There are various devices for this purpose that you can get from specialist retailers. They measure the brightness and color representation of your monitor and create a color profile for your monitor based on this. You then use this to ensure a neutral display of your monitor. It is also a prerequisite that you use a suitable graphics monitor.
It often happens that the monitor display and the printed product do not match exactly. A monitor that is set too brightly, an unsuitable calibration or inaccurate profiling, as well as inadequate hardware, can lead to incorrect display.
To ensure the best possible match between the monitor display and printed products, it is essential to adjust the monitor display accurately. This adjustment is best carried out using a monitor calibration device (colorimeter or spectrophotometer) or with the aid of a reference image.
The settings made during the measurement process are crucial for a functioning color management and depend on the brightness and color temperature of the sample environment and the preferred working color space.
In most cases, the following settings should be used:
Color temperature 6500° Kelvin
Brightness 60-120 candela/m²
Gamma 2.2
If the monitor is set correctly, a simulation of the print output is possible even before the order process. In color management programs, this simulation is called soft proof.
Soft proof is the colorimetrically correct output of digital print data on a calibrated and/or profiled monitor. This process requires ICC output profiles that describe the material and color representation properties of the substrate to be printed and thus enable simulation on the monitor.
By optionally activating the paper white simulation, the color tone of the unprinted paper can additionally be included in the display. This display requires an adaptation of brightness and white point to the simulated paper white, which is best achieved in full screen mode with the menus hidden. With Soft-Proof activated, not only is a preview of the expected print result possible, but also, if necessary, color corrections can be made to adapt to the print medium.
