Poor Contrast On New Windows 11 Laptop - Solutions?

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Sandpatch

Senior Member
I bought a new Windows 11 HP laptop to replace my 14 year old laptop running Windows 10 and am frustrated to find there's no way to adjust basic contrast on the display. I find that it's a known problem. There's a "color contrast" calibration, but it provides no improvement. There seems to be much misunderstanding on Internet forums, that "Contrast" is the same as "Brightness" and these conversations lead nowhere. A lot of posts state "Contrast", but when you go there to read, the supposed path to adjust Contrast doesn't exist.

Nikonites members will know exactly what Contrast is.

Can anyone suggest a solution, perhaps third party display software that's good? I'd rather avoid suggestions to change my operating system to this or that or change to an Apple; at 65+, I no longer enjoy messing with tech like I once did. I might have to buy a supplementary monitor if I can find one with a contrast adjustment, but I don't have a lot of desk space. Or, I could continue to use my old laptop for photo processing, but it's terribly slow.

Thank you for any suggestions. (y)
 
Clovishound

Clovishound

Senior Member
I'd vote for the external monitor solution. You will likely have greater control of color, contrast, and brightness, as well as a larger image. I find that particularly helpful when editing. I'm running a 27" external monitor on my system. I have it tuned to give me a close match to the prints I get from my printer. I would hate to have to go back to the small, limited adjustment screen on my laptop. Name brand, high resolution 24'' - 27" monitors can be had for as low as $125.
 
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Sandpatch

Senior Member
Clovishound said:
I'd vote for the external monitor solution. You will likely have greater control of color, contrast, and brightness, as well as a larger image. I find that particularly helpful when editing. I'm running a 27" external monitor on my system. I have it tuned to give me a close match to the prints I get from my printer. I would hate to have to go back to the small, limited adjustment screen on my laptop. Name brand, high resolution 24'' - 27" monitors can be had for as low as $125.
Click to expand...

Reading your post, I took a fresh look at where I sit and if need be, I now think that I can move some things and place a small monitor on a low nearby shelf. My new laptop has only USB Ports (2 Ea A and 1 Ea C) and an HDMI out. I need to educate myself on monitors to see if any of these will work.
 
Clovishound

Clovishound

Senior Member
HDMI out is, I believe, the current standard. It's what mine uses. FYI, you can set your computer to stay on when the lid is closed. Of course, that means you will need an auxiliary keyboard and mouse.
 
nikonbill

nikonbill

Senior Member
Contributor
@Sandpatch -- I found the following, have you experimented with these settings?

Note - often there "could" be some slight variations to these comands
HP contrast.jpg
 
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Sandpatch

Senior Member
Thank you. I took a look, but found that "Contrast Themes" change or reverse colors to make tools such as Excel and Word easier to see. Each of the options produce a radically different screen not intended for adjustment. Sigh. There's also a tool to adjust text readability, but that doesn't help over screen contrast either.

I booted up my old laptop to compare screens and the old is better in contrast, but I also found that Windows 10, like Windows 11 has no general black contrast function. I wonder if screen engineering has changed to extend battery life or to cut costs? I read a post where someone described the screen as looking "washed out" and that's a pretty good description. Again, thanks for your suggestion.
 
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