The primary goal of a color characterization model is to establish a mapping from digital input values d(i) (i = R,G,B) to tristimulus values such as XYZ. A good characterization model should be fast, use a small amount of data, and allow for backward mapping from tristimulus to di. The characterization models considered here are for the case of an end user who has no direct knowledge of the internal properties of the display device or its device driver. Three characterization models tested on seven different display devices are presented. The characterization models implemented in this study are a 3D look up table (LUT) (Raja Balasubramanian, Reducing the Cost of Lookup Table Based Color Transformations, Proc IS&T/SID 7th Color Imaging Conference 1999;44:321-327), a linear model (Fairchild MD, Wyble DR. Colorimetric Characterization of the Apple Studio Display (Flat Panel LCD). Munsell Color Science Laboratory Technical Report, 1998), and the masking model (Tamura N, Tsumura N, Miyake. Masking Model for accurate colorimetric characterization of LCD. Proc IS&T/SID 10th Color Imaging Conference 2002;312-316). The devices include two CRT monitors, three LCD monitors, and two LCD projectors. The results of this study indicate that a simple linear model is the most effective and efficient for all devices used in the study. A simple extension to the linear model is presented, and it is demonstrated that this extension improves white prediction without causing significant errors for other colors. (c) 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.