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Monitor calibration and setup This page will guide you through a visual calibration of your monitor. There are more reliable ways to calibrate a monitor, but these will cost you. A visual calibration is definitely much better than no calibration at all, and usually produces acceptable results. Let your monitor warm-up for at least 15 minutes before calibration. Although the aims of calibration are the same for CRT and LCD-monitors, there are some differenses. These are noted in the text. (CRT is the older bulkier type.) The purpose of calibration is that the monitor should be able to show the full range of tonal values from bright white to pitch black, and that white should apear bright and black as dark as possible. The monitor should also display colours as neutrally as possible. The colours displayed on your monitor should simply be the same as those specified in your picture files. You cannot even hope to make accurate changes to your image files if what you se on your monitor is a distortion of the true data. Pictures adjusted on a uncalibrated monitor may sometimes look good on that monitor, but if you should try to print them, leave them to a photo service, display them on the internet, or send them to friends, they will not look the same, because the data in the files have been distorted to compensate for your monitor's misrepresentation. The calibration will take a while so if you are paying by time connected you can disconnect now. To set up and calibrate your monitor is a seven step process. The first two steps you need to do only once. Steps three to seven should be repeated at least three times a year, because aging of the monitor will change how it displays colour and light. Bookmark this page and come back in four months. These are the seven steps: Make sure that your system is set at least to true colour (24-bit), and a resolution of at least 1024x768 pixels. CRT-monitors should also be set to a flicker free refresh rate of at least 75Hz. LCD-monitors do not flicker at lower refresh rates. Reset the brightness, contrast and gamma settings for your graphics chip or card. Make a decision on the light environment for which the monitor should be calibrated. Set the black point using the controls on your monitor. Set the white point using the controls on your monitor. Set the colour balance of your monitor using the color temperature control on your monitor. Set the brightness of mid tones on your monitor to a standard using the gamma control in the control panel of your computers graphics chip or card. Colour-depth, resolution and refresh rate First you should make sure that you monitor is set to at least true colour (24-bit), a resolution of at least 1024x768 and a refresh rate of at least 75Hz (for a CRT-monitor). Before changing these settings on a CRT-monitor you should check if the right monitor drivers are installed on your computer. If you use a different driver there is a risk that you will set the refresh rate to high, which can damage your monitor. This is how to do it in windows. Go to the windows start menu, settings and then the control panel. In the control panel, open monitor settings. Click on the settings tab and on the advanced button. Now you have a number of tabs to choose from. Select the monitor tab. If the correct monitor driver is installed you will probably see the name of your monitor (i.e. make and model number). If you do, then it is probably safe to pick settings from the lists provided for resolution, color depth and refresh rate because these lists will normally not show values that your monitor cannot handle. If you CANNOT see the name of your monitor, you may have a monitor driver installed that is not perfectly adapted to the monitor, and the lists of resolutions and refresh rates may show values that your monitor does not support. Now you have two options: either you can install the right drivers, or you can go to Google and enter the name of your monitor and the words "refresh rate" and "damage" to find out what resolutions and refresh rates your monitor supports. You can usually find the model number somewhere on the backside of your monitor. Most 17'' CRT-monitors (the older bulky type) will support at least true color (24-bit), a resolution of 1024x768, and a 75Hz refresh rate. On TFT-monitors refresh rate does not have the same meaning. My doughters flat monitor is set to a refresh rate of 60Hz, and it does not flicker. To change the color-depth, go to the windows control panel again and dubble clic on monitor. Select the settings tab. Here you can change both resolution and color-depth. To go from here to the refresh rate, click the advanced button and select the graphics card tab. When you select a new resolution the monitor will go black. Then the picture comes back again and you are asked if you want to keep the new setting. If it looks good and does not flicker, click OK. If you do not want to keep the new setting just wait for 15 seconds and your old setting will be automatically restored. If it is the first time you use the new resolution you will have to use the buttons on your monitor to center the picture and adjust picture size. If you found out on the internet that your CRT-monitor supports 1024x768, true colour, and a refresh rate of 75Hz, but cannot find these values in the lists, then you have to upgrade your monitor driver. If you can find a driver for your particular monitor this should be your first choice. If you can't get the driver you can install a general monitor driver that comes with Windows instead. To upgrade the driver in Windows98 go to the windows control panel again and dubble clic on monitor. Select the settings tab. Shoose the advanced button, and select the monitor tab. Clic on the change button, and next. Now you want to be able to choose from a list of drivers. Clic next and select show all. Now you should se two lists. Scroll down the list to the left. If you find the brand of your monitor, select it. Now a list of drivers for monitors of that brand is displayed to the right. If you can find the driver for your monitor, search no further. Select it and clic next a few times until the driver is installed. If you cannot find the custom driver, go to the top of the left list and choose standard monitors. In the list to the right choose the Super VGA 1024x768 75Hz driver or higher. Select it and clic next a few times until the driver is installed. If your monitor is 19 inches or bigger select the Super VGA 1280x960 75Hz driver to be able to use the higher resolution. There are no special drivers for LCD-monitors in Windows98. In WindowsXP the process is similar. Now the button to hit on the monitor tab is named properties. You select the driver tab and then the update driver button. Select don't use the guide and clic next. Now you want to choose install from a list (not auto). Next choose the don't search alternative and uncheck the box to show all hardware. Now you should be able to se the two lists, and you can proceed as in Windows98. In WindowsXP there are also some general plat panel monitor (LCD) drivers to choose from. After installing