Can't calibrate LCD monitor

i'm using PS Elements 2 with windowsXP and an LCD monitor. I've tried to use Adobe Gamma to calibrate the monitor but can't see any of the effects that you're supposed to get. I saw a post here that pointed to a Note in an Adobe document that said that to calibrate an LCD you should load in Adobe Gamma the ICC profile that comes with your flat panel. The only thing I could find in my files was a profile that had the same name as my monitor but when I try to load it the system won't let me. I get a message that it's not a valid RGB profile. I know I can buy a hardware device to calibrate but I'd like to see what results I get if I use Adobe Gamma.

Adele,
The only way you'll get a good profile from Adobe Gamma with your LCD monitor, is to load the manufacturer's profile in Adobe gamma and then save the profile as your own personal one. Then, if the original profile was accurate, you'll have a well profiled display. The Adobe Gamma utility itself was not designed with LCD displays in mind, and this work-around is the only real option.
On my old laptop, I use Adobe Gamma to balance the colors and that's about all I get. I can't say that its well profiled and I don't do any editting on it, but the images look relatively normal. You might go out to your manufacturer's support site and see if any other display drivers are available. Amazingly, even new devices sometimes don't come with the latest drivers.

Hopeful,

:-)

Brent

Finding the LCD manufacturers profile is a good start. However I have been reasonably successful calibrating an LCD monitor, but not with Adobe Gamma.

If you have an NVidia graphics adapter make sure you have a recent driver and you will be able to adjust brightness, contracts AND gamma with the video card driver configuration. (No need to adjust monitor controls - all done via graphics card driver). To set black, white and gamma levels to reasonable values I utilized some websites listed below.

<http://epaperpress.com/monitorcal/>
<http://www.colormatters.com/comput_colorblind.html>

Good luck calibrating your display.

JP

Adobe Gamma does two things . It has a wizard which allows you to adjust the hardware settings of your monitor to a known , calibrated state, and it creates a monitor profile, with LUT offset values to adjust your display to the "perfect" color state upon startup.

Ideally, two calibrated and profiled displays will display the same image identically. Adjustments made via graphics adaptor controls should not be part of the equation. Its too easy to bump them up or bump them down, thereby rendering the monitor profile invalid. It's not unusual for someone with a CRT display to run the Adobe Gamma profiling utility monthly, to account for the gradual decay of monitor components. An LCD display is different in that components are not under the same stresses of an CRT and the components do not degrade in the same fashion. Nonetheless, a manufacturer's original profile will only be accurate for a certain period, after which creating a new profile will be necessary to reflect the true characteristics of the display. There's not really a shortcut, long term, you've got to follow the rules or you won't have an accurately profiled device.

:-(

Brent

Thanks. I'll see if I can get a new display driver. Do you know nay reason why Adobe Gamma would refuse to load the monitor profile I have.

Adele,
I don't know why, but we've seen it before , but not often. What is the brand and model of your LCD, maybe someone else has the same one.

:-)
Brent

It's an HP Pavilion f1703.

It turns out I had the latest driver for my monitor but I reinstalled it anyway on the off chance there was something wrong there. Still can't load it in Adobe Gamma. I'm working on photos to share with others and at this point I have no idea whether the image I'm seeing is anything like what woould be seen by them, brigtness, colors, etc. I'm thinking of setting the monitor back to the factor settings and auto config and deleting Adobe Gamma from my startup as a temporary workaround until I can solve this or break down and buy a Spyder. I certainly didn't expect all this when I "upgraded" to an LCD.

P.S. I've tried reporting the problem to Adobe as a bug but so far no answer.

I downloaded the driver for your monitor, tried to use the ICM profile and had the same experience that you had with it. My opinion is that it's not compatible and HP will have to resolve that issue. I'm sure, though , that HP will have other thoughts ! If I were you, I'd try profiling as well as I could with Adobe Gamma and create a profile, then do some printing, etc, and hope that it's good enough.
I have invested $500 in Monaco EZcolor and colorimeter for profiling, so I'm not adverse to the idea, but many people justly would rather not invest in such stuff.

:-)

Brent

Please feel free to completely disregard this suggestion. But this is what I did to calibrate my LCD monitor, and I have been satisfied with the results.

I ran the Adobe Gamma utility and used the wizard. I created a new profile, giving it a unique name.

I followed all of the steps outlined by the wizard. However, I did NOT adjust the brightness and contrast as instructed. I left those settings alone.

After I had created the new profile I opened Photoshop Elements, but did not load an image. So the bulk of my screen was the gray background. The background had a pink tint to it, so I ran the Adobe Gamma again with Photoshop Elements still loaded. Then I adjusted the individual colors until the Elements background appeared to be a neutral gray. I have been satisfied with the results that I got from this exercise.

I understand that Adobe Gamma is not supposed to be suitable for calibrating LCD monitors. But I'm kind of dumb, and didn't have anything else to turn to. So this is the process that I followed and it worked for me. Now, I'm sure a number of others will tell you that this process isn't going to work. And that's okay.

Jim, you are not alone -- I did the same thing. When I looked under the monitor profiles, there was no default listed in the box. So, I went through the Adobe Gamma wizard without making any changes and then saved the profile with a new name I could easily recognize and then set it as my default. Here is a pic of the Color Management tab in my Display properties: <http://www.pbase.com/image/29405880>

If I click on the Add button beneath the associated profiles box, I can see a list of available profiles. Other than the sRGB Color Space Profile.icm and the new one I saved, there is nothing to me in there that indicates a default. Am I missing something here?

Anyway...I truly believe that my laptop monitor display is fine as it is for now without making any adjustments, but I saved this default in case I need to make changes later on down the road. As my guide, I used these articles: <http://epaperpress.com/monitorcal/index.html>

I have a Compaq Presario X1010 with ATI Mobility Radeon 9200. Since ATI in in charge of my display, if I need to make any adjustments to gamma/brightness/contrast I would use the controls it provides, right? This is what is available for that (I have not made any changes): <http://www.pbase.com/image/29406429>

Sorry this was so long, but this topic has always been REALLY confusing to me too. If anyone can help un-confuse me, I'm all ears!

Patti

Whoops, I meant to add a link showing the available profiles when I click on that Add button: <http://www.pbase.com/image/29405881>
You can see the one I saved in the second column.

What are all these for anyway?

Patti

AFAIK, those are just some common profiles that Adobe considers that a lot of users will be interested in. I think the most common one of those to use is the Adobe1998RGB profile, or whatever it is called. All of the rest of them apparently will be recognized by those users who know what they are for.

THanks. I'll try to see what I can do with Adobe gamma while pursuing HP.

I found some great info on this site. Maybe someone posted it before when I was paying attention?? It seems to make more sense to me than some things I've read. Be sure to check out the links under Article and Resources. The link below is on monitor calibration.

<http://www.ltlimagery.com/monitor_calibration.html>

Patti

I didn't get any help from HP. They punted and claimed it was a software issue. I' tryin various setiings to get a monitot/printer match but so far the colors are off when printed. For those of you who used Adibe gamma to calibrate an LCD monitor, what did you choose for the phosphors setting since an LCD doesn't have phosphors.