The relationships were derived between the brightness and contrast settings and the corresponding color characteristics of CRT displays.By setting the brightness and contrast of a Neso color display to 20%,50%,80% and 100% respectively(totally 16 groups),the black point luminance,white point luminance,tune reproductive curve(TRC),channel additivity,color gamut and the constant channel chromaticity under each setting were measured and compared in detail.The experimental results showed that the black point was mainly affected by brightness settings and the white point by contrast settings.The black point played important roles in channel additivity,color gamut and the constant channel chromaticity.When the black point luminance was as small as possible,the white point luminance met the requirement of the application while the TRC did not cross the discrete integer value axis or luminance axis,the display achieved the best settings with respect to brightness and contrast.