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Windows - color of the mouse pointer

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Today I calibrated, and then profiled, my ViewSonic VX20356WM LCD monitor. The calibration made a substantial change in the white point chromaticity of the monitor.

After this, I was surprised to find a distinct chromaticity difference between the "white" parts of my mouse pointer and a "white" area (255,255,255) on the desktop.

A little playing suggested that the chromaticity exhibited by the mouse pointer is that of the "native white point" of the monitor (with the current settings of its own controls).

In fact, if I restore the CLUT's in the graphic board to their "default" state, thus in effect "uncalibrating" the monitor (my calibration program allows me to ask for this to be done), the chromaticity of the mouse pointer and that of a 255,255,255 item on the desktop look essentially identical.

How does this happen? If the operating system generates the mouse pointer, and sends it toward the screen the same way other graphic items on the screen are sent, then it would end up displaying the same color as a 255,255,255" graphic item. (Both would be equally affected by the custom entries of the CLUT's in the video board resulting from the calibration process).

So, is the mouse pointer fed to the graphic board in a way such that it is, in effect, handled by the "default" CLUT mapping?

Recall that none of this should have anything to do with the application of the profile of the calibrated display chain by a profile-aware application.

I'll be grateful for any insight any of you can give in this matter.
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
"jliechty", writing in a related thread on Luminous Landscape, writes:

The mouse cursor is drawn internally by the video card, so under most circumstances, Windows doesn't take control of the color - as far as I understand, it just passes a bitmap outline to the video card.

Makes sense. And evidently the video card draws the pointer directly to the RGB inputs to the monitor, evading any transfer mapping by the CLUTs.

Best regards,

Doug
 
"jliechty", writing in a related thread on Luminous Landscape, writes:

The mouse cursor is drawn internally by the video card, so under most circumstances, Windows doesn't take control of the color - as far as I understand, it just passes a bitmap outline to the video card.

Makes sense. And evidently the video card draws the pointer directly to the RGB inputs to the monitor, evading any transfer mapping by the CLUTs.

Apparently, I never really noticed it until your post. It probably also explains why a regular "Print-Screen" won't capture the mouse pointer.

Cheers,
Bart
 
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