The present invention provides a method for characterizing display devices. Initially, a plurality of colors are generated on the display device. The generated colors are measured and a black point and a white point are determined. The measured colors are then corrected for the determined black point in order to obtain a plurality of chromaticity values. The chromaticity values of the corrected color values are averaged, and a tristimulus matrix is generated with the averaged chromaticity values and the determined white point. By averaging the chromaticity values of black-point-corrected measurements, the present invention is able to create more accurate display device characterizations that account for the effects of flare. In addition, by averaging the chromaticity values of black-point-corrected measurements, the present invention minimizes the effects of inaccurate color measurements made during the device characterization process.