Monitor calibration

  1. Using special calibrators
  2. Using video card utilities and software supplied with the monitor
  3. Using special programs for monitor calibration

In this article, you will learn how to calibrate your monitor. By popular demand I present to your attention an article on the subject of monitor calibration. What is it for?

If your monitor has a deviation in the reproduction of a color, for example, when correcting photos, you will not be able to adequately assess the result. This is one of the reasons why, on print or on other monitors, photos or works will not look the way you expected. Something like this. On the left is shown how the picture looks on a calibrated monitor, on the right - on an uncalibrated one.

There are various ways to fine-tune your monitor settings:

Using special calibrators

Calibrator is a device with high-precision photo sensors, connected to your computer.

The calibration process can occur in manual or automatic mode.

  • The advantages of this method: speed and high accuracy of calibration (meaning professional models).
  • Disadvantages: high cost of the calibrator and software. Cheap Chinese calibrators advertised on the Internet do not provide the required calibration quality.

Using video card utilities and software supplied with the monitor

Allows you to adjust the gray point (for undistorted color reproduction) and monitor gamma.

  • Advantages: ease of use.
  • Disadvantages: a small number of customizable parameters for low-quality monitors (most of the cheap LCD monitors) are clearly insufficient. But in any case, you will reduce the distortion of color and contrast, although not by much and not in the whole range of brightness. An example of a dialog box for one of these utilities is shown below.

An example of a dialog box for one of these utilities is shown below

Using special programs for monitor calibration

This method seems to us particularly interesting. Although the calibration accuracy will undoubtedly be inferior to a professional calibrator, but for photo editing it is quite sufficient. There are a lot of programs for calibration. You can try any and choose the one that best meets your requirements.

Let's get acquainted with one of the programs for the calibration of the monitor Atrise Lutcurve. The program will help to calibrate your liquid crystal (LCD) or CRT monitor without any special devices under the following technical parameters:

  • Gamma: 0.1-5.0. 2.2 recommended
  • Color temperature: 6500K
  • Luminosity level: 80 cd. / M2
  • Color Space: monitor settings, usually sRGB

Lutcurve uses the high sensitivity of the human eye to a neutral gray. With the help of specially designed patterns (repeating patterns of lines of complementary colors) and program controls you need to achieve a smooth gray color of all areas.

If you see colored lines in the image below, your monitor should be calibrated. To do this, download and install Lutcurve.

This program, unlike the popular image gamma adjustment utilities, provides higher calibration accuracy. And the gamma adjustment utilities can only correct the gamma without affecting the distortion and inaccuracies of the display device. Atrise Lutcurve will allow you to correct the non-linearity of displays, especially for LCD monitors. The number of calibration points is not limited, so it is quite possible to achieve excellent results even on old monitors with a lowered backlight lamp.

The quality of the calibration depends on your accuracy. The program interface includes the Russian language, is intuitive, so I will not dwell on its duplication here. You can download the trial version at manufacturer's official website . For a full-featured or professional version, you need to purchase a license.

I wish you all creative inspiration and success!

What is it for?