Need some help on monitor calibration

[Phyllam]

I've got a PhotoCAL to cal my LCD monitor. I am kind of confused to get that working under Photoshop, hope someone can help me to clarify few points:

Once I got the calibrated ICC profile for that monitor, do I have to use the soft proof setting to tell Photoshop to use that profile? i.e. set it to that ICC profile under customize.

Should I also edit my picture using soft proof? Say if I were to print it on an Epson 2200 printer, should I edit my picture using soft proof setting set to that printer profile?

Regards

[Roger_Cavanagh]

Phyllam,

I think you just have to specify your monitor profile in the OS. Photoshop will then use it automatically and you can forget about it (til you check calibration again :) ).

You don't need to edit in your printer space. Edit in your normal working space (Adobe RGB seems to be the most common), then proofing will show you if there will be any colour changes or clipping in the final print of the image.

There are some links to some good info on colour management here http://www.rogercavanagh.com/library/t18_colour_management.htm

Regards,

[john_houghton]

You might also check out this Adobe article - they recommend loading the custom profile with Adobe Gamma. (You did disable Adobe Gamma when you generated your profile, I suppose?).

Adobe Gamma and Third-Party Monitor Calibration Utilities (http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/13252.htm)

John

[Phyllam]

Roger

Thanks for your reply. I did stop the Adobe gamma during the start up and I am sure that PhotoCAL did startup and change the color setting of the monitor. As I can see there is a change in color, so it means the OS should be using the calibrated monitor profile.

However, when I start Photoshop and open some picture, it seems that I got a better color if I go to the Proof Setup > and set it to Monitor RGB
or Proof Setup >set it to Custom and Profile - select the calibrated monitor profile.

It seems that if I don't do this, Photoshop just use the Window profile instead of the Monitor profile.

Am I doing something wrong?

[Roger_Cavanagh]

phyllam wrote:
Roger

Thanks for your reply. I did stop the Adobe gamma during the start up and I am sure that PhotoCAL did startup and change the color setting of the monitor. As I can see there is a change in color, so it means the OS should be using the calibrated monitor profile.
However, when I start Photoshop and open some picture, it seems that I got a better color if I go to the Proof Setup > and set it to Monitor RGB
or Proof Setup >set it to Custom and Profile - select the calibrated monitor profile.

It seems that if I don't do this, Photoshop just use the Window profile instead of the Monitor profile.

Am I doing something wrong?

Phyllam,

Monitor RGB provides a preview based on the monitor profile where Mac and Windows use the gamma of each platform respectfully. This is useful if a user wishes to get an idea what a file will look like on a Windows machine while viewing it on a Macintosh or vice versa.

This is what Andrew Rodney says in his extremely useful article Photoshop Colour Management (downloadable here http://digitaldog.net/files/II-PS6ColorManagement.pdf). If I understand it correctly, soft-proofing using the monitor profile is only helpful to know what the image will look like on a different platform. If there is a difference, I think this just means that the image would not look identical on a Mac and a PC, so presumably the monitor calibration/profile is not perfect.

I'm scrabbling around at the edges of my knowledge here, but I created my monitor profile using Adobe Gamma. I'm using Win XP btw. I have specified the monitor profile in Display Properties>Settings>Advanced>Colour Management. I can tell that it's recognised by PS because Image>Mode>Assign shows the monitor profile in the dropdown list. I'd never assign the monitor profile because (a) I already know what it looks like and (b) no-one else using the image would have the same profile.

I'd be much more concerned that soft proofing for a printer profile did not show a colour difference. I've just picked a picture at random and selected a profile for Epson semi-gloss. A very few areas in the image change when I turn soft prooofing on and off. Those areas are identified by the gamut warning, but for the most part the colours in the picture don't change. WYSIWYG - so I'm happy.

Regards,