Digital Prints

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Mastering Digital Printing
include: specificity (calibration system works only with that monitor), uniqueness (calibration
process for other monitors can’t use the same software and targets), update dependency
(new OS versions may not be compatible), and complexity (conflicts may occur with
the special cabling and connections). Examples of smart monitors include the Sony Artisan
Color Reference System and the LaCie Electronblue with BlueEye Vision calibration.
Dumb (non-calibrator) monitors are calibrated through the computer’s video board or
card and the front panel controls. The card’s lookup table (LUT) is altered, which changes
the monitor settings. Non-calibrator monitors, which are what most people use, are perfectly
capable (especially with third-party help) of being calibrated. The only downside is
that because some data has been clipped by the video card, you may see fewer available
color values, depending on how far you stray from the monitor’s native settings. Some
software/hardware packages can compensate for this loss by allowing the user to adjust the
color guns through the front panel controls, offering the same level of control as “smart”
monitors at a lower cost.
So What’s the Standard?
If monitors should be regularly calibrated to a known standard, the next question is: to what standard?
Although the prepress/graphic design portion of the color-viewing industry is based around a white
point of D50 (5000K), many digital workers have shifted their monitors to D65, a much cooler,
brighter color. Although a lot of this is personal preference and also dependent on the monitor and
room brightness levels, D50 is too dim and yellow to my eye, and D65 seems to match a nearby D50
viewing light more closely, even if that sounds illogical. I also choose a gamma setting of 2.2, which
seems better-suited to most computer systems.
Eyeballing It
Adobe Gamma (a Photoshop accessory for Mac and Windows) or Monitor Calibrator (an
Apple OS utility) is a straightforward, wizard-like, visual calibration process (other imageediting
applications have their own versions of this), so I’m not going to walk you through
it. After a series of steps that include adjusting the monitor for white point, contrast and
brightness, and phosphor RGB output levels, you end up with a monitor profile that
Photoshop and other ICC-savvy applications must have to display colors correctly on screen.
The main reason I’m giving Adobe Gamma (or similar visual procedures) scant mention
is because I don’t think it’s the best way of calibrating a monitor. It’s very dependent on
the viewing environment, plus many people have a hard time evaluating and comparing
colors, and that’s partly what these built-in software calibrators rely on.
To be sure, eyeballing it is better than no calibration at all, but if you have the option, go
with a third-party, instrument-based calibration/profiling system.
Using a Measuring Device
This is a better way to do monitor calibration and profiling because it’s based on objective
measurements, not just your visual opinion about how good your monitor’s display looks.