Display Calibration

Originally uploaded by colorcritical

Question from a Color Control Freak:

I’m interested in purchasing a Monitor Calibrator for my Vista OS. Which monitor calibrator would you recommend? Also, how do I know if the monitor calibrator is compatible with my HP 2009m Monitor? I really don’t understand how a monitor calibrator works and how it can alter the monitor colors. Is it interacting with the NVIDIA video card?

A: I like the i1 Display colorimeter by X-Rite at xritephoto.com. A monitor calibrator works by way of software – hardware interaction. The software resets the data table called a LUT (Look Up Table) sent by your video card to your display. When variables are set like Luminance, Gamma, White Point by the software (usually automatically if using an automatic mode or manually in an advanced mode) with the the aid of the colorimeter will “calibrate” your display by altering the LUT to hit the target variables. You will aid this by setting brightness, contrast, and RGB levels on your display (if you have them). After calibration the software then builds an ICC profile that Vista will use in the OS as well as any other ICC aware applications like all of the Adobe® Photoshop™. Go for it – it will make your images look much more real and true to the original intended color values when captured.