LCD monitor profiling: getting started

I have a cheap LCD monitor (Gem brand) I bought a year or so ago. It works okay for me but i've never calibrated and profiled it. I'd like to finally invest in a calibrator. I'm a click away from ordering the X-Rite EODIS2 Eye-One Display 2 as my quick research (thanks to this forum) says that's a fine choice.

Once I receive it I will take a serious look at my ambient light conditions and try to become comfortable living with less natural light in my workspace. I will also consider constructing a monitor hood.

Meanwhile I'll keep reading Real World Color Management.

Does it sound like i'm on the right track? Any advice / caveats at this stage welcome. Otherwise I'm sure you'll be hearing from me. Many thanks.

Does it sound like i'm on the right track?




Well… you also say

I have a cheap LCD monitor :/




Other than that, yes, you are on the right track.

Uh, good point, Ramon... I would consider replacing this monitor if necessary, but what are the main determinants of whether it's going to do the job? I have the specs in front of me but I'm not sure what I should be looking for.

Aaron,

EyeOne Display 2 is a good product. Start with that and calibrate your monitor.

We all have our opinions on what constitutes the best settings for monitor to print matching. Personally, I have settled on 5200K, 90 cd/m2 for white luminance, and 2.2 gamma. The black luminance usually ends up at about 0.3 cd/m2. This works great on my system and gives me a nearly perfect color and tonal scale match, but settings may need to be different depending on equipment, ambient lighting, viewing lights, etc. A little experimentation is usually in order. I find 6500K way too blue every time, but others seem happy with it. If your prints look dark and muddy compared to your monitor, it most likely means you have your monitor luminance set too high. Of course, you need good, accurate printer profiles for a given paper to end up with a valid monitor to print comparison. Proper viewing lights also help.

You can download various test patterns to verify how well your monitor is calibrated. If it looks good, save your money and use your existing monitor. If your monitor to print match stinks, then you can continue experimenting with different monitor calibration settings. If nothing works, a new monitor may be required, but you don't need to spend thousands to get a good match.

Here's a link to an article that probably gives you more information than you probably want.

<http://www.dinagraphics.com/userfiles/Creating%20Monitor%20and%20Printer%20Profiles.pdf>

Lou

Many thanks, Lou, for the thorough reply. I will read your PDF and I'm about to order the EyeOne. Will post a followup after I play with the calibrator...

Aaron

The saga continues...

I've been watching Chris Murphy's lynda.com 'Color Management Essential Training' videos, which are very good but i'm still not sure I'm doing this properly. Here's the story:

He outlines a test to determine whether your LCD display's backlight is controlled via the Brightness or Contrast on-screen control: fill a new Photoshop file with black, and adjust each control independently to determine which shows a visible change in the solid black. After resetting my monitor to defaults, and trying this, it was obvious that the Contrast control was linked to the backlight.

Murphy then demonstrates profiling, using the same Eye-One Match software. He skips the 'Set the Contrast' portion in the software, as that relies on adjusting the Contrast control to adjust backlight. I did do it, because my monitor backlight does appear to be controlled by Contrast.

Next is the 'Set the White Point' portion, which involves adjusting RGB values separately. Chris says it's not a good idea for non-high-end LCDs -- that it's better for white point adjustment to occur in the video card LUT. So he skips that portion, and -- although my monitor does allow such independent adjustment -- i skip it as well.

Then it's 'Set the Luminance', where we use the Brightness control. In Chris' case he's adjusting the backlight. In my case, uh, I dunno what I'm adjusting exactly. Anyway, I can't get the current marker all the way down to the target value. With Brightness at 0, it's slightly above my target 90. (I wonder if this means my monitor is burning out, or it's an indicator I should have done the RBG adjustment stage?) But Chris encourages staying slightly above the target so there's a little room to come down later. I settle at 92.6.

Then calibration, correction curve, RGB->XYZ, and a display profile is born!

I learned from Chris that Eye-One Match includes a Monitor Validator feature. I do it and find my DE2000 is 2.56! Seems quite high. (Chris' was 0.78.) Does it mean my monitor just sucks, or is it an acceptable value, or is there something I need to adjust?

In other news, blinds are more closed (except for one window -- this room has lots of 'em), room is darker, I shall start wearing black.

Thanks for any perspective on any of this.

A side question: Is it necessary to rent a lux meter to measure my ambient light?

To make it easy determining the right settings make you a 21 step grayramp or download this one...

<http://www.flickr.com/photos/26078880@N02/2837975435/sizes/o/>

....I created in AdobeRGB. Load it in a nonCM app like PictureViewer and make sure you can see separation between black and the next gray rectangle on the top and separation between 245RGB and 250RGB highlight rectangles by adjusting the contrast and/or brightness or whatever will give you the separation in the tones indicated. You want the blackest looking black and the brightness of your white to match the paper you print on viewed under the lights you will be using to proof with.

Next examine a white document loaded full screen on your display at night with all lights turned off and see if it's neutral looking. In fact it would be best to do the entire calibration routine at night anyway and have one of your lights you'll view your prints under available to turn on and off if needed. If the white of your display is neutral looking, then leave the color temp set to native in the calibration software.

In the i1Match software choose LCD, then advanced in the software and choose Native White Point, 2.2 gamma and luminance unchanged. Skip contrasts and brightness and let the i1 finish the calibration and profiling process where you'll arrive at a dialog box panel showing what it measured as the true response of your display.

You want the color temp readout to be between 6000K-6800K, the actual gamma and 2.2 target gamma should be pretty close and luminance should be around 90cdm/2 and black luminance should be around .3. These numbers will depend on how bright you set the white of your display when comparing it to a white sheet of print paper.

If luminance is too light or dark adjust the button on the display that affects overall brighness not contrast. You'll have to determine this yourself and recalibrate with the same settings described above and see which measurement changed in the final dialog box.

Tim, thanks for that thorough reply. I'm still stuck at the ambient light part though, before I choose my room lighting. Did you actually measure your ambient lux before calibrating?

Aaron,

I wouldn't obsess about your ambient lighting. Just keep it on the low side and calibrate your monitor. As mentioned, try to get the brightness of a white document in PS so that it appears about the same as a sheet of white paper under your normal viewing light.

Lou