the new driver you should be able to select the resolution and colour depth that you want if you return to monitor settings. To set the refresh rate hit the advanced button and select the graphics controller tab. If you have the option you can select the optimal refresh rate alternative. In Windows XP hit the show all button to have a list of available refresh rates. Finally make shure that the ratio of the selected resolution is the same as the ratio between width and height of the picture on your monitor. If it is not the picture on your monitor will be distorted. Most CRT-monitors have a picture ratio of 4:3. The resolution 1280x1024 does not match that. The resolution to use is 1280x960. Reset the brightness, contrast and gamma settings Go to the windows control panel and select monitor. Select the settings tab and press the advanced button. Now it starts to look different depending on what graphics chip or card you have, but you should search for a color tab. When you find it you will see sliders and a box with a line from the lower left to the upper right corner. Restore defaults, or manipulate the sliders until the line goes exactly from corner to corner. Remember the location. You will return later to adjust gamma. For now - set gamma to the value that gives a strait line, usually 1.0 Make a decision on the light environment Especially the black point calibration on a CRT-monitor depends on this decision. A CRT-monitor performs best if ambient light is low. In a brightly lit room a CRT-monitor is unable to show dark greys and black with any fidelity. Look at your monitor when it is turned off. This is the darkest gray that the monitor can show. In a brightly lit room the depth of that gray is not very impressive. A LCD-monitor is less dependent on ambient light because the screen surface is very dark even in a brightly lit room. You can see this clearly where monitors are sold. The LCD-monitors look bright and clear in comparison top the dull CRT-monitors. But in a darker environment CRT-monitors are typically the better performers with smother tonal gradients, better colour fidelity and more vibrant colours. Set the blackpoint on a CRT-monitor The purpose is to make black look as black as possible, but still be able to see the difference between different shades of dark grey Hit F11 on the keyboard to hide the toolbars. Press the menu botton on your monitor. Select the contrast control and set contrast to the maximum. Select the brightness control, and set it to a value where you cannot differentiate between the three darkest rectangles in the grayscale. Increase brightness until you can just barely diffrentiate between the two darkest rectangles in the grayscale. If you have a low grade monitor you may have to accept that you cannot see the difference between the two darkest rectangles without setting the brightness unresonably high (if the black doesn't look black at all). If this is the case forget about the first rectangle and make shure that there is a clear difference between the second and the third rectangle. Set the whitepoint on a CRT-monitor The purpose is to make the brightest pixels apear bright and white, but still be able to see the difference between the brightest rectangles. The differences are smaller at the bright end. This is not a sign of a weak performance monitor. On most CRT-monitors setting contrast to the maximum will be fine, but if you cannot se the difference between brightest rectangels, or if they are very hard to detect, you should lower the contrast a little until you can. If you have a low grade monitor this may not be possible without making your monitor very dull. In this case my advice is that you get yourself a new monitor. Blackpoint and whitepoint on a LCD-monitor The brightest rectangles in the gray scale seldom go all white when you set the contrast to maximum on a CRT-monitor, but on a LCD-monitor they may do so if you set contrast higher than some middle value like 50 (out of 100). Also the difference between the darkest rectangles may not be lost even if you set brightness to very low value where the monitor looks very murky. Set contrast to the highest value where you can still see the differences between the brightest rectangles. Then set brightness to a value where the monitor looks good. Thera are no definite guidelines here. Try to find a middle point where black is really dark, but white is still bright and clear. Colour balance Most monitors have two presets for colour temperature and an option to customize settings. The 9300 degree preset enhances contrast between text and background, but is useless for images. The monitor will be far to blue. Try the 6500 degree preset. Take a look at the grayscale again. You should see no color, just neutral grey. This is probably the hardest part of the calibration. Ask for a second opinion, and be aware that the colour of ambient light can make you see colours that are not there. For example: the light from a light bulb is quite yellow, and may make images on the monitor appear slightly cold and blue. Light from a northern window on the other hand is quite bluish which will make neutral grays on your monitor look a bit warm. The ideal would be to reset the monitor every time ambient light changes, but a more relaxed attitude is to try to find some middle point that is acceptable in most situations. To calibrate in total darkness may be hard too, because then you have no references. Gamma on CRT and LCD monitors The gamma setting affect the brightness of midtones, but has no effect on of the darkest and brightest tones. For traditional reasons users of Apple computers usually set gamma to 1.8 while PC-users set gamma to 2.2. The lower the gamma setting the brighter do midtones look. If you watch the same image, midtones will be brighter on a Macintosh than on a PC. The key to succes is to have the same gamma as the people you share image files with. For more than 97% of all PC-users this means 2.2. Look att the figure below. The background consists of thin black and white lines. There are no middle tones. Therefore the brightness of the background is unaffected by gamma settings. The bars on the other hand are uniformly gray and get brighter to the right. When gamma is increased the bars get darker. At gamma 2.2 the middle bar should blend perfectly into the background. The righthand bar should be brighter and the lefthand bar should be darker than the background. It is easier to see if you stand at least two meters form the monitor. To set gamma return to the color tab that you visited previously. The value that you enter here is not 2.2. If you do the monitor will be white like a snow storm. The perfect value is likely to be around 0.95, or 1.1. Higher values make the uniformly coloured bars brighter. Brightness and gamma change a lot on most LCD-monitors when they are viewed from different angles. This is a problem, and one more reason why CRT-monitors are better for imaging than LCDs. To adjust gamma try to center your eyes i relation to the monitor screen. Later when you want to adjust the brightness and colour saturation of pictures you must find that middle point again.