Ctrlk
For the complete documentation index, see llms.txt. This page is also available as Markdown.

Vectorscope

The Vectorscope plots chrominance on a circular graph — hue as angle from 0°, saturation as distance from the center (which represents gray). Use it to evaluate color balance, skin-tone accuracy, and broadcast-legal saturation.

The classic vectorscope is a plot of the Cb / Cr plane of Y'CbCr — the two color-difference signals that, together with luma (Y'), fully describe a video picture. "Zero chroma" is the center point, which is why neutral gray, white, and black of every level all collapse to a single dot there.

Vectorscope with 75 % targets, skin-tone line, and I/Q guides
Vectorscope features: Color Wheel mode, hexagonal rings, trace outline, skin-tone tolerance band, improved target indicators, and I/Q lines

Transform Modes

Mode
Description

YUV

Classic broadcast vectorscope (CbCr plane). Default.

HSL

Saturation-weighted projection — useful for look-dev work

You can switch Orientation to the alternate rotation mode in either transform mode. For a color-wheel-style orientation, use HSL transform with the alternate orientation mode.

Zoom

Zoom into the center of the plot for fine color-balance work or expand to see the full gamut.

Input
Action

Mouse wheel

Zoom in / out (continuous)

Middle-click or Double-click

Reset to 100 %

Zoomed vectorscope for precise color balance inspection

Context-menu presets: 100 % and 200 % for quick switching.

Input Gain

Boost the trace intensity to reveal low-saturation detail.

Input
Action

Mouse wheel (with Mouse wheel gain enabled)

Adjust gain (1×–5×)

Middle-click or Double-click

Reset gain to 1×

Enable Mouse wheel gain in the scope settings to switch the scroll wheel from zoom to gain control.

Graticule & Guides

Graticule and guide settings

Graticule Style

Style
Description

Standard

Circular rings with crosshair, I/Q lines, and target boxes

Hue Vectors

Gradient-based hue visualization with directional vectors

Color Wheel

Full color wheel background for intuitive hue reference

Hue Vectors graticule style
Color Wheel graticule style

Guide Elements

Guide
Description

HUE Ring

Color wheel around the outer edge. Can be dimmed for less distraction.

Crosshair

X/Y axis lines through center

Rings

Saturation reference rings. Toggle between circular and hexagonal paths.

I/Q Lines

In-phase / Quadrature axis guides

Outer Scale

Tick marks around the outer ring

Vectors

Broadcast color-bar target markers

Skin-tone Line

Configurable reference line at a user-defined hue angle (default 123°)

Skin-Tone Indicator Band

The skin-tone line can be expanded into an optional tolerance band. This helps you quickly see whether skin hues stay close to your chosen reference angle.

Setting
Description

Show Fleshtone Line

Enables the skin-tone reference axis

Fleshtone Angle

Sets the reference angle (0–359°, default 123°)

Show Tolerance Band

Draws a shaded angular band around the reference line

Tolerance

Band half-width in degrees (±1° to ±45°; common values are ±10° or ±20°)

Tolerance Band Color

Adjust band color and opacity for visibility

Skin-tone tolerance band on the vectorscope

Interpretation: trace energy inside the band is within your current skin-tone tolerance; trace energy outside the band indicates hue drift from that reference.

Broadcast Targets

Target
Description

75 %

Standard 75 % color-bar targets (default: on)

100 %

Full-level color-bar targets

Target color and position are derived from the active color space.

Trace Presentation

Setting
Description

Colorize

Tint the trace with per-pixel color (vs. monochrome)

Linearize trace ("De-gamma")

Apply the inverse EOTF to the trace-density accumulator so that the visual brightness of the plot follows light-linear energy instead of the non-linear R'G'B' code values. Makes shadow-region and highlight-region saturation appear with similar visual weight — useful for log or HDR signals where a raw trace would be dominated by midtone density. It does not change the chroma position of any sample, only how brightly it is drawn.

