Color Calibration for Monitor?

[Kemper Boyd]

Hey, do any of you folks use color calibration on your monitors? Is it important? Is it worth paying money for that software???

[ikken]

it's software + hardware, you need a separate gadget to calibrate your screen (and probably other devices as well)
it's important if you're doing work for print and see a huge gap between on-screen and printed imagery
getting a good quality screen is more important than calibrating imho - your colour won't be 100 % spot on, but the right colour relationships will be there regardless of printer's preferences.

[Jason Ross]

I use a spyder2 express. Inexpensive and does the job. I'm sure there are better but it's good for what I need.

[Baron Impossible]

If you don't know then the answer's no. Snappy answer but it'll save you money.

[Jason Ross]

If you don't know then the answer's no. Snappy answer but it'll save you money.

I disagree totally. In the 7 years I've been painting I never used one. I just used the built in color correction in windows. I paid like 40 bucks for mine and after I used it I looked at my old work. It looked like shit color wise on my newly calibrated monitor. When I started to look at my work on other peoples computers I realized that my settings weren't correct. My images looked dark and over saturated everywhere else except my own computer. That was a problem. Maybe you don't need it. Look at your work elsewhere and see how it looks.

[Baron Impossible]

I disagree totally. In the 7 years I've been painting I never used one. I just used the built in color correction in windows. I paid like 40 bucks for mine and after I used it I looked at my old work. It looked like shit color wise on my newly calibrated monitor. When I started to look at my work on other peoples computers I realized that my settings weren't correct. My images looked dark and over saturated everywhere else except my own computer. That was a problem. Maybe you don't need it. Look at your work elsewhere and see how it looks.

My point is that if you're just painting as a hobby and occasionally putting your work on the web, advanced calibration isn't particularly important, not least because the vast majority of people viewing it won't have their monitors calibrated. Calibration doesn't suddenly make your images look good on other people's monitors. Auto-setups and calibration patterns are just fine for most people. If a hobbyist has $200 to spend then in almost every case they'd be better off getting a monitor costing $200 more than the one they bought rather than trying to tweak it to get a better image, which is often pointless if the monitor isn't up to much.

For printing and paid work then yes, sometimes it's a good idea to buy calibration s/w. Personally I haven't because the inbuilt monitor functions are good enough, but for someone starting out (which I can only assume the OP is, given the lack of info) it's overkill to start spending money on specialist software.

[Chipsterology]

Send something to a printer without color calibration and check it out. Then send that same file to another printer and it out. See the difference? So can your audience, most might not care, but you may be wondering what the hell is going on. Profiling is a big part of digital art process and it starts with your monitor. Please calibrate it, hobby or not. If things get more serious for you, you will be thinking to yourself about how you could have spent a few dollars for a used device off ebay to make your older stuff be more in accord as far a color calibration goes with your more recent work. If you plan to go blow some money on partying one weekend, let that weekend go and get the calibrator.

[Arshes Nei]

Why would you bother calibrating your monitor for the audience if it's not for print? The average person may have their monitor calibrated differently. The point becomes moot.

It's good to calibrate your monitor on a standard level with gamma etc...but other than printing, not many care that much.

Calibrate it for printing makes sense, calibrating it if you're just posting art for hobby on the web, why bother? You're going to bother yelling at your audience, "Well you don't see it right because your monitor calibrations sucks!!!"

[Jason Ross]

Well it's not like painting digitally is cheap to begin with. Computer, monitor, stylus, software = 2g plus. I paid 40 bucks for my monitor calibrator so its not a big investment. And it's not really advanced either. Hang the device from the monitor and run the software. Takes like 1 minute. I went through the window gamma settings before and things still ended up all wrong (though it looked ok on my side). There are different types of devices as well. My spyder2 express is not for print calibration. It sees red from my monitor and makes the red appropriate for how its supposed to appear. I mean some digital artist create images with a set pallet in mind. Seems redundant if the colors they see aren't quite what you see. If it was a big investment I would totally agree. But I'm glad I have one. Well I am getting paid for my work so I agree there as well. Professional precision is important.

[Arshes Nei]

Digital Painting is cheap these days sans pro costs like an intuos, but people spend that kind of money on a good graphics card for gaming.

You can get software that does the job from 0-100 dollars.

The other side of it is dependent upon the monitor. If you're getting a high quality monitor, the better you can calibrate it, but I wouldn't be surprised if many hobbyists are sticking with cheap TN LCD/LED monitors.

[Jason Ross]

The other side of it is dependent upon the monitor. If you're getting a high quality monitor, the better you can calibrate it, but I wouldn't be surprised if many hobbyists are sticking with cheap TN LCD/LED monitors.

Soon as I get some burning money I'll either get a nice Lacie or a Cintiq.

[fes]

I started calibrating as my screen didn't match the prints. Also when I went multi monitor it was very handy to calibrate them so they matched as best they could (no two different brand monitors will ever be exactly the same). I have a Spyder3Elite. But it's not like it's a push one button process. It's still quite fiddly to get it all just as you like it.

[Chipsterology]

Digital Painting is cheap these days sans pro costs like an intuos, but people spend that kind of money on a good graphics card for gaming.

So right, it's cheap sans the pro stuff, which in all glaring reality is not all that expensive either when you have those same individuals blowing their money on pointless gadgets like the purchasing of gaming cards Arshes mentioned.
We already know that once we get into digital art and start asking questions, the path is inevitable. Cheap panels or not, Web or print, a calibrator is quite a useful tool.
Anyone who thinks "adjusting the gamma/brightness/contrast" on their screen is the way to go, please, rub some hand sanitizer on a bullet wound also, it's just as good.
People that wallow in "just enough" when for a few more dollars, they could have had "better" (and I literally mean "a few more dollars: http://cgi.ebay.com/SPYDER-PRO-COLOR...item1c1c291d24 ),
usually regret their decision to not take the next step later on when those hobbyist projects might have been nice additions to a serious beginner portfolio.
On that same note, you never know what you might decide to take to print one day. If you need color correction later on, PS will help, at the expense of being
proficient in the use of curves, levels, selections, and the whole lot that most who are experienced in.....usually already own a calibrator or acknowledge the value of attaining one,
not to mention time that could have been better used on another creative project. Bidding starts at $0.99, pretty cheap starting price to relieve a potential handicap to your work at any stage, hobbyist or pro.

[Portus]

A hardware calibrator isn't guarantee of anything but it's better than eyeballing I suppose, I would get a pro CRT monitor and do the color editing on that monitor and use it to color proof as well as you work on your LCD. A CRT monitor with a hardware calibrator is much better but I like I said even this isn't bullet proof, print houses use their own color profiles, people have dodgy LCD monitors (specially on laptops), some LCD TN monitors are not even possible to calibrate correctly, others come with bad profiles, bad tinting, the list is almost endless with LCD's.

[jason_maranto]

If you are serious about color then this is the way to go:

http://www.eizo.com/global/products/...75w/index.html

Best,
Jason.