iMac 27" Color Calibration Profile

The profile is affected by local ambient light, so someone else's profile may not be suitable for your location.

ok, I have it right here with spyder 3 pro + coloreyes display pro. I calibrated in the dark room (no lights are on).

the profile is

White Point Target = D65, 120 cd/m2
Gamma Target = 2.2 Gamma
Black Point Target = Absolute

PS. I set the Black Point Target to Absolute because I have to match the color for triple screen.

Sypder 3 doesn't do much in my opinion. I would highly recommend this http://www.xritephoto.com/ph_product_overview.aspx?ID=788&action=overview along with coloreyes display pro

Ahheck01 said:

Is it as easy as someone who has calibration equipment sharing their color profile? I don't have anyone local with a calibration tool, and it's a bit out of the budget at the moment.
...
Would love it if someone can share a calibrated profile!

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The reason you need to calibrate the screen is that each screen is not identical even if they were made a minute apart.

Using someone else's profile may or may not get you better images.

boomersooner020 said:

Sypder 3 doesn't do much in my opinion. I would highly recommend this http://www.xritephoto.com/ph_product_overview.aspx?ID=788&action=overview along with coloreyes display pro

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I have owned both of them. At the beginning, I used the i1 with ColorEyes Display Pro and it didn't work so well. So, I called IntegrateColors and they recommended me to Spyder 3 because Spyder 3 can deal with all types of the screen which means wide gamut or not.

My concern is matching the color of all 3 of my iMacs. With the i1, I never got the result and the black render was not correct ( Check from greyScale tone)

but with the Spyder 3, I got the result and the black render is correct, Especially, all 3 iMacs have the same color but different profile.

*** If you have a good color profile, you can see the different on the last 2 black color bar from the greyScale tone.***

Yeah, Bear is right about the profile. You really cant use the same profile for all machines, Thats why my 3 iMacs have different profile but same color output.

but keep in mind that the iMac's screen only 8bit Display not 16bit.

The software calibration offered in System Preferences isn't that bad. If that's not good enough, you definitely need to do your own (probably monthly) calibrations. You can't rely on someone else's monitor having the same response as yours.

I'd guess that a software calibration is more accurate than someone else's hardware calibration.

factory settings are usually accurate and very good for the imac panel

you won't probably see any difference with a calibration

macchiato2009 said:

factory settings are usually accurate and very good for the imac panel

you won't probably see any difference with a calibration

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Maybe (possibly) at first, but over a year or two the panel's characteristics will probably vary a bit.

What brightness does everyone set their iMac 27" to before the calibration process? I had set it at the middle before I calibrated with ColorEyes but after the calibration the monitor is at its highest brightness. If I dial the brightness of the 27" screen back to the middle and use the new profile it seems too dark. At the highest brightness of the monitor with the new profile it looks really good. Can anyone share their experience with the brightness setting on the iMac?

scottchlee said:

What brightness does everyone set their iMac 27" to before the calibration process? I had set it at the middle before I calibrated with ColorEyes but after the calibration the monitor is at its highest brightness. If I dial the brightness of the 27" screen back to the middle and use the new profile it seems too dark. At the highest brightness of the monitor with the new profile it looks really good. Can anyone share their experience with the brightness setting on the iMac?

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the ColorEyes has plug-in for Apple screens. It will reset the brightness to default (highest) and bring it down to the white point target (luminance). If you prefer to set the brightness and then calibrate. You have to set the Monitor Settings to LCD Brightness Only.

For me, I rather stick with the Apple selection because of the plug-in. Otherwise, you won't be able to get the luminance target down below 140cm/d. The standard color profile should be White point target about 100-120 cd/m (depends on your lighting environment), Gamma 2.2, Black Point Target at Min Luminance.

For my best calibrated, I have mine set at 100 cd/m, 2.2 and Min Luminance (Digital dark Room). Enjoy

I think I understand it a bit better now. So do you use your iMac at the highest brightness setting (bars all the way to the right) with the profile created by ColorEyes Display Pro? Will there be any harmful effect if the brightness of the monitor is set to the highest all the time?

Bat6111 said:

the ColorEyes has plug-in for Apple screens. It will reset the brightness to default (highest) and bring it down to the white point target (luminance). If you prefer to set the brightness and then calibrate. You have to set the Monitor Settings to LCD Brightness Only.

For me, I rather stick with the Apple selection because of the plug-in. Otherwise, you won't be able to get the luminance target down below 140cm/d. The standard color profile should be White point target about 100-120 cd/m (depends on your lighting environment), Gamma 2.2, Black Point Target at Min Luminance.

For my best calibrated, I have mine set at 100 cd/m, 2.2 and Min Luminance (Digital dark Room). Enjoy

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Bat6111,

Do you also select

ICC v2 or v4?
LUT based 16 bit or Matrix based?

Thanks.

scottchlee said:

Bat6111,

Do you also select

ICC v2 or v4?
LUT based 16 bit or Matrix based?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

I used ICCV4 LUT based 16 bit. the iMac screen is 8bit but I still used 16bit.

scottchlee said:

I think I understand it a bit better now. So do you use your iMac at the highest brightness setting (bars all the way to the right) with the profile created by ColorEyes Display Pro? Will there be any harmful effect if the brightness of the monitor is set to the highest all the time?

Click to expand...

I use it at maximum when I do color critique on the video or photo but I dim it down to half when I use it as normal user because the iMac screen is too bright.