Smooth Trace

Temporal blend for a cleaner, less noisy look

Enhanced Render

Line-strip rendering instead of point cloud

Gain

Master trace brightness (0.02–3.0)

Enhance Center

Extra gain applied to the low-saturation core (0–12)

Highlight Trace Edges

Render a colored outline at the outermost boundary of the trace — highlights the signal extent at a glance.

Trace edge highlight showing signal boundary

Split Tones (L/M/H)

Split the trace into three independent Lows / Mids / Highs buckets, each drawn in its own circle. Buckets are defined by luma (Y', the weighted R'G'B' sum — not scene-linear luminance), so the split follows the same tonal perception a colorist uses when talking about lift / gamma / gain. This reveals how color shifts across shadow, midtone, and highlight regions.

Vectorscope in L/M/H split mode
L/M/H split with Color Wheel graticule
Setting
Description

Split L/M/H

Enable the three-way split

LM ratio

Boundary between Lows and Mids (default 33 %)

MH ratio

Boundary between Mids and Highs (default 66 %)

Ring brightness

Adjust graticule brightness per bucket

Enhanced render

Sharper rendering for split view

L/M/H Preview

Hold Alt to see a false-color overlay on the Source Signal showing which pixels fall into each luma range — blue for lows, green for mids, red for highs.

L/M/H preview overlay showing luminance ranges on the source image

Zoomed L/M/H

Use the standard vectorscope zoom controls while inspecting the split circles.

Zoomed L/M/H split — focus on mids

Luma Range Clamp

Instead of splitting into three buckets, clamp to a single luma range using the Min / Max sliders. Only pixels whose Y' falls within the range are plotted — useful for isolating the color of skin pixels, of highlights alone, or of a specific zone of the image without masking.

Saturation Alerts

Set thresholds to flag illegal or excessive saturation levels.

Saturation alert ring and max ring indicators
Alert
Description

Alert Ring

Colored ring at a configurable saturation threshold. Signal exceeding it triggers a visual warning. Drag the ring interactively to reposition.

Max Ring

Tracks and displays the absolute maximum saturation contour in real time

Outline

GPU-rendered trace boundary with anti-aliasing. Use the Outline Thickness slider to adjust the rendered width (0.5–5 px).

Each alert has a customizable color.

Low-Pass Filter

Enable Low-Pass filter to apply a horizontal box blur to the trace, reducing noise and making trends easier to read. Adjustable kernel size (0.5–20).

Global Targets

Global targets appear as RGB reference points on the vectorscope, providing shared color targets across all scopes and layouts.

Color Pins

When color pins are placed on the Source Signal, they appear as markers on the vectorscope at the corresponding hue/saturation position.

Color pins reflected on the vectorscope

Right-click any color pin on the vectorscope to Set as custom target — a quick way to turn a sampled color into a global target without manually entering values.

Right-click a color pin to set it as a custom target

Color Space

The vectorscope defaults to the working signal. Use Color Space Transform override in Source & Input to evaluate the trace in a selected working/display transform.

Skin-Tone Practice

Skin tones usually align close to the skin-tone axis, a reference direction inherited from the NTSC I/Q color-difference system. I and Q were axes rotated 33° from Cb/Cr to align the high-bandwidth I (In-phase) axis with the orange/cyan "memory color" line that human vision is most sensitive to — and the -I direction corresponds roughly to human skin. Most properly exposed skin falls within ~10–20° of that axis regardless of complexion; only hue balance differs, not the underlying axis.

Creative and regional preferences still apply, so use the tolerance band as a visual guide, not a hard rule. A heavily stylized grade will deliberately pull skin off-axis.

Keyboard Shortcuts

macOS
Windows
Action

Mouse wheel

Mouse wheel

Zoom (or Input Gain if enabled)

Middle-click

Middle-click

Reset zoom / gain

Alt (hold)

Alt (hold)

Preview L/M/H split ranges

StreamDeck / Action Editor

Action
Description

VectorScopeZoom

Button: toggle 1×/2× zoom. Dial: fine zoom (±5 %, 35–500 %)

VectorToggleLmh

Toggle Split L/M/H mode

Related

PreviousWaveformNextSat / Lum

Last updated