@Keter: brightness is actually the black level. Contrast is the white level what you want to lower to darken your screen.

milrtime83

Better tools than this one:
[www.photofriday.com]
[www.normankoren.com] (This one's really long, but very informative.)

Andrewski

Thank you very much. My monitors here at work were way too bright, and I already have less eyestrain looking at my now dimmer monitors. Now, if I could only do something to eliminate the soul-sucking fluorescent lighting...

dragynphyre

Thank you for this! I have 2 identical LCD monitors, one hooked up through VGA and the other through DVI and the color just didnt quite match. Now they do.
I need to break down and build a new computer already.

QuaDuce

For actually color calibration I highly recommend the Pantone Huey (about $60) [www.amazon.com]

For those with multiple monitor setups - get the pro for $20 more. I have the pro version, two different brand monitors and now they color match. I tried the more expensive spyders and others - but the Huey is awesome. I also like that it can measure your room light and adjust for it... works wonders in a window office. And there doesn't seem to be a license restriction on the software - install and calibrate as many machines as you like.

WhatThe...

LCD monitors don't seem to need recalibration very often, though CRTs do. I've saved every profile for my three LCDs I've made with my colorvision spyder for the past couple of years, and there's virtually no difference among them. I'll get just as much variation doing back-to-back calibrations as I do with my semi-monthly calibration.

You have to be seriously, seriously anal about color to worry about the temperature of your lightbulbs or to get one of the uber monitors, and at that point you're not getting calibration advice off of lifehacker. For an amateur, borrowing a calibration puck once or twice a year probably makes more sense than dropping the money on one. :)

ppiddyp

Hmm, I calibrated my monitor to the photos I print from Adobe Lightroom. That way, I can look at a photo on my screen in Lightroom, and know exactly what it will look like when it spits out of my printer.

Nalco

This is not a replacement for a hardware calibration unit. At best, it will help you get into the ballpark for brightness and contrast, but that is just the ballpark. Working as a photographer and in the digital imaging industry, hardware color calibrations done with a puck and software need to be done at least once a month. If you are a professional photographer, graphic designer, printer, etc., you are probably doing this every 2 weeks.

Color monitor calibration is based on a set of math numbers, not whatever looks best on a monitor. I won't bore you with the details, but most consumer monitors (read that as most monitors under $400) can only be calibrated so far anyway. If you are serious about color and / or work in the industry, you already know about the high end LaCie and Eizo monitors, as well as the eye-one suite of calibration tools.

Most all monitors come out of the box with the brightness / contrast settings on STUN, that is to say, cranked to 100%. Monitors look good this way, but color does not look good on them. You also need to be aware of the bulbs you use in any given room you are calibrating a monitor in and what Kelvin they are at.

Mike Panic

@bobbo33: I think you would need software to allow for that kind of calibration. Mac's have a pretty good colour management interface found in System Properties. For Windows, you can get the MS Powertoy or if you have any Adobe products, there is the Adobe Gamma software (in Control Panel). I'm sure there's a few freeware apps out there.

A3sthetix

I just shelled out two hundred dollars for the expensive software and gadget suction thingy to calibrate my monitor. I have to for my photo-heavy business.

Maulleigh

For dual (or triple, or quad) monitors, how do you adjust them to match in contrast/brightness/color?

My two monitors are the same brand/model, but were purchased 6 months apart and I can't get the brightness quite the same. Suggestions?

bobbo33

Garmahis is right. Even when you do calibrate a monitor using expensive hardware like the X-Rite Eye One Photo it will never look exactly like you expect things to on a different machine or output device. Finicky stuff.

orangewarp

You actually will adjust settings of your monitor (saturation, brightness, contrast) with this site but not calibrate. Calibration is more complicated process both using software or hardware.

garmahis

The key phrase in the post is "reasonably well calibrated monitor". For example, how do you know that the red is the correct color? You don't unless you can build a proper monitor profile that will tell your monitor to produce accurate color. So, if you want to get accurate color you'll need to buy a hardware calibration solution.

roderashe

re: This might save me money on buying one of those expensive color monitors, or is that something different?

Calibrating by eye works well enough for most people and is certainly adequate if you are not doing graphic production.

Expensive monitors and calibration hardware are necessary of you do print production (e.g. if you are preparing graphics to be mass produced). Some may feel it's appropriate for web graphics but most web graphics are not that critical. Your viewers' monitors are uncalibrated so good by-eye adjustment should be ok.

moe52

You know. These are nice and all, but it depends highly on what you want to do. If you watch a dvd on your computer, this will more then likely screw it up since the DVD is designed for TV screens, with in general have different aspects to their display. the calibration will just show more errors on the DVD. Now if you do a lot of color work, or need a perfect match to the color on screen and print, this would be great to do.

Or like me, find a happy balance that doesn't hurt your eyes and allows you to see the screen well

LordDaMan

Thanks. This might save me money on buying one of those expensive color monitors, or is that something different?

Bakari

Yes it was...and it confirmed my suspicion...my brand new wide screen LCD is way too bright. I have it on 0 brightness and it's still painful to look at, but not much dimmer than it was at 30%. Or 100%. :o(

Keter

That was easy!

Strengthnation