carbonmotion said:
My second powerbook 15 aluminum will arrive tomorrow (the first one suffered a illness 🙁 apple replace it for free) anyways, I'm do graphic design and flash sites for pay and I always wondered what the big deal about calibrating the LCD is? I mean isnt the default Apple calibration the right one? I know the 12 inch and the 15 inch look different, but isnt that just because the 12 inch has a shtty screen? Anyways, if possible, someone explain to me the significance of calibration vs apple's default profile and some good solutions to approch this if need be.
As I gather, everybody has a different idea about calibration. I'll try to explain it as best I can.
Let's start off with Calibration vs. Profiling. They may mean the same to most people but they are very different.
Calibrating: Setting up your monitor to a standard to maintain consistency.
Profiling: Determining the characteristics of how your calibrated monitor displays colours to be able to translate a standard colour space to look the same on different monitors.
Calibration is like calibrating anything else. Such as a scale, where you zero it. That way it's always the same when you use that scale. Whether it will match another scale, that's a different story. At least you know that if something weighs more on that scale, it must be heavier.
Calibration for any monitor is the same. All calibrating does it make sure that the colours, brightness and contrast match a given standard and is repeatable over time. It makes sure that everytime you look at it, it looks the same. So the same picture/colour will look the same everytime you look at it on your monitor, therefore consistency. Monitors will shift in colour over time due to a number of factors. The colours may shift from one day to the next or even over a few hours. LCDs are more stable but should be calibrated once a month, if you have the time. For the average home user, this isn't important.
There are many devices out there that will help you calibrate your monitor such as the ColorVision Spyder2 mentioned above. It's a little device called a colorimeter that measures the colours on your screen.
If you calibrate, you will know that what you see on your tmonitor will look the same everytime.
What calibration will not do is, make 2 monitors match in colour.
In order for 2 monitors to match, you have to profile it. But first you have to calibrate.
What profiling does is it "fingerprints" your monitor as to how it displays certain colors to a give standard. The colorimeter such as the ColorVision Spyder2 will probably also profile your monitor. What profiling is, after calibration is done, is determine how your monitor displays certain colours (RGBCMY) compared to a table of set values. Once your monitor has been profiled, you now have a set of instructions of how your monitor displays colours. It acts as a translator for colour.
Where profiling comes in for matching 2 monitors is this. If you are using, say, Photoshop, you can select the colour space in which you are working in (sRGB, Adobe RGB (1998), etc...) What profiling the profile will do is translate the colour space using the instruction in the profile. And because your profiles were set up to a standard, then what appears on screen should match.
However, all this only works if you monitors are calibrated. If your profile is correct for a certain calibrated setting, then if your monitor is out of calibration, then the colours displayed will be different and therefore the colour will not match.
It's a little confusing but hopefully this makes sense.
Cheers.
