Richard,
For a flat panel monitor ( LCD ) , the appropriate calibration is to load the manufacturer’s profile for the display into Adobe Gamma, and then save the file as a different name , that you will recognize as your custom profile. That way , Adobe Gamma will format that profile as it chooses and make it the system default, with LUT offsets to be loaded upon power up by the Gamma Loader.exe .
If you actually adjusted the sliders, and went thru the whole shebang, you are probably not operating with a good profile, since the Adobe Gamma utility is not designed for LCD displays.
I’d check to see whether you have an ICC profile for your display and if so, try the technique I’ve described. There is an Adobe techdoc on the subject, but I don’t have the link on this computer.
🙂
Brent
Well, Brent, as long as we’re back on this subject… (Brent is our resident color management expert, Richard.)
Remember a while back when I was trying to figure out how to get the ICC profile for my Envision monitor? Well, I think I had it all along. (I was afraid to mention that after all the work you went to!) In my list of choices for color management, I have one called "EN9110" for my LCD, and I think it’s a name that been assigned to designate the ICC profile for that particular monitor. Isn’t it? Unfortunately I can’t figure out which one in the list belongs to my CRT. There’s one on there with a strange number attached, and there’s another one for "VGA Display." I’m still trying to sort that out.
Beth,
Lots of times, the CRT profiles are not very accurate , anyway. I think that’s why the sRGB space is the recommended start point for the Adobe Gamma calibration . The analog technology of the CRT’s pretty much guarantees that every one coming off the line will be a little different.
🙂
Brent
Thanks, Brent. I recently added a second hard drive and will be using that to experiment with color management and calibration between the monitor, scanner, and printer. I’m chicken to do much on my main drive, because right now I’m still pretty happy with the results I’m getting using my hit and miss system. I want to keep one setup where I can rely on the results! The Monaco EZ Color is about ready to come out of the box, too. On your advice, I’ll start with the sRGB setting when I start fooling with the calibration of the CRT. Wish me luck, because I’m gonna need it. 🙂
The EZcolor has its own calibration utility, Monaco Gamma. You might prefer using it to the Adobe Gamma utility. You can use either, but not both at the same time. That would be too much of a good thing. <G>
🙂
I have been trying to start the process to calibrate my monitor (i have an Emachine T2692). Elements says first i set the "RGB values at 128" and i am to find out how to do that in my operating system documentation. Well, there you are! I can’t find anything anywhere that mentions rgb values, neutral grey, etc. Any thoughts from those who know something? I know nothing! The operating system is Windows XP.
mike redman in idaho
Mike ,
They’re talking about the Windows Desktop background color. I use Windows 2000, so this might be slightly different. Right click on the empty desktop to get into Display Properties. Then click the Appearance tab. Toward the bottom right is a small "Color " dropdown box. If you click that, you should see a display where on the right side you can create a custom color ( in this case, R=128, g=128, B=128 , for grey ) and save that color as your background.
Hope this matches the XP version of the screen.
🙂
Brent
They’re talking about the Windows Desktop background color. I use
Windows 2000, so this might be slightly different. Right click on the empty desktop to get into Display Properties. Then click the Appearance tab. Toward the bottom right is a small "Color " dropdown box. If you click that, you should see a display where on the right side you can create a custom color ( in this case, R=128, g=128, B=128 , for grey ) and save that color as your background.
Brent,
On my HP XP(home) machine the color settings are only blue; Olive Green; and Silver.
I see no place to create a custom color from the appearance tab?
Pete
YUCK!!!!
No "Other" drop down box ?
Pete, I don’t know about home, but in XP pro it’s appearance>advanced, be sure that desktop is selected, then click the color button, then "other."
OK, it’s accessed from another spot in XP. This should be the full path:
Control Panel>Change Desktop Background>Desktop>Color>Other
Once you’re in "Other" you can set custom colors, so this is where you’d set the RGB values for neutral gray like Brent is describing.
I think. Of course we all know how well I "speak" Windows! 🙂
Yeah, that seems to do the same thing. In the appearance one, you can set custom colors for other things, too, but the end result is the same.
Yeah,
You can still right click on desktop and go to "desktop" tab. Then clicking the down arrow by color there is an "other" option. That is where that little devil was hiding, under other.
Pete
Crap. Now I have to go back to the beginning of this thread because after all that I forgot what we were talking about to begin with:)
Pete, LOL, I had to do the same thing,
Dick
Sorry if i got you off track, since i am new at this forum stuff. But thank you all for leading me to the correct answer.
