Calibrating Your Monitor
If a picture looks good on my computer screen,
is it any indication of how it will print on press?
Not at all.
The way a picture looks on screen has nothing to do with its reproduction on press, unless your screen has been precisely and professionally calibrated to emulate printed media. Each screen on each computer is very different in the way it projects color. When you go to a mall and you look at a bank of TV screens, you have probably noticed that they are all different: some are darker, some are redder, some are blurrier, etc. This is how computer screens also come from the factory, they vary greatly, even on the same brand. This is why what you see on your screen is not what you will get on press.
The following tips will help you to get much closer. That said, to get perfect screen rendering is expert work. So don't worry if you don't get it perfect, it is OK. Remember that if you are 40% there, that is a thousand percent better than most people in the graphic art industry. As far as I know, there are to date only a handful of graphic and design schools that teach their students how to tune their screens. Can you imagine a music school that would not teach their guitar students how to tune their instruments before playing them? Impossible! When it comes to color, much theory is taught, but very little practice. (This explains why so many graphic artists and technicians are, or let's say, might be, "tone deaf".)
Here are the basic tips:
- The color of your environment must be neutral and constant.
- No light fixture should be shining on or reflecting off your screen.
- The light color from an adjacent window changes all day and will throw off your calibration.
- Are your wall colors close to neutral, or are they a brightly colored hue?
- Do you wear pink or tinted glasses?
- Revise the calibration of your screen monthly, or at least quarterly.
- No, your screen does not come factory calibrated.
- If you make it a habit to calibrate often, you will get better at it.
CRT monitors are as good as LCD monitors.
High-end CRT or LCD monitors (over $1000) are suitable for calibration work. Lower grades are much less appropriate.
Back to top
Screen calibration must be done with you at the controls.
Having an IT person to assist you with the software and hardware is fine, but you are the one making color decisions. If you are not sure if the calibration should go this way or that way, don't worry, some of the adjustments take a little time to get used to, and there is always the Reset button.
Calibration uses both your computer software and hardware.
The buttons are located on the casing of your monitor, beside the On/Off.
Here are the steps if you have:
A) PhotoShop and Adobe Gamma.
Only basic computer software:
B) Basic Mac without special graphic calibration software.
C) Basic PC without special graphic calibration software.
- Please Note: For all monitors, colors should be set at Millions.
- White Point should be set at 6500 K.
A) PhotoShop.
If you use PhotoShop, launch Adobe Gamma on your computer.
(You can use your Search and Find to locate it.)
Under the following questions if you don't know the answer do this:
Step 1: Follow the Step By Step Assistant.
Step 2: Description: Generic RGB.
Step 3: Control and brightness: these buttons are on the monitor casing beside the On/Off. When the dark box is almost disappearing, just make a decision, don't be picky.
Step 4: Phosphors: pick something, perhaps Triniton.
Step 5: View Single Gamma Only should be unchecked.
Slide the arrows quickly, not slowly, so that you can perceive the difference. It helps to squint your eyes as you position the arrow.
Gamma: set around 2.0.
Step 6: White point is likely 6500 to 7500, not higher. (Practise measuring.) You should be around 6500. If you are at 9300, that is not a suitable monitor setting.
Step 7: You can check the Before and After to see the difference.
Step 8: Finish. Give it a name and a date. You are home free.
B) Basic Mac:
(With no special calibration software, such as Adobe Gamma.)
Under the main Mac menu control panel, launch Monitors, then Color, and follow the calibration steps. The answers to the questions will resemble the above PhotoShop settings. Remember that colors should be set at Millions.
C) Basic PC:
(With no special calibration software, such as Adobe Gamma.)
The calibration on basic PC differs greatly from one monitor brand to the next. It also differs with the operating software you use. Calibration with Windows 2000 is different to Windows XP, etc. So, you should download the appropriate drivers via the Internet for your brand of monitor. For example, if you have a Viewsonic monitor, go to their website at http://www.viewsonic.com/support/calibration_check.cfm and follow the directions to download the right monitor drivers.
Back to top
Great. Now you are almost out of the monitor calibration "mud".
This makes you 10,000% more color savvy than most computer users. But, can you make true color decisions about your color photograph on your screen yet?
Not quite, you are 40% there.
What you will have to do next is to send 3 of your favorite pictures, in CMYK format, to your printer and request a printer's proof. Now, that is not a color copy from your local photocopier or an inkjet print from your desktop Epson. It is a press proof emulation of printer's ink. It will cost you about $75-$100. It can be a 3M ColorMatch print, a Fuji calibrated Pictro, Kodak, or something similar. (It costs that much because it must really be a true proof of the behavior of the printing press.)
To choose your 3 pictures, pick a dark colored one, a pastel, light colored one, and a bright, full-color saturated one.
When you get your proof back, look at you screen and your proof and compare how close they look. Then, start micro-adjusting your control software and hardware to satisfy the most exacting color match.
Have a peer with you to help you making judgments. It will go like this: "This is too pink in the highlight ... yes, but the shadows look too dark on all the pictures ... look, the skin tone feels rather green, but the clouds are pinkish ... no, no, no, the trees are brown here, they look bright green on the screen ... etc." Welcome to calibration heaven. The thing you really have to remember here is that what you see on the printer's proof is what will print. So, if for any reason you can't get it to look like that on the screen, you won't be able to make any color decisions using your screen. That's the bottom line. But if you have made it this far into the process, you now are at 60% — one million times better than almost anyone.
I will spare you the extra 40%, because color management is an expertise that meets more than the eye.
Nelson Vigneault, CEO, CleanPix Corp.
Back to top
