Calibrating a MAC

[KimC]

Thanks for the additional insight Terry, AND for the tip of the day -- love those kind of tips!

Hi Kim!

I recently “inherited” an iMac. Since I got it free I hot-rodded it up some (read: upgraded OSx and sunk a little $$ in it).

After I got that going on the first order of bidness was to calibrate/profile. I have the Datacolor system and it does just fine with Apple computers. I also have a MBP and another monitor I use the Datacolor for.

Once done all three screens seemed to match up pretty darned good to my eye.

After the software completes the process it will graph the success for you and you can see show you the results in the different color spaces. Also give you a “before/after” option with test photos you can toggle back and forth to help you judge for yourself.

The whole process is pretty much cake and the software does the brunt of the work for you after you make the initial adjustments before running the colorimeter/software program. The software even advises you on where to set your preliminary adjustments.

Here is my Tip ‘O the Day on this! At least it has helped me. Doesn’t seem like much but it has helped keep my already addled brain straight down the line after numerous re-calibrations/profiles have been built over time!

At the end of the process the program will give you the option of naming the profile it just built. Name it whatever you want but date it in the profile name. Example: iMac_1_4_17. Later on you’ll be glad you did!

[KimC]

That's exactly what my husband said to me last night Robin. I don't trust myself, as to my naked eye, I like my monitor... so I think it's best to enlist some help and a have a Spyder5PRO coming this afternoon.

Before you buy a calibration device - still the best option - have you tried to calibrate it yourself?

Settings - Displays - Color - Calibrate...

Have a play about and if it doesn't help or makes it worse you can switch immediately back to the previous profile.

[Manfred M]

Before you buy a calibration device - still the best option - have you tried to calibrate it yourself?

Settings - Displays - Color - Calibrate...

Have a play about and if it doesn't help or makes it worse you can switch immediately back to the previous profile.

I believe this is the old visual calibration tool that MS also used at one time (or at least a close cousin). The basic concept is flawed as it relies on human vision to do the calibration and the results tend to be wildly inconsistent.

[Black Pearl]

I believe this is the old visual calibration tool that MS also used at one time (or at least a close cousin). The basic concept is flawed as it relies on human vision to do the calibration and the results tend to be wildly inconsistent.

Its certainly not as good as buying a dedicated piece of hardware and software to calibrate your screen but its built into macOS, free to use, doesn't do any damage, can be ran as many times as you could possible hanker after and you can switch between the attempts at will so why wouldn't someone who is having issue have a quick play to see if they can make an improvement. By all means buy the hardware as well but if all the panel needs is a quick tweak - remember in this case Kim has been getting acceptable results in the past - it might do the trick.

[KimC]

Well, I calibrated my monitor and it was easy! Thanks for the tips you provided - they def helped. The most dramatic change I noted is that it warmed things up - I now know why I freq received comments about the coolness of my images. I'm glad I did this -- why spend all that money on gear, and time on processing, if you really don't know what you are working with. Glad I got over my phobia of messing up my Mac. As always, you're the best - thank you!

Robin, I saw when I was reviewing the instructions where my iMac gave me the option to calibrate. If I was aware of that before the purchase, I def would have tried that. Hopefully, your comment will help another MAC user.

[Ian H]

Kim, you now have a monitor that is calibrated to an ICC standard, the colours of your images will look the same when viewed on any other monitor calibrated to the same standard and will be very close when printed using an ICC paper profile. If you had used the in built calibration on the Mac you would not have had any of this because it would have been calibrated to a standard of your eyes.

[Mike Buckley]

the colours of your images will look the same when viewed on any other monitor calibrated to the same standard

Unfortunately, not all browsers manage color effectively. If a poor browser is being used, the colors will be different even when viewing the image on a calibrated monitor.

[Ian H]

Very true Mike, the joys of browsers. At least viewing them on something like Bridge will be ok :-)

[Manfred M]

Unfortunately, not all browsers manage color effectively. If a poor browser is being used, the colors will be different even when viewing the image on a calibrated monitor.

That is quite correct Mike, with one exception.

If the browser in not colour managed (or only partially colour managed) or the image does not have a colour profile embedded, the default is sRGB. If one only posts sRGB images, chances are good that a person looking at the image on a sRGB computer screen that has been profiled and calibrated, the results will be fairly close to what was posted.

[Manfred M]

Its certainly not as good as buying a dedicated piece of hardware and software to calibrate your screen but its built into macOS, free to use, doesn't do any damage, can be ran as many times as you could possible hanker after and you can switch between the attempts at will so why wouldn't someone who is having issue have a quick play to see if they can make an improvement. By all means buy the hardware as well but if all the panel needs is a quick tweak - remember in this case Kim has been getting acceptable results in the past - it might do the trick.

Robin - let's agree to disagree on this one.

When I took the color correction course at the local college two years ago, we were all working on new iMacs. As an exercise, we got to try to set up the screens using the tool you recommended and then got to flip back to the custom profiles that had been put on the machines.

I think most people in the class were surprised how far off the visual calibrations were. The prof made his point; human eyes / the human visual system are not a good calibration tool. He made the point that it made no sense that Apple still shipped that software on their machines. Feel good calibration does not work.

[Mike Buckley]

If one only posts sRGB images [and using a browser that has poor color management], chances are good that a person looking at the image on a sRGB computer screen that has been profiled and calibrated, the results will be fairly close to what was posted.

I disagree based on life experience. I have used different browsers to do that using my calibrated monitor and the differences can be astounding.

[Manfred M]

I disagree based on life experience. I have used different browsers to do that using my calibrated monitor and the differences can be astounding.

Interesting Mike, as that is completely different than what I found in my testing with FireFox, IE, Chrome and Safari.

It would be quite interesting to understand why we are getting such wildly differing results.

[Mike Buckley]

Perhaps the timing of the test would explain it. I did my test a few years ago. Maybe you did your test more recently and maybe the differences between the browsers are less noticeable now than in the past.

[Manfred M]

Perhaps the timing of the test would explain it. I did my test a few years ago. Maybe you did your test more recently and maybe the differences between the browsers are less noticeable now than in the past.

That could be the difference. I did my tests last spring after I had read that both Chrome and Safari had improved their colour management and wanted to see if this was correct.