO_FORMAT_RGB30  -> like RGB24 but with 10bpc. 
(Since 1.12)".

Which if any editing programs use CAIRO_FORMAT_RGB30? How would it 
impact performance if GIMP started using CAIRO_FORMAT_RGB30?

There's an open darktable issue on the topic:
https://redmine.darktable.org/issues/10197

Over on the ArgyllCMS mailing list is a nice discussion of 30-bit 
displays, distinguishing between calibration and profiling: 
https://www.freelists.org/post/argyllcms/Argyll-and-30bit-colors,3

Not every free/libre image editor uses cairo to send images to the 
screen. Can Krita make use of 10-bit monitor displays, using whatever it 
is that qt apps use?

Will cairo still be used if/once Linux switches over to Wayland?

Elle