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Whilst tackling a rather dark image in the Xara Gallery forum it dawned on me(no pun intended!) that your own monitor's settings could make a *huge* difference to how others see your work. You won't notice anything wrong yourself because you are shading and colouring to suit your own monitor, but to others it may look washed out, too dark or even the wrong shade of colour.
I keep my monitor well calibrated (I regularly do this sort of thing on TVs and monitors for a living) but it got me wondering what the average monitor setting is out there. Old monitors (5years, on every day) are likely to be wearing sunglasses as their tube loses brightness with ageing.
For anyone that's interested to see how well their monitor is set up, I found some calibration charts here that will reveal your monitor "gamma". In simple terms, Gamma is a measure of how well your monitor handles subtle dark tones. A gamma of 2.2 is considered optimum for good tonal reproduction.
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Graeme
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Whilst tackling a rather dark image in the Xara Gallery forum it dawned on me(no pun intended!) that your own monitor's settings could make a *huge* difference to how others see your work. You won't notice anything wrong yourself because you are shading and colouring to suit your own monitor, but to others it may look washed out, too dark or even the wrong shade of colour.
I keep my monitor well calibrated (I regularly do this sort of thing on TVs and monitors for a living) but it got me wondering what the average monitor setting is out there. Old monitors (5years, on every day) are likely to be wearing sunglasses as their tube loses brightness with ageing.
For anyone that's interested to see how well their monitor is set up, I found some calibration charts here that will reveal your monitor "gamma". In simple terms, Gamma is a measure of how well your monitor handles subtle dark tones. A gamma of 2.2 is considered optimum for good tonal reproduction.
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Graeme
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Great stuff. Mine was slightly off and now I'm good to go.
I always wondered how this stuff should be set correctly even though I was aware of all the settings, this site puts it all togeather for me.
Great link!
The BEST is good enough!
[This message was edited by ED on August 07, 2002 at 05:25.]
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I've made my own calibration stuff, now almost famous on the web - you may check it out here:
www.klausnordby.com/himself/calibrate.html
It is superior to the posted link in that I use the whole 256 grayscale level range, not just a crude 100-step scale. I don't have that gamma-thingie, though I might add it, but I have a color calibrator there which also is useful.
K
K
www.xaraxone.com/FeaturedArt/kn/
www.klausnordby.com/xara
[This message was edited by Klaus Nordby on August 07, 2002 at 06:54.]
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Nice one Klaus [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]
I see I'm not alone on this issue - I just can't stand a poorly adjusted monitor/TV. As you point out, if someone's created a lot of artwork whilst using a poorly set monitor they'll get a unwelcome shock if they see it on a good monitor.
I do all my artwork in a darkened room but alas maybe much of the low light detail is lost to the majority. How about a Gamma Poll (as opposed to the usual desktop size)?!
I wonder if Van Gough wore blue tinted glasses when he mixed his paint [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]
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Graeme
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Klaus' calibration page was better for me, because of the much larger scale of gradations.
I find that the Adobe's gamma adjustment that comes with Photoshop adjusts my screen brightness too dark, and Klaus' calibration page proved that to be correct.
Thanks guys!
http://talkgraphics.infopop.net/1/Op...&ul=1101906325 [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] Eye Site Web Design
Why, I’m afraid I can’t explain myself, sir, because I’m not myself, you know...
- Lewis Carroll
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Nothing like a little home-made quickie-thing to show Adobe & Co. how it really should be done, eh?
;-)
K
www.xaraxone.com/FeaturedArt/kn/
www.klausnordby.com/xara
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I got the brightness and the contrast all the way up and Klaus' scale is one big black rectangle but the white point seems fine, I can see all those progressing just fine. So that's that for this old Compaq monitor. At least it's as good as it can be now.
I will try this with my monitor at home. The Gateway monitor is a bit more complex and since I don't understand this stuff I will try the brightness controls and see if I can get that to do the trick.
Both of Graeme's posted images here, at work and at home, so dark to me that I thought "how could both monitors be that messed up" well I guess they can!! Oh well!!!
It's always something!! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]
Richard [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]
---Wolff On The Prowl---
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That's not good news, Richard. I hope your monitor at home brightens up a bit for you. It's a shame I wasn't just round the corner - there's a few tweaks inside the monitor I could have carried out to get a little more life out of it for you.
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Graeme
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for something like that. It's always something with me and computers. The one I am writing you from, at work, was in the shop 2 times before it was fine, and my Gateway compter experience is not much better. Get the CPU working right then expect the monitor to have problems.
WAAAAAAAAA!! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img] [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img] [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img] [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img]
As Cher said in Moonstruck, as she is slapping me accross the face....."Snap Out Of It"!! I just keep my fingers crossed. Maybe me and EBay will get reaquainted or something. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] Wonder if anyone here has snagged anything like this from some place like that?? [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_confused.gif[/img]
Anyway, thanks Graeme, wish you lived around the corner too!! That would be really cool and I'm such a gadget guy, even though I don't own very many, I would be totally into learning the inards of my monitor, that would be KOOL!! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
Richard [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]
---Wolff On The Prowl---
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like a happy Wolff??? [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] Imagine really hard, OK, not good visuals, sorry about that!! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
Well, I ran accross my monitor manual from a million years ago, funny I create these file folders and I never look there when I need information!! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] Stupid, huh?? [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
Well the friggin brightness and contrast controls are right in front of my face and so I went back out to Klaus' site and set it all right. Then I did a "check", back to your thread, Graeme, and looked at those wonderful "machines" you created. Can you say TURN DOWN THE FRIGGIN CANDLES?? It's awfully bright in here!! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] OK, I'm hopping up and down again [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]
Even my Moms Angel looks really different. Ummmm, I think I need to make some adjustments. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
Next time remind me to look in my friggin files, would ya?? My mind is so addled these days with allergies, noise and plain ole' old age that I can't remember things I set up to make my own life easier!!! Now where did I put that Ginko Biloba...................
Thanks Graeme and Klaus!! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
Richard [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]
---Wolff On The Prowl---
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You'll be seeing things in an entirely different light now [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
I hope your angel doesn't need too much work to bring it back to your expectations - is it brighter that you thought?
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Graeme
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Maybe now that she appears brighter I will leave her alone. But I'm such a picky SOB when it comes to detail, it's gotta be just right!!!
My room mate loves the changes!!!
So this weekend I will decide (that's Sunday, Monday, Tuesday for me, us hairdressers don't have Sat and Sun off, at least most of us don't!! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img])
Thanks again for taking the time to help out with this mystery mess of mine!!
Richard [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]
---Wolff On The Prowl---
