[SonOfSylvanus]

Rev. A 1.25GHz PowerBook

Last month I clean reinstalled Panther, to deal with a serious Mail problem (and, well, the more serious problems that resulted from me trying to fix this problem).

Anyway, one of the things I had to redo after reinstalling was to re-calibrate my display. Before doing so, I never had a problem with feeling that my display was washed-out, but I have that problem now. The reason is that since I have begun dabbling in Photoshop, I have been exposed to colour profiles that give much more warm and vibrant colours ("greater saturation"?)—Adobe RGB, for example.

When I re-calibrated, I spent about half-an-hour and followed the instructions in ColorSync as closely as I could. But I was, and am, unhappy with the results. Colours in the desktop background seem pale—even more so when compared with the same file opened in Photoshop.

Here is the ColorSync readout for my PowerBook's built-in LCD.



I know that all displays are different, but do any of the values here seem really off to you? Maybe you could post your own ColorSync profiles to give me something to compare mine to? Any other advice on colour calibration would be much appreciated.

(P.S. Is Adobe RGB a good colour space to use in Photoshop anyway?)

Thanks

[curiousuburb]

If you're a Photoshop fiend,

dump OS X's native display calibration tool and go download Supercal


Individual colour adjustment curves offer a more comprehensive set of tweaks,
and one that a Curves adjusting Photoshop user might find more familiar.

My preferred colour calibration utility for anybody south of the Gretag-Macbeth budget.

[SonOfSylvanus]

I wouldn't say "photoshop fiend" by any stretch of the imagination—more a "photoshop n00b"

That app gets great reviews, but it costs money *sigh*. Heh. I'll see if anyone posts ColorSync tips first before taking a closer look at that.

[Brad]

Supercal
Supercal
Supercal!

It's shareware. Try it before you knock it based on the price. It's really more of "donationware" because it isn't neutered of any features.

[ast3r3x]

This is something we've pained over at the photography studio where I work. LCD's simply suck for real color calibration, and I think it's just because how vibrant they are.

When the color is calibrated with Optical and a Spyder, OS X looks ass ugly. Those alternating light blue and white lines in iTunes...no longer looks good.

What's more, images look different in Photoshop CS then they do other places. With the same color settings, compare an image in Photoshop 7, and Photoshop CS, you'll notice the punch that simply isn't there outside of Photoshop CS.

We basically said screw it, and bought another LaCie monitor so we are running the same monitor on all the computers.

Shitty thing now is that I have to color correct photos now

*Note, this was an Apple 17 inch

[SonOfSylvanus]

Originally Posted by Brad Supercal Supercal Supercal!

Arrrrgh! My eyes! >< ><

I've just spent... I don't know how long (an hour?) squinting and staring and squinting and sliding the cursor and squinting...

I think the result is pretty good though. It "feels better". I await to see how it "feels" in the daytime tomorrow.

...

*sob* My eeeeyes....

[Ebby]

I use one of those Spyder calibration things and it works great on my 7-8 year old screen. Simple and very accurate for Photo work, but I do tweak the settings and gamma for everyday use. It just doesn't seem "right". Most of the time I just lower the brightness and contrast.

Recently my printer no longer prints as accurate as it used to be. I don't know if this is a color calibration issue (I retouch photos for a good 6 years now), a printer problem, or an OS problem.

My laptop also has some SERIOUS color issues with anything that uses colorsync. I open Photoshop (using AdobeRGB, not Apple Colorsync) and everything is perfect. Specifically any picture that uses the sRGB IEC60966 profile. Is there any way to fix this?

Oh, and finally, there was a LCD screen manufacturer at Macworld that made photo-quality LCD screens that rival or exceed some high quality CRT's. *hunts for business card* www.eizo.com

[SonOfSylvanus]

http://www.eizo.com/press/pi/images/ColorEdgeCG220.jpg

Yummy.

[SonOfSylvanus]

Originally Posted by SonOfSylvanus I think the result is pretty good though. It "feels better". I await to see how it "feels" in the daytime tomorrow.

I was really impressed by my newly calibrated display when I used my PB today in the library. Everything seemed (and seems) subtly "sharper".

Greys, however, especially the greys of AN and the faux metal of iTunes etc feel a little too blue. I think I'll need another pass at SuperCal... but not yet, (my eyes and all....).

I know its probably a lot to ask, but could anyone point me to the step in-particular that will change the blue hue of the display?

Thanks