[Brad]

Here's a note for all you MacBook and MacBook Pro owners. The same goes for you iBook and PowerBook folks too:

Calibrate your display!

(Preferably with SuperCal)

It baffles me to no end that Apple ships such ugly, distorted color profiles by default with its gorgeous new hardware. Didn't Apple at one point have a respectable reputation for quality color representation by media professionals in fields where color accuracy is critically important? Then doesn't it stand to reason that Apple should at least ship color profiles that are at least passable as good?

But no. I see today (when my wife brought home her new MacBook, which she loves ) that Apple is using the same washed-out, brown-tinted, poor-contrast "Color LCD" profile with its newest machines as it used with the PowerBooks from years past.

My heart sinks when I think that the majority of portable Mac users out there are probably still using this default profile and missing out on the beautiful colors that their displays are capable of presenting.

Am I the only one bothered by this? I'm no graphics pro by any stretch, but I can easily tell that there's a problem when Safari's brushed metal (which is supposed to be purely grayscale) looks like bronze with chalk smeared on it.

Does the generic "Color LCD" look any better on the large, stand-alone Cinema Displays? Or the iMacs?

[Robo]

Hmm, I don't think brushed metal looks bronze on my iMac. And I think I'm using the default settings.

EDIT: Actually, I think I remember changing them. Does it ask you to calibrate the screen when you set up OS X? 'Cause then I did. I think.

[Brad]

No, Mac OS X does not normally prompt you to calibrate. You can check by opening System Preferences -> Displays -> Color. The default is "Color LCD" for LCD screens. If it's anything different, you've probably changed it yourself.

[eventhorizon]

Dude, my display on my iMac G4 17" looks badass now. Thanks Brad.

[omem]

Everytime I try to calibrate mine it gets all messed up. Can't seem to get it right. The default profile seems always the most accurate. :/

[krinsome]

I'm using the "color lcd" profile and i think it looks great, albeit i'm not an expert either. I tried using the SuperCal program you mentioned and I ended up with a "cool" color calibration. My background looked faded and washed out after the SuperCal calibration. I instantly went back to the "color LCD" profile.

[Brad]

Please qualify your opinions by stating what type of display you have. Thanks.

For what it's worth, my 2-year-old 12" PowerBook, an older iBook loaned from university, and the current MacBook all exhibit the "washed out and too brown" look when using the default "Color LCD" profile. The difference between that default profile and a properly manually-calibrated profile in SuperCal (or even Apple's own limited calibration app) is like night and day on these machines.

[eventhorizon]

It's pretty cool looking at the difference between the new SuperCal calibrated scheme and the original default profile. I'd also have to say night and day with regard to the old lampshade iMac G4.

[Mac+]

Originally Posted by Brad Does the generic "Color LCD" look any better on the large, stand-alone Cinema Displays? Or the iMacs?

I'm using an iMac (Core Duo) and it looks fine to me - was preset to iMac, so I presume Apple is aware of this issue for the iMac LCD screens at least.

For the record, these are the colour calibrations it shipped with:

• Adobe RGB (1998)
• Generic RGB Profile
• iMac
• sRGB Rrofile

btw - The list button in the "Reply to Thread" box (Advanced) doesn't work well in OW, had to do it manually.

[Brad]

Interesting! So, there is an "iMac" option for new iMac owners. For what it's worth, my old PowerBook and my wife's new MacBook came with:

• Adobe RGB (1998)
• Color LCD
• Generic RGB Profile
• sRGB Rrofile

...with Color LCD (aka "sun-faded turd") as the default. I believe the old G3 iBooks had the same.

I had originally suspected this was only a problem for notebook users, but eventhorizon just confirmed it being an issue with the G4 iMacs too. I'd like to read more experiences too, if anyone is willing to spend a few minutes trying new calibrations.

[Mac+]

STOP PRESS!

My mistake - sorry. I just checked that iMac calibration profile and it was created on a date *after* I had the computer (even though the metadata said the creator was Apple) so it had to have been me - but I forgot and foolishly gave it a generic name. (Usually I put my initials to any profiles I edit.)

[Brad]

Okay, thanks for the clarification.

[billybobsky]

Qualitatively nothing looks that different... Although I guess some of the colors seem to have more depth -- the darks are darker.... (I had to adjust the levels a lot towards the low brightness side of things...)

[chucker]

I'm never any good at calibration.

[ShadowOfGed]

So I decided to see what SuperCal did to my display. It's much bluer now, leaving it much cooler and feeling less "warm." I think some people prefer the warmer look.

However, just to validate: are the colors on AppleNova supposed to be closer to blue than gray? Because they used to be grayish-brown (or thereabouts), and now they look quite blue…

[Brad]

Yes, AppleNova's colors should definitely be bluish. If they were greyish-brown, then your color profile was way off.

[billybobsky]

So... after realizing that text boxes were green, I decided to jump back to the Color LCD profile...

[Artap99]

I have a calibrated 12" Powerbook profile if anyone wants it. It might not match up with your screen, but you could always tweak it. If you don't like it, you could always just switch back to color LCD
Just PM me and I'll email it to you.

[billybobsky]

Damn it!

The brushed metal now looks more metal like, but the text boxes are still green...

[neiltc13]

Brad, I think that the colours perceived by users on displays are subject to their own personal preferences and tastes as with other senses. I think your attitude that "I hate it therefore everyone else should hate it too" is totally wrong and is not surprising, I've seen this attitude from you before.

