Best LCD for Design Work? - What Working Color Profile to Use?

[DC3400]

After reading numerous web pages I am more confused than ever.

I am initially looking to port my designs through Zazzle, which suggests images be submitted in a srgb color profile, although they also support CMYK. My work comes from 3 sources: (a) Images created in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, etc...; (b) Images from a Canon T2i; and (c) Images scanned from my vintage collection of photos and slides.

I have seen industry experts say you should work in srgb only so everything is consistent among applications and web display. Others say I should work in Adobergb or CMYK and then convert to srgb because working in srgb greatly limits/alters your potential colors.

I have seen experts saying to only buy a good standard gambit lcd as many of the extended colors on wide gambit lcd are pure "in-display" fantasy colors and can not actually be printed or shown on the web. On the other hand a standard gambit display will not be able to display all the colors needed for printing.

To top it off a lot of the so called lcd features are just a bunch of bull according to this established expert:

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/display_myths_shattered

So far I've gathered I should be looking for a lcd that is:

1. IPS-S
2. Best backlight is a rgb led, but that costs a ton of money. On the other hand the there is debate on the second best choice CCFL or a white LED, although most of the opinions I've seen suggest white LED over CCFL. And more confusingly some of high end lcds still use CCFL which the manufacturers claim they can compensate for by using internal LUTs and software.
3. Internal LUT.
4. Scaling?.
5. Wide Gambit with good srgb. I am not really sure if that exists because apparently all the wide gambits use a emulation mode for that. The manual for the NEC MultiSync 3090W-BK-SV ($2,000+), for example, clearly says its only a approximation. I've also seem some professional color testing of some these high end models that have the srgb and they frankly suck.
6. Dual Computer Use - I see some of the high end monitors allow you to divide the screen and display the output of two computers. I have a MacBook Pro which will support an external display up 2560 x 1600 over a dual dvi and I have a Dual 867 Mirrored Door G4 (with two 20" ctr monitors). I currently do all my work on the G4 as all my critical software will not run on a Intel Mac. I don't think the G4 can be hooked up to such a monitor though.

 

[toxic]

I have seen industry experts say you should work in srgb only so everything is consistent among applications and web display. Others say I should work in Adobergb or CMYK and then convert to srgb because working in srgb greatly limits/alters your potential colors.

I've no idea why anyone would work on images in CMYK.

Adobe RGB vs sRGB is up to you. Adobe gives you a larger palette to manipulate, but risks banding in certain conditions, but in the end it still has to go to sRGB. basically you get to choose how an out-of-sRGB color is rendered.

I have seen experts saying to only buy a good standard gambit lcd as many of the extended colors on wide gambit lcd are pure "in-display" fantasy colors and can not actually be printed or shown on the web. On the other hand a standard gambit display will not be able to display all the colors needed for printing.

- very few printers have a color space that exceeds sRGB. those that do only do so in certain colors, like greens.
- wide-gamut displays will display colors correctly so long as images are tagged with a color space, and the applications you are using are color-aware.

more reading: http://www.artstorm.net/journal/2009/07/color-management-wide-gamut-dell-2408/

1. IPS-S
2. Best backlight is a rgb led, but that costs a ton of money. On the other hand the there is debate on the second best choice CCFL or a white LED, although most of the opinions I've seen suggest white LED over CCFL. And more confusingly some of high end lcds still use CCFL which the manufacturers claim they can compensate for by using internal LUTs and software.
3. Internal LUT.
4. Scaling?.
5. Wide Gambit with good srgb. I am not really sure if that exists because apparently all the wide gambits use a emulation mode for that. The manual for the NEC MultiSync 3090W-BK-SV ($2,000+), for example, clearly says its only a approximation. I've also seem some professional color testing of some these high end models that have the srgb and they frankly suck.
6. Dual Computer Use - I see some of the high end monitors allow you to divide the screen and display the output of two computers. I have a MacBook Pro which will support an external display up 2560 x 1600 over a dual dvi and I have a Dual 867 Mirrored Door G4 (with two 20" ctr monitors). I currently do all my work on the G4 as all my critical software will not run on a Intel Mac. I don't think the G4 can be hooked up to such a monitor though.

IPS is IPS. S-IPS, H-IPS, p-IPS (which is really H-IPS), whatever. the only questionable one is e-IPS, in the "budget" displays.

I've no idea what LUTs have to do with the backlight. CCFL is the older technology, and most still use it since LEDs are expensive. LEDs are nice because they don't need to warm up, they last longer, and they light more uniformly, but they aren't necessary. quality CCFL displays will be pretty uniform anyway.

some people work around the wide-gamut/sRGB issues by having two displays, one standard, one wide.

does the G4 not have a DVI connection?

I can't help much with your other questions.

 

[DC3400]

I believe CMYK would be for printing on an actual printing press with actual ink as opposed to ink jets and such. I am guessing Zazzle would probably convert them to srgb as they used computerized printers to pop their products out.

Here's a real indepth view of the NEC 3090:

http://www.prad.de/en/monitore/review/2008/review-nec-lcd3090wqxi-part12.html

"With an average deviation of 3,3 deltaE, the NEC 3090WQXi performs minimally better here than the Eizo SX3031W. Users who wish to work exclusively in sRGB should select a model without an extended colour space."

LOL, this is ridiculous - $2,000 + and it can't do srgb properly.

I am curious as to why Apple has abandoned the design market. none of their displays are suitable to design work according to similar tests and their 27" already requires 10.6 to work. Surely Apple knows how to hook up with a display maker and make a high quality model for graphics that actually works.