Re: multiple displays & screen calibration
Re: multiple displays & screen calibration
- Subject: Re: multiple displays & screen calibration
- From: Marco Ugolini <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:59:55 -0400 (EDT)
Ann-Marie Stillion wrote:
>I always used the built-in calibration tool on my Mac in the past.
Dear Ms. Stillion,
Using the built-in calibration/profiling utility in System Preferences > Displays > Color is not the best of options. The results will be possibly better than doing nothing, but certainly inferior to what is achieved by using a colorimeter and profiling software like EyeOne Match or the like.
>Now I have a Macbook Pro and a Cinema display and I am using them
>side by side.
Meaning that your MacBook Pro is connected to a Cinema Display, correct?
>The Cinema is the one I use primarily for image editing
>but when I travel I would use the Macbook Pro.
The built-in MacBook Pro display is alright, but it suffers from the usual laptop display limitations, first of which is its limited viewing angle: if the user is not positioned within a very narrow viewing angle (straight ahead, facing the center of the display at a 90-degree angle), the display will look lighter, or darker, or will show a color cast. In other words, the appearance of the image on screen will be altered to a degree that makes what you see not very reliable, even under the best possible viewing conditions.
On the other hand, external displays are usually more reliable, and their viewing angle is considerably larger (though still limited, to a degree).
>To my eye when I apply the same profile to the two different displays
>they look very different. I calibrated the Cinema and applied that
>profile to the Macbook pro lcd monitor.
That is an incorrect procedure. Calibration and profiling are specific to each display. Not just to each display *type*, but to each *individual* display. Each unit (even of the same make/model) is different from all other units, some times slightly, other times to a larger extent.
Bottom line is that you cannot calibrate and profile one monitor and then apply that profile to another monitor: each display needs *its own* profile, different from any other.
>Normally I use a rgb based system with my images and convert
>to cmyk only when sending to print or soft proofing.
That way of working (called "late-binding", in which the file remains in an RGB space until the last moment, when it's converted to CMYK for output) is a good choice.
But its success relies upon a carefully-calibrated and -profiled display. If the only way you are calibrating and profiling your monitor(s) is with Apple's built-in utility, your results will not be professional-level. To achieve those, you will have to purchase a colorimeter (like the i1 Display 2, which can be used with XRite's freely-downloadable i1 Match software).
Best of luck.
Marco Ugolini
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