Cintiq Screen Computer Monitor Color problem

[rossipoo]

Alright so i've been spending hours to try to make my cintiq screen and my monitor screen look identical in terms of color. Somehow when i paint or color something on my cintiq and i drag it to my computer screen, it turns out differently. I did a split screen where i opened photoshop, i made 3 lines, Fully saturated green,red, and blue and i compared it, Here is the result

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a2/...w/Yeahh003.jpg

My computer screen = LEFT,
CIntiq screen = RIGHT
Thats probably the closest i can get them to look like eachother

notice my computer screen is brighter and more in contrast,
I set the Cintiq screen at 100% Contrast. and played around with brightness and RGB values for an hour but i cant duplicate the result

Can anyone help me?

[Ostrander]

I have the same problem with the 21UX. My secondary screen is a Samsung 204B and colors seem so different on it when I'm in photoshop, with my work space on the cintiq and the nav screen on the samsung. I have all color profiles across all apps set to adobe1998, except the cintiq doesn't let me change its profile at all just the default (cintiq.icc) Both my samsung monitors are set for the adobe.icc profile. This could be my problem, but I'm not sure. I've searched online trying to find a solution, but came up short. I hope someone will post who has had this issue and solved it. I imagine it has something to do with the quality of the monitors as opposed to the actual cintiq. It can be frustrating, that's for sure.

[t y l e r]

rossipoo, I'm having the same kind of trouble, and I've even run color calibration software. I think my problem is that my cintiq is running on a VGA port, where my desktop monitor is on a DVI port.

Any chance you're set up in a similar fashion?

Tyler

[Brashen]

The panels on your screens are different. Your main screen is probably using a cheap TN panel that doesnt replicate colours properly. While your Cintiq has an IPS panel which is one of the main reasons it's so expensive.

[EVIL]

use A colour correcting kit (some hardware device that reads your coloursettings and software that sets a new colour profile)
and let it calibrate both monitors. They cost about 150 dollars I think but it gives you good accurate colour settings.

[Cowkitty]

I'm having the same exact problem. It's been almost impossible to find anyone online that have the same problem.

I'm using a Cintiq 12wx, connected through VGA on XP-64. My other monitor is a 23in HD Apple Cinema Display, so I like to think it's decent quality. Of course, since I'm on a pc I can't really adjust it's settings. I'm trying to determine if it's a problem with color profiles or with the VGA signal itself, since those are two separate solutions.

When I enable the "Desaturate by 20%" checkbox in Photoshop, it seems to match the Cintiq perfectly. However, this doesn't effect the actual file, so when it saves it still looks over-saturated.

Any solutions for this yet? I'm not sure if I should get a Spyder and run calibration, or just get a new video card with two DVI inputs.

[Brashen]

The Apple cinema displays are really old. Although they use IPS panels they are not Wide gamut like the Cintiq panels are. The ACD's are srgb gamut only and therefore have a more bluish tinge to their colour reproduction.

[frog from itchy]

The problem is down to the fact that the Cintiq is a wide-gamut display, and most other monitors aren't. So your two monitors are essentially interpreting the RGB numbers differently.

The good news is that there is a workaround, in Photoshop anyway.

The first step is to use the hardware controls on the Cintiq to try and match the brightness and contrast of your main monitor - but not the saturation. Make sure that a greyscale ramp looks the same on both screens.

Once this is done you can use the proof preview in Photoshop to correct the displays. Which display you correct depends on the kind of colour space you are using.

My recommendation would be to set your working space to sRGB, and all your files should be in that workspace - the reason for this is that this allows the simplest workflow, with the least problems and complications. Your files can then be displayed correctly in non-colour managed applications and on the web.

However, some people prefer to use Adobe RGB, if you really know what you are doing and understand colour management that's OK, although it does actually have many drawbacks at this time (conversions to CMYK for instance are much more difficult). The workaround is slightly different for these cases, but I'll explain both.

1) For people working in sRGB (recommended for the vast majority IMO)

Open an image in Photoshop, make sure the image is tagged as sRGB (if not you can go to Edit --> Convert To Profile and convert the file to sRGB.

Then go to View --> Proof Setup --> Custom. You will see the following dialog:



From the drop-down list of profiles, select Adobe RGB as the space to emulate, and make sure you tick the box that says "Preserve RGB Numbers".

Now when you tick the Preview box in this dialog, you will see the colours in your image get more saturated, this is not a permanent change to your image, it is just a preview.

Save the profile (name it something like Cintiq) and hit OK. The new profile will appear in the drop-down list in the View --> Proof Setup menu.

Once you have this set up as your proofing space, all you have to do is select View --> Proof Colours (Control + Y) when you are working on your Cintiq, and toggle it off when you work on the other monitor. Even if you have the image open on both monitors at the same time, you can still have the Cintiq display with proofing on and the other monitor with proofing off.

2) For people working in Adobe RGB, the setup is a bit different (but the idea is the same).

Open an image, go to View -- Proof Setup --> Custom:



This time set sRGB as the space to emulate, and again make sure you tick "Preserve RGB Numbers"

In this situation you will need to have Proof Colours (Control + Y) on when working on your normal monitor, and off when working on the Cintiq.

Do note that files created and saved in Adobe RGB will not display correctly in non-colour managed applications - these will all default to displaying as sRGB. This means that your files will not look as they should in Windows Explorer for instance, they will look dull and unsaturated. This is one of the reasons that working in sRGB is better and simpler.

---------------------------------

What this setup is doing is approximating the differences in gamut between the two monitors and correcting the display accordingly - it isn't totally exact, but in most cases it should be close enough to be workable.