CHROMiX

Old monitor had RGB, now only brightness

General Color & Graphics Monitor Calibration & Soft Proofing
#1

I have a new Samsung SyncMaster 305T 30" monitor connected to a Dell Studio XPS tower. I calibrated the monitor using my Spyder2Pro just as I did my past monitor. However, my old Dell monitor had controls (RGB sliders) on the front where I could change the amount of red, green and blue. The new Samsung only has brightness controls. I went through the whole calibration process with the new monitor and the color is still a bit off. I got prints back from my lab and they are too red. And when I compare the two monitors side by side, the Samsung one is too vibrant green.

I read online that I could open up the monitor and do something inside to adjust the RGB. Or I could do something with my video card. Any tips? I have no idea where to go from here.

Thanks for any help!

#2

Hi Alicia,

Your old Dell monitor might have been a CRT? Or it might have been an LCD where they put the ability to adjust RGB into the hardware controls. Adjusting the red green and blue guns was the only way to do it in the CRT days, but LCDs are a different animal, and usually you don’t need to tune the white point with RGB controls when creating a monitor profile. (Sometimes LCD makers would put this feature in just because people were used to having it.)

If your Samsung is looking too green after calibration, I’m guessing that it’s really maybe a blue/green? You need to recalibrate it to a different white point. If you are at 6500 Kelvin now, try 6200, or something lower. The lower you go, the warmer the white point (and all the rest of the colors) will be. Hopefully the Spyder software gives you the ability to specify a particular white point.

And then: How do you know your prints from the lab are too red? Oftentimes when people are comparing a computer monitor to their prints, they are viewing the prints under normal incandescent house lighting - which is generally a reddish/yellow. You would want to be viewing your images under normal daylight or a light that emulates daylight pretty closely.

http://www.colorwiki.com/wiki/Printer_to_Match_my_Screen

See if you can do this “white paper test” in this article, and let us know how it goes. We’ll take it from there!

#3

Patrick,
Thanks for the tips! I read the whole article and it helps clear a few things up. I tried 6000K and it was too yellow. I will try it again at 6200K. My lab specifies 6500K and gamma 2.2, so I was just hoping that would work. And you are right-I do view my prints under normal household lights since that is how my wedding clients view them too. I will keep experimenting with the kelvin temp. Thanks again!
Alicia