The way we perceive the colours on our displays can vary due to lots of environmental and even personal factors. The colours may LOOK different in a room that is well lit compared to one which is dark and in artificial light compared to sunlight. I'd say that even your tiredness or health could affect it too.

Perhaps you should check whether your wife's LCD is operating correctly too.

I use the default colour profile shipped with my MacBook and I find it is the most comfortable to look at and seems to represent the colours in the way I expect them to be.

If you like other profiles then that is your choice but please do not try to tell me or other forum users that they are best. Your heart might "sink" but that's probably more to do with your elitist attitude than anything else.

[Mugge]

didn't give much thought to colour calibration before this thread. But now that I have calibrated my MBP with the standard OS X calibration tool, I've realised that I like my display a little more "brown".



In defence of Apple, I cant say I've ever noticed a Mac with way-off colour calibration.

[blakbyrd]

Originally Posted by chucker I'm never any good at calibration.

Ditto.

[Is it 1981?]

My 17" iMac G4 doesn't have Color LCD as a calibration default. But I do remember that the default settings made everything look a little too blue/ purple.

[spotcatbug]

Originally Posted by neiltc13 Brad, I think that the colours perceived by users on displays are subject to their own personal preferences and tastes as with other senses. I think your attitude that "I hate it therefore everyone else should hate it too" is totally wrong and is not surprising, I've seen this attitude from you before. The way we perceive the colours on our displays can vary due to lots of environmental and even personal factors. The colours may LOOK different in a room that is well lit compared to one which is dark and in artificial light compared to sunlight. I'd say that even your tiredness or health could affect it too. Perhaps you should check whether your wife's LCD is operating correctly too. I use the default colour profile shipped with my MacBook and I find it is the most comfortable to look at and seems to represent the colours in the way I expect them to be. If you like other profiles then that is your choice but please do not try to tell me or other forum users that they are best. Your heart might "sink" but that's probably more to do with your elitist attitude than anything else.

The quality of a particular color profile is not simply in the eye of the beholder. Some profiles are better than others. The proof of this is that you can make an absolutely horrendous profile that nobody would like. Go ahead, try it - just slam all the sliders to one side during the calibration process and you'll end up with total crap. This means that there is some cut-off in terms of usable profiles. Yes, the viewer is a large factor. This is why you need to calibrate your own display for you own eyes. You'll notice Brad did not post his profile for everybody to use. He posted a link to SuperCal with a large "Calibrate your display" banner.

My experience with Apple LCDs has been a G3 iBook and a G4 PowerBook (my current Mac). Both default profiles were washed-out and too brown/red. The first thing I did with each Mac was calibrate the displays with SuperCal.

Have you tried calibrating your display? The difference was so night and day for me (going from the default to using SuperCal to create a custom profile) that I can't imagine anybody thinking SuperCal doesn't give them better results than sticking with the default.

[Wrao]

I've tinkered with the calibration stuff before, I remember I used to make calibration profiles that *I* thought looked good, and I'd do something in photoshop or whatever and then show it someone on another computer and realize that the blacks were grays and the whites were too. Looked great on my screen though. Since then I've always been kinda hesitant about having a calibrated profile, since... even if it is perfect or great, you just can't account for the vast majority of poorly calibrated monitors out there. That being said, I did a quickie with supercal right now and my colors definitely look a lot more vibrant and rich, I'd say it is an improvement, makes the old calibration seem washed out and bland in comparison.

[blakbyrd]

So the colors are supposed to look richer, and somewhat darker? I hope I did it right.

[krinsome]

Originally Posted by Brad Please qualify your opinions by stating what type of display you have. Thanks.

My apologies, I have a macbook.

However, I think I may have calibrated the display when I opened the box and gave it a default name like the other person.

But that doesn't explain why after I did the supercal calibration it becomes a "cool" color. I hate having "cool" or "warm", I prefer plain "neutral" and that's what I had prior to the supercal calibration.

[blakbyrd]

I've a MacBook also. It's kind of weird getting used to the new calibration.

[Miko]

Funny I checked my iMac Core Duo and it also has a color profile called iMac, which I know I didn't create. Here's the thing, I think that because the environment in which you work can totally affect the way the colors on your screen are displayed and no one color profile will look the same on every computer, which is probably why Apple ships with the default LCD profile. Here's my ? Can the iMac, MB & MBP create a custom profile from the ambient light sensors that they have so as the situation changes so does the profile?

As far as color management goes, Apple is far better than Windows in my experience from starting with a digital workflow all the way out to off-set printing Apple rocks, I have even been given color profiles from my vendors based off their equipment specs so that we can better manage the color output when a piece is printed.

[Banana]

After seeing Brad saying AN should be bluish, not grayish, I decided to try out SuperCal on my iMac's 20 inch screen just for the hell.

Either I suck at calibrating or SuperCal isn't that great for iMac because colors were lost after calibrating; going back to "iMac" profile worked the best.

At one point where SuperCal asked me to check the black level by lowering brightness until I can see only one color patch in center and not other patches checkered around. Well, I turned brightness to the minimum level and I can see other patches for all primary colors. I guess it's just not that great for iMac's LCD?

BTW, I don't think anyone has ever calibrated the monitor before.... so I presume iMac is indeed a default?