Monitor Calibration

[Mr_M_Cox]

I have just got a new monitor for my PC (Dell 2408WFP) and i want to calibrate it properly.

 

I know that most review sites and profesional monitor users have Displaymate as their tool but this costs a lot

 

anyone know any good free options.

 

Thanks all

[powdarrmonkey]

Do you mean calibrate to your printer, or just set up correctly? You probably don't need any software at all - Bryce Alive Quick Guide to Monitor Calibration for example

[plexer]

How about one of these?

 

PurelyGadgets.co.uk - Accessories - GretagMacbeth Monitor Calibrator

 

Ben

[dhicks]

How about one of these GretagMacbeth Monitor Calibrator

 

I've just been looking in to this. First, by the looks of the review on Amazon, I'd give the "monitor calibrator" above a miss. It looks exactly the same as the £70-odd Pantone Huey, but seems to simply not work all that well.

 

So: I've just borrowed a Pantone Huey and have used it to calibrate a monitor at home. Seems to work well (tried some test pictures, switching between the "corrected" and "uncorrected" settings, and yes, you can see the improvement).

 

The Huey, however, comes with software that runs in the background to set the monitor up to the correct settings - I'd kind of assumed that these hardware devices would produce a standard ICC profile file that I could then tell Windows to use the whole time, I didn't think I'd need propitiatory software just to tell Windows what colour my monitor should be. I'd like to be able to keep the settings on my monitor, and I'd also like to be able to colour-adjust a bunch of monitors at school so we can do soft proofing in Photoshop when we get ICC profiles done for the printers.

 

Therefore, I had a look at the Adobe Gamma utility, which came with my copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements 6. This seems to be able to record the colour settings of the monitor and create a profile that can be loaded after the Huey software has been removed.

 

However, searching around, I find that Adobe Gamma has been removed from Adobe CS3. Blast. Therefore, I found QuickGamma and QuickMonitorProfile, which do the same kind of thing (but a bit better, if anything).

 

So, have I got this right: if I want to colour-adjust a number of monitors at school I've got to temporarily install the Huey software on each PC, calibrate its monitor, install and run QuickGamma and QuickMonitorProfile, then uninstall Huey?

 

Is there a simpler way of doing the above - does anyone know of a hardware device that produces standard ICC profiles that Windows will accept and use to colour-adjust a monitor? Is there a hardware device desgined for use on a network, so I can install the software via a GPO then quickly whizz around each PC plugging the USB calibration device in and getting each monitor set up?

 

I get that you're meant to periodically recalibrate a monitor, but obviously more than about once a term is going to be impractical unless someone makes a device, as described above, that is easy to use on a network.

 

And while I'm here, anyone had any experience setting up colour profiles on printers - can anyone recommend a profiling company (most seem to charge around £15 per profile, which doesn't seem too bad), or have any general advice?

 

--

David Hicks

[HodgeHi]

Don't most monitors come with CDs these days with their ICC on them?

 

I purchased an NEC 2080UX a while back and that came with the ICC on the CD. I think you can also usually download that stuff from their website as well.

 

Just a thought.

[dhicks]

Don't most monitors come with CDs these days with their ICC on them?

 

They do? Hmm, I'd always wondered what was on those CDs that came with monitors... I was vaguely given to understand that each monitor was best calibrated individually, although this could of course mainly be marketing from calibration device manufacturers. Also, we might be quite hard pressed to find details of some of our £30 second-hand specials. Certainly worth a try, though - thanks!

 

--

David Hicks

[HodgeHi]

No problem. It also just reminded me that the NEC disc also came with its own calibration app as well. Although this may just be NEC, some others may do it too.

[maniac]

Nvidia Graphics cards have a calibration utility built in, but I'm not sure how good this is. I run my monitor calibrated with it, and I have sent photos to be printed before with good results, so it can't be that bad.

 

Mike.

Edited July 19, 2008 by maniac