Color management is today a firm component of most operating systems. It describes color areas and thus characteristics of devices such as monitors, scanners, printers, digital cameras and the transformation of colors between these devices.
DICOM is thereby responsible for the production of a precise ICC profile of your monitor after a calibration, and this profile can be saved. This profile can guarantee then in interaction with the profiles of the other devices of the production chain a precise representation.
The DICOM Grayscale Standard Display Function (GSDF) describes the non-linear human perceptual response to different levels of luminance in mathematical terms, based on Bartens model of the human visual system. The GSDF defines a standard curve against which different types of display devices can be calibrated, such that the calibrated image display uses the available contrast of the display device in a perceptually linear way (i. e. the difference between black and 5% gray is perceived equal to the difference between white and 95% gray).
A calibration of different types of display devices (e. g. screen/film and grayscale monitor) according to the GSDF cannot yield an identical image display if the physical properties of the display devices in terms of spatial and contrast resolution differ. However, instead of identical, the calibration can yield a consistent image display which means that the appearance of the image to the human observer is as similar as possible given the differing properties of the display devices.
The DICOM GSDF model can be applied to a wide range of display devices, including CRT (cathode ray tube) and flat-panel monitors (which are considered as a display system together with the graphics adapter to which they are attached), reflective hardcopy printers (paper) and transmissive hardcopy printers (film).