any special software for monitor calibration?

[Alisson Balinski]

Hi,
Can you please share your experience on using any special SW for monitor calibration? I've been reading and as I can see most people use the SW that comes with the calibrator. So is buying any special SW worth it? Is there a noticeable difference?
Thanks.

[Manfred M]

The software that comes with your calibrator was designed to be used with it. This means all of the technical data around the sensor and its performace will be embedded in that software.

Third party software unlikely has this information and will be making some assumptions or estimates on the sensor operations. This suggests that it will never be as precise or accurate as the manufacturer supplied software.

[DanK]

The software that comes with your calibrator was designed to be used with it. This means all of the technical data around the sensor and its performace will be embedded in that software.

Third party software unlikely has this information and will be making some assumptions or estimates on the sensor operations. This suggests that it will never be as precise or accurate as the manufacturer supplied software.

+1. I actually have never heard of anyone using anything other than the software that comes with the calibration device.

[ajohnw]

DisCalGui is free and far far more capable than what comes with all but very expensive spectrometers. And Dan has or may of heard of several people using it - me for one and others.

Most colourimeters have their calibration co efficients programmed into them when they are manufactured. Many despite name changes have exactly the same bits inside them. DispcalGui drives another application called Argyll which reads the data from the device or finds it for you in the supplied software. Argyll also does all of the calibration and profiling. DispCalGui just makes this easier for users. It's a bit of a juggernaut that will do a number of things related to colour.

Obviously it's better to buy a colourimeter that contains the calibration data as they will have least been done on a batch basis during manufacture. Maybe even individually.

John
-

[Emma Molenaar]

Hello Alisson,
We've already met - do you remember me? I wrote about PressProof by Qubyx. Have you downloaded the trial?

[Richard Lundberg]

+1. I actually have never heard of anyone using anything other than the software that comes with the calibration device.

TFTCentral oses LaCie software with X-Rite hardware all the time.

[Alisson Balinski]

Hello Alisson,
Have you downloaded the trial?

Hi, yes - and I like it so far. But I'd like to use something else too just to compare and decide. I really appreciate all your responses! Thanks!

[Alisson Balinski]

I'm testing dispcalGUI now (http://dispcalgui.hoech.net/). Can't figure out if it's possible to create v4 ICC profiles with it. Or do they have only v2? And one more question - i have a DELL display and as far as I know it should be possible to correct uniformity with those. Has anyone done it with dispcalGUI?

[ajohnw]

I'm testing dispcalGUI now (http://dispcalgui.hoech.net/). Can't figure out if it's possible to create v4 ICC profiles with it. Or do they have only v2? And one more question - i have a DELL display and as far as I know it should be possible to correct uniformity with those. Has anyone done it with dispcalGUI?

I have but use an XYZ LUT + swapped matrix, profile, quality high rather than a straight ICC file. The web site suggests using a swapped matrix to check if applications are using it correctly. They should read which colour is which in the matrix. Firefox doesn't. Everything else does. DispcalGui will load it system wide or local user wide. I just leave it to the PP package to pick this up and use it and in my case set sRGB in them as I only use sRGB and that is what the profile forces onto the display anyway. This type of profile load data into the video cards LUT (Look Up Table) so is a little like hardware programming the monitor directly.

Firefox clearly uses the calibration otherwise it wouldn't have the problem it has so I suppose I could just generate an unswapped one.

In terms of ICC files you will get a more reliable answer by asking in the forum on the DispCalGui site.

I just tried my set up on this page

http://www.color.org/version4html.xalter

The image shows as it should but is a lot clearer when the pdf is viewed as the images are bigger.

John
-

[Richard Lundberg]

If you have Dell wide gamut it is pointless to do the software calibration on a Mac. Macs for now are limited to 8 bit per channel output. To do a hardware cal you have to use the Xrite Display Pro and the Dell Xrite Monitor Calibration software to do the LUT in the monitor. This presently requires doing it in a Windows virtual machine.