Most common monitors nowadays have 1920x1080 resolution, same as HD TVs. When this resolution is available, some video card drivers, on Linux, will output limited RGB pixel ranges, considering the monitor as a TV. Instead of 8-bit per color (0 to 255), the video card outputs a limited range of 16 to 235 which causes washed out colors, with less bright white and less dark black. This may not be obvious at first sight, especially for regular users when switching to a new monitor.
Unfortunately, there is no straight fix for this issue on Ubuntu (or other Linux distributions). There are no options in settings app. More than that, the way of fixing this has changed with the new Ubuntu 21.04 which uses Wayland instead of Xorg display server. In this post I will show you how to address this issue on both display servers and get the expected picture colors on your HDMI monitor with Ubuntu.
