Originally Posted by
Manfred M
Welcome to CiC Marianne. Would you mind clicking on the "My Profile" button on the top of the page and entering at least your first name and where you are from?
When you say you have created a profile of your computer screen with the software that shipped with your computer screen, can I assume it is both a hardware PLUS software solution, i.e. there is a device that is placed on your computer screen that works with the software to create a profile? These devices are generally produced by either x-Rite or DataColor.
When we write about "Colour Management", what we are really discussing is coming up with a way to ensure that each device from camera to computer screen to printer show the colour accurately. This is a fairly complex and somewhat finicky process, but if do things correctly, you can be reasonably confident this is happening properly.
In some ways the computer screen is the weakest link in the entire colour managed workflow. Before it can be colour managed, it has to be able to accurately reproduce colours and that is something the screen's manufacturer has to tell us unless one has access to some sophisticated electronic measurement tools. Unless your computer screen says it is 100% sRGB or close to 100% AdobeRGB compliant, you profiling and calibration operations are not necessarily meaningful.
There are two important and independent aspects of setting a computer screen. The first is ensuring that it has been set up to appropriate brightness and contrast levels. Normally for photographic work, one is looking for output in the 80 candela / square meter to 120 candela / square meter range. The underlying assumption is that your workspace is also adequately lit. For most photo editing work, one is looking at a slightly darkened room with a maximum light level at the work area of less than 70 lux.
The second part of this operation is to measure the actual colours that your screen reproduces against a set standard using either a photospectrometer or colorimeter (one of the devices I mentioned previously). The software writes this all into a colour lookup table that your computer operating system loads when it starts up.
The final step is when one prints (if one prints). Photo printers (and the associated inks) and papers will have colour profiles that continue the colour managed workflow, to ensure that the process continues. These profiles ensure that the colour information is correct and the print comes out as close as possible to what you see on the computer screen. These will never be exactly the same as the computer screen is an transmitted light, additive colour, RGB workflow while the printer uses a reflected light, subtractive colour, CMYK workflow.
This is the "simplified" explanation and I hope it makes some sense to you.