monitor calibration, print colors...$*%&...LOL

[pherold]

My screen brightness is turned to zero, and the monitor is calibrated towards 5000 kelvin --but the monitor is still a ton brighter than the paper.

This would be why your prints are way too dark compared to the monitor. You would need to solve this first in order to get things to match closer. Here are a few options for you as I see it:

• Shades. This is a clever little program that can indeed reduce the brightness on your screen, by directly accessing the LUT tables in your video card. You can apply this correction after you make your i1 profile - however it would in fact "invalidate" your profile. It changes your monitor from the state it was in when it was profiled. Bottom line: it might not give you the high-precision results you need for a color-critical work.
• GretagMacbeth ProfileMaker suite. (Not really an option as it costs ~$3000+ but it is capable of reducing screen brightness in the video card.)
• ColorEyes Display Pro. (This is one of the best software packages around for calibrating monitors. You can get the software-only version since you already have an i1 Device, for less than $200. This is the only other piece of software I know of that will reduce the brightness using the video card if you run out of room with the monitor controls.)
• Increase the lighting situation where you work (get a lightbooth) to match the brightness of your display.

I wish I had some better options for you!

-Pat Herold
CHROMiX

[Brian K]

I'm having exactly the same problem as the OP. I'm using a MacPro, Eizo monitor, Leopard, PS CS3. I have calibrated and re-calibrated my monitor (which is actually a little dim after 3 years), and done printer calibrations, all done with my Eye One and the latest version of the eye-one match software. I am also using the newest epson driver 6.15 and have turned off guttenprint.

Using the "let photoshop match", turning off color control in the printer dialog box, using the profile that I made specifically for the paper I am using, black point on and off, etc, all my prints come out too dark as well, and not slightly. I have also used the generic profiles like enhanced matte, etc.

This seems like a systemic problem and not necessarily just a problem that I am having.

[a.paul]

Pat, part of my problem is that there aren't really adjustments available for the iMac. That's why I mentioned getting a second monitor, one that had individual controls for brightness and so forth.


I also do realize that it's never going to be exact because of the difference between paper and monitor. It's not colors that are the problem--it's solely an issue of brightness, and it's more pronounced in b/w than in color, oddly enough (at least it's odd to me, but I've freely admitted my newbness).

Thanks all.

[Ken Lee]

• Shades. This is a clever little program that can indeed reduce the brightness on your screen, by directly accessing the LUT tables in your video card. You can apply this correction after you make your i1 profile - however it would in fact "invalidate" your profile. It changes your monitor from the state it was in when it was profiled. Bottom line: it might not give you the high-precision results you need for a color-critical work.
• GretagMacbeth ProfileMaker suite. (Not really an option as it costs ~$3000+ but it is capable of reducing screen brightness in the video card.)
• ColorEyes Display Pro. (This is one of the best software packages around for calibrating monitors. You can get the software-only version since you already have an i1 Device, for less than $200. This is the only other piece of software I know of that will reduce the brightness using the video card if you run out of room with the monitor controls.)
• Increase the lighting situation where you work (get a lightbooth) to match the brightness of your display.

Excellent !

By the way, my Chromix profiles are superb. And so is their free newsletter. (I'm just a satisfied customer, who appreciates when the vendor is more of an educator, than a marketeer).

[Keith]

Shades you use BEFORE you profile to simply get your luminance of the monitor down to a usable level. It does not effect your profile only the brightness of the screen.

It works and it's free.

[pherold]

Yes, I tried Shades before profiling, but there seemed to be a conflict between Shades control of the LUT curves and the i1 software that was trying to perform the calibration. At least, the screen flickered a lot and the LUT curves bounced around back and forth a lot. The resulting profile looked pretty bad, rather greenish in the midtones. This makes sense really. The usual routine for a monitor calibrator is to take the LUT values back to flat line at the beginning of the process so that it can make a clean new profile. If Shades is messing with these curves to begin with, the software is going to get confused.

Now for the disclaimer: This is just my experience on my system (Mac OS 10.4). Your results may vary. Keith, are you using Shades to bring the brightness down a small amount below what your iMac can do? I would imagine it could work very well used sparingly.

-Pat

[Ken Lee]

On Pat's advice, I purchased a copy of ColorEyes Display Pro (from Chromix) and it really works nicely. I have never seen my monitor so... grey !

The fact that I was able to use my existing i1 device, made it that much more palatable.

Like Pat, I found that I had to disable and remove Shades, after having the same experience with flickering, etc. But that's fine with me, since the idea of manually fiddling with monitor brightness, after having profiled my printer and calibrating my monitor, seems ironic at best.