Color temperature

Color temperature describes how warm or cool a white reference looks. A warmer-looking white is more reddish; a cooler-looking white is more bluish. The value is commonly expressed in kelvin (K), but it describes color, not how hot the display is. Adobe’s color-temperature explanation

In BetterDisplay, color-temperature controls change the image's color balance. This can help you understand why two controls with similar names do not necessarily give the same result: a software adjustment changes the image through one path, while the monitor's own control uses another.

Color temperature is also separate from Gamma and Brightness. Changing the white balance is not the same as making the whole image lighter or adjusting its middle tones.

See Image Adjustments for the related controls.