Flat Screen Color Calibration

[GGraham]

Hi Folks,
Here?s the question. I have a bunch of artist clamoring for those sexy flat screens for their Macs. (I can?t really blame them. The 21 inch View Sonics that were delivered last week were down-right painful to move and do look like dinosaurs on the desk.) How well or easy do those flat screens calibrate?
GGraham

[seratne]

Most lcd screens are going to be brighter than your normal crt. Which, even when calibrated, the colors will always "pop" more than the printed sheet. As long as you have good calibration software and a good colorimeter the color should be good enough for "artists" and even enough prepress work.

I have noticed though that even with some very good lcd monitors the main problem is in the highlight and shadow areas. Shadows are harder to distinguish, blacks aren't as black, and highlights get blown out a bit. Nature of the beast.

I would always keep around at least a couple of your nicer crt screens, just to do comparisons.

[GGraham]

Thank you for your input Seratne.
Comparing between the CRTs and the flat screen is a very good suggestion.
ggraham

[digitaldog]

Originally Posted by GGraham

Hi Folks,
How well or easy do those flat screens calibrate?
GGraham

Compared to a CRT? Not as well. There's nothing to calibrate other than the backlight intensity. You don't have control over the RGB electronics like you did with CRTs. Yes, they can crank out a lot higher luminance but you lose viewing angle and you end up with a lot more banding in images unless you calibrate by doing as LITTLE as possible (calibrate to native white point and gamma) otherwise you're just mucking around with an 8-bit graphic system.

A few years from now, we'll all be laughing about the current generation of CCFL LCDs we are using.

Now at $6K, the NEC LED Wide Gamut 2180 is a start in the right direciton (you DO have control over the white point of this display, thanks to the LEDs). But man, what a cost.

Right now, I'm super happy I still have a well behaved Sony Artisan and a spare (brand new) in the box.

[GGraham]

Thanks for the post Digitaldog?I was wondering why I couldn?t find the setting to calibrate the IMac screens like on the PowerMacs. Luckily, the IMacs are being used by a couple of editors and one page layout person.
It looks like this round of monitor replacements is the last time I will be able to get away with ordering CRTs, but these should last a good bit. This looks like a good time to put in for some serious color calibration software.
ggraham

[Green]

Originally Posted by GGraham

I was wondering why I couldn't find the setting to calibrate the IMac screens like on the PowerMacs. Luckily, the IMacs are being used by a couple of editors and one page layout person.

What feature are you refering to on the iMacs and PowerMacs?

I would suggest that if you are going to work in a CRT / LCD mixed environment, find the worst monitor and set it to the highest luminance possible (probably 80 candela meter). Then go through and set all the other monitors to that luminance. We have two 23" Apple Cinema's in back with an old Barco. The Barco can only reach 66 cd/m2, so we set all the ACD's to 66 cd/m2 also. The most picky of the color retouchers was happy, but he is looking forward to getting his ACD (he uses the Barco).

I'm using Gretag's eyeOneMatch for our monitor profiling and it works great. We also have the Monaco profiler, which I just stopped using due to personal preference. Either one would work. If you are looking for a larger solution, I would suggest looking into Binuscan. It is the complete package (well, almost complete).

Chris