How do I get....

[.Mark]

My monitor calibrated properly?
I've seen talk on these hallowed pages about colours being out and the monitor not showing colours properly.

So how do I know if mine's OK?

[skiddo]

pantone do a spyder for around £120. more than good enough for everyday use.

www.colorvision.com

[.Mark]

Thanks, I'm thinking though more of the Colour Management tab in the Windows settings, it asks for a colour profile, how do I know which to choose?

[_dobbo_]

Adoboe photoshop comes with an application called "adobe gamma" that helps with calibration.

Otherwise you can plod your way through links Like these and see how you get on...

Good luck!

[ehasler]

Don't bother with Adobe Gamma or picking random profiles. If you use a profile, it has to be one that has been created for your monitor (using something like the Colorvision Spyder mentioned above), as otherwise you'll be no better off than if you don't use a profile.

If you've got any interest in playing aroung with images, then you need to calibrate and profile your monitor. I use the Spyder, and would certainly recommend it.

[.Mark]

Thanks for the responses. It looks like I probably won't bother then, I'm reasonably pleased with the colours I have, I was just wondering what the colour management thing was for.
I guess it's just a ruse by MS to use a bit more disk space

[murph7355]

Colour management is actually pretty important when taking images from camera to computer to printer.

The purpose of it is for WYSIWYG across all three systems.

So you take a photo which represents your view of the shot. You download it to the computer and it looks the same on the screen. And you print it and it looks the same on paper. All perfect colourwise.

Moreover, when you edit that image on the computer, your edits are also faithfully reproduced on paper.

If you're only viewing on screen, don't worry about it. If you print stuff out and it looks fine to you, don't worry about it either. But if your prints don't look as you imagined they should, do a search on colour profiles on the web.

Be warned, it can get mighty confusing (for examples, different ink and paper combinations on printers use different profiles!

[.Mark]

Cheers Murph. The worry was that I'd get confused -
To be honest I don't print my pictures because my printer is crap. Perhaps if I buy a new one I might investigate further.