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Discussion Board -> Desktop Wallpaper, Art, etc. -> Screen Calibration

Screen Calibration

::kjh000
10/27/05 7:42 AM GMT
I've discussed this in the past with some of you and revived my thoughts about it in a series of PMs with a friend here. I submitted an image I made yesterday, called B&W Calibration. This image will not help with the sorry business about setting colors per se on screens for obvious reasons... ^_^

My hope is that it could help in setting the right level of brightness or in other words, white and black point. ePaperPress has got a great page on the subject. I've borrowed the idea of using those particular black and white hues from there. I'm not sure my image will be the same help that their page is. I'm encouraging you all to go and check out that site, my main aim with this image is in fact to make you think about the subject and perhaps spark your interest to look into the matter.

What do I know, you may be experts in the matter. In that case just fill me in and I'll sit back and listen. ^_^ The upper small scales are best for black point testing and the lower is good for the opposite... At least on my screen. :P

It was just a thought I had... Lest see if it is any help or if I need to get back to the drawing board. (At any rate, you have that link to the site that can give you help and explanation of the theory behind, that I must say I don't know enough of most probably.)
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::kjh000
10/27/05 2:11 PM GMT
I'm thrilled over your enthusiasm in the matter... :P I didn't have a clue it was *that* interesting. ^_^
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::mia04
10/27/05 2:40 PM GMT
It is interesting... Although I dind't understand all of what the site you linked to said... But it seems my monitor is pretty good calibrated (so I don't have to understand all the explanations right now, lucky me). Anyway, I've saved the link, in case I need it some time, so thanks for posting it!
Well, for the enthusiasm it's a bit too technical I think, and besides that, the other half of the world has to wake up yet ;-)
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For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, plausible, and wrong. - H. L. Mencken
::regmar
10/27/05 7:00 PM GMT
Klas has a good point there about the importance of monitor calibration. The girl at the local camera store that develops my prints suggested that I do it as well. She suggested I print in 8x10 one of my colorful images and one of my B&W images with a wide tonal range, then take them home and hold them next to my monitor, and adjust the monitor settings until the monitor image looks the same as the print. This way I can be sure that what I see on my monitor is what I'll see when I get the print back. It worked.

Unfortunately each diffent development service prints my images differently, so I guess I need a monitor calibrated for each service :-)

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ж Regmar ж
bjb
10/27/05 11:18 PM GMT
I'm here Klas and listening. Just so you know. Checking all your info. too and subscribing. Thanks.
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When you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance... Leanne Womack
::kjh000
10/29/05 8:06 PM GMT
Thanks for the input and showed interest. :) I guess I don't care that much about all the technical parts of the theory behind it all... I just feel you ought to take the time to try and adjust your screen so it gives you the most from the awesome art we can find here...

Regmar... I agree you could do that in the specific case for developing prints from that particular service... I would not use that setting for my everyday use of the computer though. The sRGB with a gamma of 2.2 and white point at D65 is what I've settled for. I'm quite sure my pieces will continue to look the best on my own screen though... Perhaps one must have a set of different screen settings for different use? I know it's a whole science to get color calibration to not act up in a workflow.

Any extra info is welcome. I guess this thread is set for self-destruct though... It's the elephant graveyard next I would presume. ^_^
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&trisbert
10/30/05 2:25 PM GMT
I remember our discussions about uniform colour calibration. After much confusion and a lot of hair tearing I ended up using a little utility called Quick Monitor Profile. It gets the colour values of your monitor. I then put those values into Adobe Gamma. I use Adobe Gamma in the normal way except I use those custom values from Quick Monitor Profile. It seems to work all right for me and I can see all the patches at ePaperPress.

You can get Quick Monitor Profile from

http://quickgamma.de/QuickMonitorProfile/indexen.html

if your interested.

It just occurred to me that Photoshop or any other editor work by numeric values. That means you can create your own calibration scale with values to suit your purpose and they should be accurate.
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There are three colours, Ten digits and seven notes, its what we do with them that’s important. Ruth Ross
::kjh000
10/30/05 3:06 PM GMT
I think that is so (regarding your last point) that was why I thought I could make an image that would work for other to calibrate their screens as well.

That link may prove usable for many windows users. ;) There are some freeware apps for mac too but I'm more then satisfied with the OS X built in calibrator.
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bjb
10/30/05 4:14 PM GMT
I'm back. Now that the discussion search is working again, I was able to find the other discussions on this in the past. It appears that the Standard RGB is what most who are not too technical (like me) should be aiming towards. It is, in fact, nearly if not the exact same as my eMac settings were to begin with. However, the Generic RGB is what I believe many if not most on Caedes are closer to with their settings.
I have spent exasperating hours on this in the past. Standard is a great deal darker than Generic. Generic is the lightest one out of all the profiles I have created. I have had many on here look at a "test" image of mine where there are pretty visable (and most embarrassing to me) flaws when viewed at the Generic RGB setting. Flaws that show only very slightly if at all using the Standard RGB and were certainly not visable to me when I uploaded it to begin with. Most here that I asked to take a look at this image could see these flaws clearly though they were never pointed out to me in comments before. Whoever moved this image to the permanent galleries apparently was closer set to the Standard or didn't view it above thumbnail size one. I quit working with my eMac (or Standard RGB) calibration and against what I would prefer, went to creating my images under the Generic RGB settings. Mainly because those I collaborated with were definately set brighter than I was. Some even brighter than the Generic! All PC users. What I do have to do is set back to Standard when I am somewhere other than here at Caedes. Especially if I am making net purchases like clothing which I do for my girls since I can't go out to shop. If I order a pink shirt and I am set under the Generic setting, there's a good chance I'll actually receive a closer to red shirt. ;o
Anyway, I do hope that at some point there can be a way to get us all a little closer to uploading at near the same brightness levels. It is difficult for someone to improve if they can't see flaws in the first place, if their images are too dark and they can't see that, or their images are too light and they can't see that either.
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When you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance... Leanne Womack
::kjh000
10/30/05 8:52 PM GMT
Hm... Yes it's tricky business. I've set my screen to considerably darker now that I use 2.2 in gamma and D65, basically in sRGB... I wonder if I went too far even. :P I'll back off one step now that you put it that way...

Wait! I now... Everyone can buy new iMacs and throw out their windows boxes, we'll all be set for a better experience by the computer, color-wise and otherwise... ^_^
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vancau
12/19/05 3:35 PM GMT
Great work, Klas.
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::kjh000
12/19/05 8:14 PM GMT
lol! You are almost as funny as you are grown up. ^_^
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.SageIdiot
12/19/05 9:38 PM GMT
Didn't photoshop used to come with Adobe Gamma Loader? You just went through the steps and made a custom profile for your monitor. I always got good results with it.
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They'll never see, I'll never be, I'll struggle on and on to feed this hunger Burning deep inside of me.
::kjh000
12/19/05 9:51 PM GMT
That is fine if you use it. I only did this post to remind people of looking on the matter. :) I'm not suggesting my methods or any special one for that matter would be superior. (That would not include hardware calibration, that is without doubt one of the better methods. Not for everyone to use though since it's rather expensive...) I'm personally using the built in systems tool in OS X (Tiger, atm), if I remember it right the Adobe Gamma Loader is a Windows app.
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