Don’t apologize, Mike. Getting off track seems to be one of the strengths of people on this forum; we need no help! 🙂
It’s our only strength !! <G>
And we exercise it well and often!
Dick
speaking of strenght and excercise…..my strenghts are limited to creativity and I excercise my PC at least 8 hours a day.
Thanks for the info Brent. I will follow your advice and give you feedback on the results.
Richard Lancaster
Brent, (re: my e-mail 4/20 2:54pm, and your reply same day 4:41pm)
I received this reply when I contacted Dell support in trying to find out my monitor manufacturer’s ICC color profile:
Sir, in order to use ICC color profile please visit the link below. Please note that ICC color profile management is Adobe software:
<
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=2348>
Is the above link the one you were referring to?
Also, I ran across something on the Adobe site under "Ignore EXIF Color Space Utilities". Any idea what this is about?
And I still haven’t been able to find any information about my monitor profile. Any clues as to where I should be looking?
Thanks.
Richard Lancaster
Thanks again for your prompt response Brent. I really appreciate your help.
My monitor is a Dell 17" flat panel, model E171FPb.
Brent,
I went to this site and found my model number, Dell E171FPb, however, once I got there, I was mystified by what I found. There was a file number that I clicked on, but I wasn’t sure if it was the profile number. I would sure appreciate some guidance here. As you can tell, I’m a novice. Thanks again.
Richard,
The file associated with your monitor is R51558.exe . It is a self extracting archive, meaning if you click on it , it will automatically extract the files to your hard drive. The default location is a Dell folder on the C: drive . Once the files are extracted there is a readme.txt file and a couple other files. The file with the .ICM extension is the actual display profile. The profile will end up in the system profile location ( which varies according to OS ) .
Profile locations:-
Windows 98, 98 Second Edition and Me – folder named windows/system/color Windows 2000 and XP – sub-folder named system32/spool/drivers/color Mac OS9.x – ColorSync profiles are located in the System Folder/ColorSync Profiles folder Mac OSX – ColorSync profiles are located in the Library/ColorSync/Profiles folder .
I’d would follow the install instructions in the readme.txt file. I suspect that they’ll put the profile in the correct location. The profile name is E171FPb.icm . Next time you run Adobe Gamma you should load that profile and then immediately save it under another name ( like "RBL-LCD", for example ) . Adobe Gamma will then make it the default profile for the system and load it upon startup through the Adobe Gamma Loader.exe file .
We were all flummoxed by the Color profile stuff at one time, slowly you’ll learn enough to get by ( unless you want to be an expert, then I suspect it becomes a job ! <G>) /
🙂
Brent
Brent,
Thanks for the link. Alas, when I went there, my model doesn’t show up in the listings. Perhaps it’s too old. I assume since it says Trinitron on the top of it that it began life as a Sony, even with the Dell name on the bottom.
Dick
Dick,
Sounds like your monitor is a real CRT . If that’s the case, you’re probably better off not having an original profile, anyway. Adobe Gamma does a credible job profiling CRT’s ( your eye’s are the judge <G> ) . Just start by loading the sRGB profile and changing sliders, etc from that point.
<
http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps7-colour/ps7_2.htm>
🙂
Brent
Thanks, Brent
I have been doing that on a regular basis, about once a month, with great success. Just wondered if I missed something. 🙂 Guess not!
Dick
Dick,
Just out of curiosity, I loaded my original CRT profile into Adobe Gamma and saved it for use as the monitor profile. What a bad looking profile it is. I’m sure that CRT’s components degrade much more than LCD display components degrade, so even if I had a good profile of my new monitor, it would soon be obsolete. I’ve noticed that my monitor is right at the adjustment edge for the brightness adjustment. I’ll be taking the back off and trying to "tweak" a little more adjustment range out of it on the flyback transformer.
🙂
Brent
I just got a whole new whopping fast system with a LCD monitor. I put in Photoshop 7 and Elements 2.0 and it told me that my monitor is defective and to calibrate it. When contacting Gateway about the problem they told me that it has nothing to do with my monitor and that Adobe is the problem. They said to contact adobe and they probably have a quick fix for it. I did nothing and keep working with both of those programs and everything seems to be just fine.
Sue,
The complaint was probably that the monitor profile was defective. The fix to that is to run the profile through the Adobe Gamma utility, to format it the way that Adobe Apps want it to look <G> . This Adobe techdoc describes the process, <
http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/1403e.htm> .
