Calibrating A Monitor

Can someone tell me how you calibrate a monitor? It was pointed out to me on a post on another section and I have seen posts with others talking about the calibration on their monitor. How's it done?

Need to purchase a mouse like thing sticks to the monitor and reads colors emitted from the calibration software. The software will then create a profile that is read by Windows and various applications (like Photoshop).

This is what I use:
http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …ails&Q=&sku=310​560&is=REG

There is also software-only calibration but I don't know how effective it is.

A coarse calibration can be done with just software and your eyes, but true calibrations can only be done with a dedicated colorimeter such as the Spyder Pro 2. It comes with software and a device that sets against your monitor and reads the color values directly into the software to calibrate the system.

Mark

Go for Spyder2 Express for home user. Save more bucks for inks and paper.

Can you print out professional quality pictures with the Spyder2 Express?

Thanks,

Stacie

Spyder and other products like the Pantone Heuy (I have it -- $70 bucks and does a great job) will calibrate the monitor, so what you see is true. Printing is another matter entirely. That requires color profiles and other tweaking. The first step, is the monitor. You have to be sure you're looking at the world they way it is supposed to be. If your monitor is off, everything you do will be off as well.

I use the Spyder 2 Suite ($150) and it comes w/ PrintFix S/W. Calibrating the monitor is simple just follow the wizard. Shut the lights of for better results and come back when is done. The PrintFix is not that great but is usable, the alternative is more money.

Calibrating a monitor is a must if you want to soft proof result of your editing work. Without it, you won't see shadow/hightlight detail accurately on screen.


The software comes with the device read black point and white point from your monitor, it also reads sample data sequentially displays on screen during measuring time. Once all RGB signal has been read, it then compares with a lookup table; adjustment (normalise) will be made and store to your graphic adapter.


Note that once monitor has been calibrated you shouldn't change your monitor brightness/contrast/hu​e nor make any changes to your graphic adapter. From my experience, you need to recalibrate the monitor at least once a month.

I have been using a Gretag EyeOne & Profile Maker for 3 years, prints come out from my Epson 10600 & 9600 are very close to my monitor display.

Do you calibrate your printer as well?

Stacie

The nice thing about the Heuy is that it continues to monitor the ambient light and it makes small adjustments.

Yes I do.
I use Gretag Profile Maker 5, linerlize CMYK -> limit ink to my favourite Folex paper -> profile with 2000 patches -> fine tune to target profiles. Either CMYK or RGB workflow works well with my printers, I even sent over my test image to lab & offset proof results are very much identical to my monitors.

I use Onxy Production House & Shriaz RIP for printing, never print direct thru Epson driver,

Does all this calibration make noticeable effects or are they very subtle?

That would depend on how out-of-whack your monitor is before calibration.

Windows or Mac will use "canned" profile provided by monitor manufacturer if there is any, otherwise system will use generic profile instead. If you have created your own monitor profile, it will be using as default system profile.

I made a screen capture from EyeOne Capture, just to show you how mid low RGB tone are adjusted accordingly. After calibration you will see noticeable difference in shadow area also contrast of the monitor will be lower than normal.

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I use a Huey as well. Check the difference between my rough use of RSE on an uncalibrated lcd versus RSP on a 20" calibrated lcd in my latest blog post at:
http://www.navesink.ne​t

Sam