Monitor calibration

opethdisciple · 16 Nov 2011 at 00:43

How do you guys calibrate your monitors with out calibration hardware?

Iv had a look on line at some of the free ones, but can any one recommend one that they have actually had success with?

bremen1874 · 16 Nov 2011 at 01:41

With little success.

When I had a single screen I was able to get an image I could live with using the usual manual online options.

With two (and more recently three) screens I could never get them to match each other properly. I ended up buying an i1Display 2 which fixed the problem. It also produced a far better result than I was ever able to get doing it manually.

Axeia · 16 Nov 2011 at 08:36

Basically you're just guestimating the colors if you don't use some form of meter. It's like saying something is a feet without measuring it, it could be 11", it could be 13".

The cheapest solution (atm) is to get a Spyder 3 Express colour calibrator, the lowest UK price I could find is just below £70. Cannot link it due to OC UKs 'no links to competitors' policy - don't think they stock any calibrators themselves.
Work very recently started (read about it only 3 days ago) on an opensource calibrator called the ColorHug, that's an even cheaper solution. As it is very much a work in progress it isn't exactly at a normal consumer yet.

Baddass · 16 Nov 2011 at 09:44

a colorimeter would certainly be preferred if you want to obtain reliable gamma, white point and colour setup. far more accurate and probably needed to match between multiple screens or devices.

you can calibrate "by eye" with a few methods, probably one of the best is the http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/ website

kae2 · 16 Nov 2011 at 10:25

The only way to do it is with a hardware device. I've yet to see a by-eye calibrated display that doesn't have some weird cast to it. I couldn't believe how much of a green cast my display had before I bought a hardware calibrator and it shows in my final prints! (I use it for photographic purposes).

Andy.

opethdisciple · 16 Nov 2011 at 11:28

Iv always been lucky with monitors, I keept the ones that looked good by default.

I bought a new monitor which arrived yesterday which is a Benq 2420hd.

Its good for a cheap monitor. Only issue is it was way to bright out the box, so I have started fiddling with the contrast and brightness, and now am stuck in permanent tinkering mode.

I took a look at http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/ yesterday, but found it too complicated.

*Edit

Im due to upgrade my second computer to windows 7 which hasnt arrived yet, and have just found out that windows 7 has an inbuilt monitor calibration wizard.

Worth a shoot.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows7/Calibrate-your-display