🙂
Brent
Hi Brent,
Thanks again for all your help. I think I’ve gotten everything set up now as per your instructions, although after I extracted the correct file to my hard drive, I couldn’t find it at first. So, I did a file search and it was listed as being in the "Documents and Settings" folder. But when I looked there, I didn’t find it. I finally found it by chance when I looked in "My Documents" and found it in a folder called "Internet Downloads". When I clicked on it, the ReadMe text document window opened. After that, it was just a matter of following the instructions, as you had said. Then, I was able to open Gamma and saw that it was indeed there, so I renamed it and saved it. Then I reran the calibration and could definitely see a difference in the before and after images. Now, I just have to go back into elements and see what happens.
I will let you know what happens, and again, I really appreciate your help. It’s so refreshing to find a support site where you actually get the help you need, and in a friendly and timely manner. Bravo, Brent and keep up the good work. God knows, we need you.
Richard Lancaster
Thanks so much Bret. I need all the help I can get. I use photoshop all the time with my digital camera. I just bought a Canon Rebel and want the pictures to print out perfect. Do you think I should do the calibration? I’m one of these people who are afraid to mess up my computer, but end up doing it anyway. LOL
Sue Shirk
Bret,
I went to that page you sent me,and don’t quite understand what to do. I have a PC and not Apple. I have Photo shop and Elements 2.0. Can I calibrate this LCD monitor from one of them. I want to print out the pictures and will send some of them to Ofoto. Please help:( I understood the directions but am not sure if it’s for my computer. Sorry.
Sue
Sue,
To setup your monitor profile, we’ll first need to find the factory profile for your display. What is the model number of your LCD display ? Once we find which profile matches that display, you will load the profile into the Adobe Gamma utility, save it under a different name , like "Sue’s LCD" and Adobe Gamma should do the rest.
🙂
Brent
My monitor it a Gateway LCD FPD1530 I’ll be waiting for you instructions. 🙂
Sue,
Searching the Gateway support site, there is a link to download the driver you want "Desktop and Profile 4 Monitor INF driver
Supports: Windows XP ", is the name and the link is <
http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/search.asp?ref=st ep&st=browse&platform=10021&model=10027&os=1 0406&type=10101> .
The bottom file is a self extracting archive. It’s possible you already have the driver loaded on your pc. The icm file that is the profile for your display is "05fa.icm". If you try to run the Adobe Gamma utility, and load a profile, see if that profile is on your system . If it is load it, enter a new name in the box and save it. That should store it as the system default profile, and should cure the problem.
If the icm file is not a choice , then you’ll have to download the above driver package from Gateway, and install it.
🙂
Brent
Brent,
I know you are going to think me totally stupid, but I don’t know how to run the Adobe Gamma Utility. I see it in the start up menu but, I’m lost. Sorry
Sue
Sue,
What you see in the starup folder is the Adobe Gamma Loader utility. The Adobe Gamma calibrator is in the Control panel . If the Adobe Gamma utility is not in the Control panel, you can search for it on your C: drive. The file name is "Adobe Gamma.cpl" . Right click on the file, click on "run with control panel", and you should be okay.
This quote is from the Adobe Techdoc on how to deal with an LCD display profile in Adobe Gamma. "The "Calibrating Your Monitor" section of the user guide (e.g., Adobe Illustrator 9.0 User Guide, pages 214-216; Adobe InDesign 1.0 User Guide, pages 301-302), gives you detailed instructions for preparing for monitor calibration, adjusting the settings, and saving the finished profile. If you don’t complete a step (e.g., making sure your monitor has been turned on for at least a half hour), your profile may not be accurate.
If you load an existing profile (e.g., Generic RGB Profile) and modify it in Adobe Gamma, be sure to change its Description (e.g., My monitor 10/22/99) so you can distinguish it from the original. It’s a good idea to enter the same name in the Description field and in the Save As dialog box that appears you finish using Adobe Gamma. Also, if you include the date in the name, you’ll know how long it’s been since you last calibrated the monitor.
Note: Flat panel display monitors (e.g., Apple Studio Display) do not use brightness and contrast. Instead, they use white point and black point levels to adjust the monitor’s characterization. Because of this, load the ICC profile that comes with your flat panel in Adobe Gamma without modifying the settings except the Description. Make sure to save your profile with a filename that matches the Description name. "
Good luck, you’re close, Sue
🙂
Brent
Hi again, Brent,
Just a follow-up after your helpful information regarding calibrating my monitor. The results after using Gamma following your advice seem to have done what it was supposed to do. I definitely could see a difference in the color of my prints. So, once again thank you for all of your help.
Richard Lancaster
Glad it worked , Richard .
🙂
Brent
