Monitor Calibration - Seeing better colors

[Guest]

I had posted this in another thread, but thought it might deserve it\'s own since many people may not see it way down on the third page of a hot topic.  Might help to see those various shades of blue....  

For all of you interested in seeing on your computer screen as close as possible what stuff should look like printed or in real life, you should calibrate your monitor.  One of my means of livelihood is digital imaging software for event photographers (www.online-pics.com), so I deal with color profiles and photo prints all the time.

Here are a few quick and easy ways to calibrate your monitor.  Here is one of the best calibration tools I\'ve found (and the standard version is free):

http://www.praxisoft.com/pages/support.downloads.html

Just download the WiziWYG application best suited for your particular operating system (Mac, Win 98/2000/ME, or Win XP), unzip and install it.  Go through the steps.  It will ask you to change your monitor settings for brightness and contrast as well as change out the gamma settings to bring your picture to as close to printed copy as possible.

After you run this and change your monitor, it may seem that it isn\'t right or you\'ve messed up.  Give your eyes a few minutes to become accustomed to it (you have been looking at the other way for years probably and this is just totally wrong).  If after a little time has elapsed and you feel it\'s still not right, just run it again.

You can do the manual methods, which take a little more time and concentrated effort on your part.  If you\'d rather do it all by hand, Google has tons of links to pages explaining color profiles, how to adjust your monitor, etc.

[Guest]

thank you for taking the time to post this and explain it all.  I hope to be able to try it this weekend!

[Guest]

Excellent! Thanks very much for posting that. In my previous life (before going Mommy Track) I worked for a prepress equipment manufacturer (Scitex) and as a consultant to the prepress industry. I\'ve longed for such a tool for my home computer, never thought to look for a shareware one. Much appreciated.

[Guest]

Thought I\'d add that calibration works much better at night when there is less ambient light coming in and maybe only a small desk lamp or light in the room.  Make sure that you don\'t have any direct glare from any sources on the screen.

[Guest]

Thanks DT!