Monitor Calibration

[Photorob]

I have just received my EIZO Coloredge LCD monitor and I am very impressed with the display. I have ordered the eye-one display 2 as the calibration device. I have tried to read all I can but am still confused regarding the integration of the calibration profile and the ICC profile of my printer and how this interacts with Photoshop. Every link I see is very confusing and I have 4-5 books on Photoshop but none seem to go into detail how this calibration profile is imported to bring all together for precise printed results. If anyone could suggest a link or book that is not too complicated I would appreciate. Photoshop was not any help when I tried to call. Has any one had any experience with the color navigator software that came with the monitor vs the software that is included with the eye-one device?

[cmM]

the software that comes with it has 2 options: Calibrate monitor, and calibrate printer. I never tried calibrating (or applying profile) to printer, but I assume that's what it;s for. I only used it to calibrate my monitor.

[Robesse]

You should really see this thread http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=29530

I share your frustration with color management. It seems that there is either no help or snooty techies that speak jibberish or go tell you to go read a book. As a novice let me share what I have gleaned.

The monitor profile controls how your your *monitor* reproduces color. The printer profile controls how your *printer* reproduces color. The both are trying to accurately represent the color information in the image file.

A few things to remember. Often the amount and range of color information in a photographic image file will exceed the ability of your monitor to reproduce color. Also, your monitor and printer speak different color 'languages.' Your monitor (and your camera or scanner) speaks in colored light (RGB). Your printer speaks in pigments (CYMK). Color management is about trying to control color information as it is interpreted by these various "output devices" and to minimize 'translation errors.'

How does this interact with Photoshop? Well when you make changes in Photoshop that you evaluate on the monitor the idea is that this change will be accurately reflected in the image when it is viewed by another person on another system or when it is printed.

So what does this mean for you? First accurately calibrate your monitor. This makes sure that what you see on your monitor meets international standards for color reproduction. The electronic value for a certain shade of blue should then reproduce the same shade of blue on your monitor as on everyone else's monitors all over the world. At least we hope so. The degree of success is always dependent on the calibration puck, the software, the monitor and the conditions of calibration.

From what I have read and my experience, LCD monitors can be tricky to calibrate. Follow the instructions that came with the puck and calibration software very closely. In my case it requires me to crank the contrast on my Gateway to 100% and brightness to 0 to get an accurate calibration. You may also have to play with contrast and brightness settings to get a decent calibration. The proof will be in the print.

The next thing you want to do is to make sure that when you manipulate and then save and print an image you are not changing how colors are being 'understood' or are removing color information (even information that your monitor can't display). In the first case, colors may shift or vary in intensity. In the second case an image may wash out in the print as the printer takes a narrow color range and 'spreads it out.' This creates gaps or "bands" of missing color information.

I recently had "banding" happen when I scanned a color negative. In PS I manipulated the image to change the foreground elements into a silhoette. When I printed it I found greys in the foreground where I only saw black on the monitor. What had happened was that I was using the monitor's color profile to as the "source" for the image document's colors. When I sent it to the printer the range of values that were all "black" according to the monitor contained what the printer saw as shades of gray.

How did I fix it? Color management!

I scanned the image and told the scanner to use a certain color standard. I used Adobe RGB. (This is where the Canon ICC Profiles Guide comes in.) I then told Photoshop to manage color using the same standard. I manipulated the image and then when I printed, I followed the instructions in the Canon ICC Profiles Guide. Worked perfectly!

-- Robesse

[Jesper]

Robesse already gave a good explanation.

The following article explains how colour management works and how to setup Photoshop: http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps8-colour/ps8_1.htm

There are two kinds of ICC profiles: device dependent and device indepent.

A device dependent profile, like the profiles for your monitor and printer, describes how a certain device reproduces colour. It tells Photoshop how colours will look on the device, so that Photoshop knows what colour the device is actually displaying when it sends certain colour numbers to the device.

A device independent profile describes a standard colour space, like sRGB or Adobe RGB. You always want to save your images in a standard colour space, and not in a device dependent space, because devices change over time. So you should set your working colour space in Photoshop to one of the standard colour spaces.