The new Dell 2407WFP-HC will be arriving at my door 2moro morning. As far as i'm aware pretty much every new monitor needs calibrating as the default settings are usually rubb. Is there any software packages that do this for you/help? Or is it just a case of playing around with the settings and hunting for recommendations? Cheers
Gretag Eye One does a good job with hardware & software package. The spyder is another recommended one. But before you spend the money check you really need it . . . generally dropping brightness, and a gentle tweak on the gamma curve (using control panel > monitors) get you very close. Colours are really the issue as such, more the black to white representation, with dark greys not filling in and light greys not buring out. Netrality is usually close to the mark, but can also be easily tweaked. I'm not on my usuall PC so can't give you my calibration picture . . . . but hopefully can find a link to it elsewhere if I search a minute . . . . . . .. will have to edit and add link tomorrow. But it's a picture and guide steps to manual calibration which is fine for 99% of home/amateur use, and done right perhaps 75% or more of professional users (in photography, art, creative, litho printing etc - but not for labs or service bureaus). Surprisingly what calibration doesn't do is match two things the same . . . e.g. calibrate two monitors and whilst they should be more similar, they won't necessarily match . . . which means calibration merely 'tries' to get closer to a known standard, but it doesn't always succeed. Take glossy LCD's as example, some devices skew the colours a greeny purple . . . yet the device thinks the screen is calibrated, and the user might wrongly trust it. By getting a good colour sample (picture which suitable variety of key colours and light to dark transitions) and printing it at 2 or 3 good output options (e.g. your trusted photo lab, your inkjet, etc), you will firstly be checking their devices are printing reasonably (as you'll take the middle of the three (probably not the lightest or darkest) . . . it might make sense to test 5 output devices (as not all calibrated output devices are giving a reasonable calibrated output). You then take the average sample, and compare to the jpeg of the same image on your monitor, being aware what software your viewing in and the effects of any monitor profiles etc or software preffered colour spaces. My pro stuff/samples are all aRGB files (colour spaces) but most labs don't know what to do with this so mess it up, so I recommend sRGB for majority of users.
Also bear in mind that LCD monitors have 'settings creep' so they need to be calibrated regulary, but you only need to worry about that if your an imaging professional.
There is a lot of useful information, ref. images and software links on Norman Koren's site that should help you get to grips with calibrating your monitor. http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html Gretag Eye One Display as mentioned by 3DHeli is the way to go, I struggled for several years trying to get my monitor properly calibrated before I bought one and the difference is quite significant in so far as it does a good calibration for a range of luminosity values (light -mid-dark tones) and colours. Try the link below for a check http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1B.html#Gamma_3color
Awesome! Thanks for the help and links guys, I'll get on the case. I do 3D Art and animation so the colours don't need to be exactly 100% but it's obviously nice to know if they are being displayed properly. This monitor does 92% of the colour gamut so should get somewhere close. Going from an ancient 17" samsung at 1024x768 to this 24" beast at 1920x1200 is AMAZING. Chuffed to bits with it ;p
