Calibrated screen?

I'm still on Win XP but Dispcal & Argyll seems to have worked fine although with 2 identical monitors you appear to have to force the profile name of at least one of the monitors otherwise they overwrite each other.

Many thanks,

Glyn

Glyn I'm glad you've solved it.

I tried those program but couldn't get it to work with the spyder 3 somehow
I'm now using the spyder elite program which is better then the pro, it also look at black level and white level and that was what I missed with the pro version.

Now my monitor looks brighter again ^^;

Interesting. Now I have got both of my monitors calibrated using Dispcal they look a bit darker. I suspect that I was previously running them too bright and this might explain why prints of my photos appeared to be darker than the same images on the screen. I suspect that for everyone else all my edited pictures were actually darker than they should have been .

So from my direction this has been a really useful thread.

Glyn

With the spyder pro software you also see the brightness but I didn't look so good at that but the elite goes a bit further so paid more attention, so it was user error the first time

That was why I was asking who calibrate their screen, I wanted to know around what percentage of the screens would match what i see on my monitor.

Except if your monitor is one of the ones with a TN panel (which is most of them), making calibration pointless

I have answer Yes I use to run Hue pro but still had a problem with the printing not being correct with what was displayed on the screen.

I now run colourmonk and X rite an now my colour management is spot on wouldn't change or go back.

James

Just bought a new epson R1900 excellent printer far better than the R1800

now selling my R1800 with CISS and extra ink £75.00 as the print head where blocking every other day (it will need a really good clean) Pick up only

Personally I think a good calibration device is pretty much essential if printing images, however it's usefulness can be limited by the monitor. From my experiences the standard "TN" panels aren't great at displaying the full range of colours and I've found my editing has improved since moving to an E-IPS monitor.

I guess it also depends on how you use your images, if sending to online print companies then I think accurate calibration is important, for home printing probably less so

Simon

You sure, I think they would work on the higher quality ones.

@James, I wanted to have a Colormunki but found out it didn't work on my CRT screen
I think I will simply out source the bigger or important prints...

I know less than nothing about the technical workings of monitors, so I could be wrong. However my understanding is that TN panels do not have sufficient color accuracy in the first place to be worth calibrating: there will only be a substantive effect (compared to visual 'calibration' with Adobe Gamma or whatever) on more expensive IPS panels (e.g. Apple Cinema Displays, some of Dell's higher-end ones, etc.)

You're right about colour accuracy but don't you think it's worth to have those colours show up properly even if there are less?

It's not just accuracy, I'm fairly sure there is some aspect of their design which makes the colour change slowly (but constantly) over time. However, what I know about monitor technicalities could be written on the back of a postage stamp with a board marker!

Ah yes but you just calibrate your screen every 2 weeks, with the newer products it takes only 2 minutes to recalibrate and I believe all display shift colours over time.
Certainly new screens need to wear a bit before they preform the best.

Anvh,
I bought a Huey Pro to try to calibrate my two laptops.I was finding despite have had printer profiles created for me to match the printer/ink /paper combination, the prints were far darker than the screen[s]
The result with the supplied Huey software was horrific,the screens went on one green and on the other red!
I then downloaded the Argyle/diplayGui softwear combination and used the laptop preinstalled parameters.
This then produced screen[s] that are more acceptable but still have a odd cast. This cast only seems to affect the desk top and the colours on ,for instance, this web page.
A image viewed with PS looks fine the white is white etc etc.
What has amused me is that I was sent a"correct" print for my printer by the ink/paper manufacturer and downloaded the same image to print out.
To get the supplied sample and my print the same I use the printer supplied software at +95% bright +5% magenta, -3% contrast.That gives me a print almost exactly th same as the supplied sample!
The supplied profiles are still way to dark!
My screen colours are still not the same, close, but not correct but at least the "brightness" is now ok. Its a bit of a bodge up but it works ok for us.
BTW I changed my camera colour space from SRGB to AdobeRGB which helped as well.
Alistair

I've been using an X-Rite Eye One to calibrate for some time now. Found it made a huge difference when I first used it. Enabled much more consistent prints.

On a related question, does anyone hook their PC or laptop up to their HD TV, even if it is for display / slideshow purposes? Is it possible to calibrate a TV when used as a monitor?

Will

I know what you mean Adwb.
My prints match my screen quite well before the calibration but the calibration made my screen a bit warmer and less dark so I ain't sure how the prints will match now.

@Will, I've just calibrated the LCD tv in the living room.
You use a DVD with test images and by the controls the TV provide you take meterings and you manualy need to change those settings till you hit the mark. For every test it takes around 7 steps.
This was with the Sypder3 TV don't know if other brands provide something like this but i'm sure you might be able to find a 3rd party software for it.