How many of you use calibrated monitors?

Johnny|lucidcomposure · 2 Jan 2008 at 15:22

Calibrated mine just now. Keep forgeting to because to be honest I am pretty accurate with mine anyway. Best to keep it ship shape though!

ChroniC · 2 Jan 2008 at 15:52

What are u calibrating it too? Does the calibrator use your printer profile??

growse · 2 Jan 2008 at 16:15

No, it calibrates it to the "real world". Not every monitor shows the same colour when told to colour a pixel in, say, #0000FF. The calibrator is a device that sits on the monitor whilst some tests are being run, and then generates a profile for the monitor.

This profile then (kind of) sits between the OS and the video card and "translates" colours that the OS wants to show into signals that will cause the monitor to generate something that most closely matches that colour in real life.

As a result, the same image should look the same on any calibrated monitor.

Jokester · 2 Jan 2008 at 16:19

I use Monitor Callibration Wizard.

Won't give as good results as a proper callibration tool, but it's free.

ChroniC · 2 Jan 2008 at 16:22

growse said:
No, it calibrates it to the "real world". Not every monitor shows the same colour when told to colour a pixel in, say, #0000FF. The calibrator is a device that sits on the monitor whilst some tests are being run, and then generates a profile for the monitor.

This profile then (kind of) sits between the OS and the video card and "translates" colours that the OS wants to show into signals that will cause the monitor to generate something that most closely matches that colour in real life.

As a result, the same image should look the same on any calibrated monitor.

Ok thats what i though, but what use is that, (dare is ask) if your printer isnt capable of printing to the same. Is it as i have always though not better to print a test sheet then create a saved profile that looks the same as what u have printed out. Then get a print from photobox and do the same, because at the end of the days its not how your monitor looks its how close it compares to your monitor.

As an example, if my monitor is nice and calibrated, its bright and high contrast but my print comes out low contrast, then i adjust my monitor to look low and then adjust the picture untill it looks high, it will print high. So my own stupidity aside, whats the point in calibrating monitors to real life when they should be printed to their accompanying printing ability.

Messiah Khan · 2 Jan 2008 at 16:27

ChroniC said:
Ok thats what i though, but what use is that, (dare is ask) if your printer isnt capable of printing to the same. Is it as i have always though not better to print a test sheet then create a saved profile that looks the same as what u have printed out. Then get a print from photobox and do the same, because at the end of the days its not how your monitor looks its how close it compares to your monitor.

If you calibrate your monitor correctly, then any images sent to Photobox etc should come out exactly the same, as the 'profile' that the calibrator creates will make the colours match ISO standards, which presumably professional printers will be calibrated to as well. You can also use the calibrators to match your printer to the same standards. So in essence you are matching your output to that of Photobox, but only because everything is calibrated to the ISO standards (Or Pantone definitions)

Messiah Khan · 2 Jan 2008 at 16:30

ChroniC said:
As an example, if my monitor is nice and calibrated, its bright and high contrast but my print comes out low contrast, then i adjust my monitor to look low and then adjust the picture untill it looks high, it will print high. So my own stupidity aside, whats the point in calibrating monitors to real life when they should be printed to their accompanying printing ability.

But then if you post your image on the internet, you won't know if anyone seems the image how you intented. If you calibrate your monitor and printer at least you will know that your image will appear correctly on peoples monitors who have also had them calibrated.

ChroniC · 2 Jan 2008 at 16:30

Messiah Khan said:
If you calibrate your monitor correctly, then any images sent to Photobox etc should come out exactly the same, as the 'profile' that the calibrator creates will make the colours match ISO standards, which presumably professional printers will be calibrated to as well. You can also use the calibrators to match your printer to the same standards. So in essence you are matching your output to that of Photobox, but only because everything is calibrated to the ISO standards (Or Pantone definitions)

Agreed with professional printers if indeed they all use a standard. But i find that because household printers cant match that standard through lack of inks it is a better alternative to do it yourself through test sheets.

Messiah Khan said:
But then if you post your image on the internet, you won't know if anyone seems the image how you intented. If you calibrate your monitor and printer at least you will know that your image will appear correctly on peoples monitors who have also had them calibrated.

Ahh good point, shame i.e and firefox are way out of calibration with adobe1998 as you may have noticed. I have to desaturate all my pictures before posting on websites. It all seems to be a nightmare of different standards, and seeing a home print a hell of a lot more i tend to calibrate as such.

Messiah Khan · 2 Jan 2008 at 16:32

ChroniC said:
Agreed with professional printers if indeed they all use a standard. But i find that because household printers cant match that standard through lack of inks it is a better alternative to do it yourself through test sheets.

Any half decent ink jet ink should be able to reproduce a wider gamut than SRG monitors though shouldn't they? So in theory you should be able to calibrate a printer to exactly match that of a correctly calibrated monitor.

ChroniC · 2 Jan 2008 at 16:42

Messiah Khan said:
Any half decent ink jet ink should be able to reproduce a wider gamut than SRG monitors though shouldn't they? So in theory you should be able to calibrate a printer to exactly match that of a correctly calibrated monitor.

I suppose that makes a lot more sense, if we all see the same its a good thing and with printer technology now i suppose calibration of printers to a good standard is very likely. I always had previous problems with 3 colour printers being pants, anbd calibrating to those was a damn site easiier than getting them to match a monitor standard, it has cleared up my confusion though, i would say they are only useful if you print a lot of photobox prints, or have a good printer to match the quality seen on the monitor.