WHY SHOULD YOU CALIBRATE YOUR MONITOR?
WHAT CALIBRATION OPTIONS ARE AVAILABLE?
WHAT'S NEXT?
Why should you calibrate your monitor?
Conventional monitors and displays typically do not reproduce colors accurately and are often set very bright for comfort reasons, especially during the darker seasons. This significantly affects the representation of your images, but unfortunately has little to do with a realistic display of colors, brightness, and contrasts.
In addition to this, the widespread use of smartphones and tablets also illuminates our images brightly but has little in common with the reality of color values.
Monitors tailored for professional use are calibrated and profiled. They display digital photos exactly as captured by a camera.
Standard displays, including high-quality smartphones, are far from such accuracy. They usually neither reproduce colors accurately nor are they set up for image editing.
However, you don't necessarily need a professional, color-accurate monitor. You can also enable your conventional monitor to display realistic color and brightness. Calibration is a prerequisite for this.
What calibration options are available?
Additional hardware
To predict image results on a monitor accurately, it must be perfectly adjusted and color-metrically measured with a spectrophotometer. With the help of software and a measuring device, you can adjust the color temperature and brightness to the required values on professional monitors. A measured ICC profile then describes the possible color space of the device, ensuring correct color display.
Various devices are available in stores specialized for this purpose. They measure the brightness and color representation of your monitor and create a color profile based on that. You then use this profile to ensure a neutral representation of your monitor.
The settings made during the measurement process are crucial for functional color management and depend on the brightness and color temperature of the reference environment and the preferred working color space.
In most cases, the following settings should be used:
- Color temperature 6500° Kelvin
- Brightness 90-100 Candela/m²
- Gamma 2.2
Existing hardware and software
Those without a professional color measuring device and for whom acquisition is not worthwhile can still achieve a lot through the correct brightness of their monitor and avoid unpleasant results.
Laptops and inexpensive displays usually do not allow adjustment of color temperature, but they do allow adjustment of brightness. The measured ICC profile then also describes the suboptimal color value of the white point, which is corrected via the graphics card.
Not optimal, but better than without an ICC profile.
A tip for customers without a measuring device: Set the brightness of the monitor to be approximately as bright as a white sheet of paper held directly next to it.
The monitor may then appear to be as dark as if it were defective but will show the expected and real brightness.
Windows 10/11 users can also use the system's native calibration. To do this, open the control panel, enter "calibrate display" in the search field, and follow the instructions.
What's next?
Once the monitor is properly adjusted, simulating the print output is possible before placing an order. This simulation is referred to as 'soft proof' in color management-capable programs.
Soft proof refers to the color-metrically correct output of digital print data on a calibrated and/or profiled monitor. This process requires ICC management profiles describing the substrate to be printed in terms of material and color representation, enabling a simulation on the monitor. You can find our available ICC profiles in this article.
How to download and install them can be found here. Instructions for a correctly performed soft proof can be found in this post.
By optionally activating the paper white simulation, the hue of the unprinted paper can be additionally taken into account in the display. This display requires adaptation to brightness and white point on the simulated paper white, best achieved in full-screen mode with hidden menus.
With soft proof enabled, not only is a preview of the expected print result possible but if necessary, color corrections can also be made to adapt to the printing medium.
