Colour profile

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koffiejunkie

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Given a MacBook, and an Acer AL1916W (seems identical to the AL1916WAS), which screen is likely to have a more accurate colour reproduction out of the box? Calibration device is on my shopping list, but in the mean time I need to know which one to trust.
 
Not sure if I would trust either out of the box.

You can still do a quick calibration with ColorSync and dial them both in a bit.
 
bwana said:
for which one? :confused:
Click to expand...

Both. What's frustrating me is that I'm working through my pics of Scotland. On the Acer screen, any given picture of the grassy hills or the mountains looks very green, deeply saturated. If I drag the same image to the MacBook's display, it looks like it didn't rain at all during the winter. So which is it? :confused:

I think I'll just go pick up a Huey from the Apple store today.
 
Huey is nice - I use the SpyderExpress - 6 of one 1/2 dozen of the other.

You should be able to modify your colorsync profiles - Are you logged in as an admin?
 
Primary user although I still have to type the password when I want to do something funky. Either ways, even if I sync them, I know for sure one of them is way out, so I still don't know if I'm seeing the right colours. That said, the pictures on the Acer look much closer to what I remember it looking like, but then, the camera itself is still a variable.

I'll see if they have the SpyderExpress too - I can get it off Amazon but I want it now!
 
koffiejunkie said:
Primary user although I still have to type the password when I want to do something funky. Either ways, even if I sync them, I know for sure one of them is way out, so I still don't know if I'm seeing the right colours. That said, the pictures on the Acer look much closer to what I remember it looking like, but then, the camera itself is still a variable.

I'll see if they have the SpyderExpress too - I can get it off Amazon but I want it now!
Click to expand...
Primary user? I guess you mean an admin? :confused:

Using a colorimeter is the only way to make sure.
Skeptik said:
Apple lied about having millions of colours on their iMac range. If trust is involved then I would guess Apple should be excluded.
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Neither of us have an iMac.
 
Well, I ended up getting the hueyPro since the non-pro one can only do one monitor. Well now both screens look bad. After fiddling with this, I was able to use Apple's calibration thingy, which gave me pretty horrible results too. For now I'll give both of them the benefit of the doubt and put it down to me not knowing what the hell I'm doing. Because I don't - I've never toyed with these things before.

One thing I did realise is that the difference between the two screens is probably mostly down to a lack of contrast on the MacBook. During the calibration procedure, I was asked to adjust the contrast - how do you do this on the Mac? There's only a slider for brightness?
 
koffiejunkie said:
Well, I ended up getting the hueyPro since the non-pro one can only do one monitor. Well now both screens look bad. After fiddling with this, I was able to use Apple's calibration thingy, which gave me pretty horrible results too. For now I'll give both of them the benefit of the doubt and put it down to me not knowing what the hell I'm doing. Because I don't - I've never toyed with these things before.
Click to expand...
If the Huey is anything like the Spyder2 a lack of inexperience with calibrating shouldnt matter - it will do it all for you :)

Just dont go mucking about with Apple's colorsync afterwards. :D
koffiejunkie said:
One thing I did realise is that the difference between the two screens is probably mostly down to a lack of contrast on the MacBook. During the calibration procedure, I was asked to adjust the contrast - how do you do this on the Mac? There's only a slider for brightness?
Click to expand...
The calibration should adjust contrast for you but if you want a little boost you can do that under universal access.
 
Yeah, it did do it all, but it didn't look right afterwards. There was one part where it asks you if some diagram looks right, and if it doesn't (it didn't) you have to adjust a few sliders until it looks right. I guess I messed that part up.

Do you do it in a dark room or have the light on? I'm guessing the light in my room might have messed it up too.

Either ways, the two screens didn't look the same afterwards, not even similar, so this wasn't a success.
 
I calibrate my screens (LCD's, CRTs and my plasma :D) using the same lighting conditions I plan to be working (viewing) under.

Maybe the (horrible) glossy screen on the MB interfered with it?
 
Eish. Now that the sun is hitting my screen from behind, I can see the lines from cleaning it with the supplied polish last night - maybe that's why the calibration went so badly wrong. I'll try again tonight.
 
I've done some reading on this and the general opinion is worrysome. The screens they sells us are crap :) Part of the problem is that most notebook LCDs and cheaper stand-alone LCD screens are 6bit per channel, which may or may not confuse all but the most expensive screen calibrators.

This post mentions the colour cast I see and suggests that on glossy displays putting the calibrator in horizontal position, instead of vertical, gives good results. I'll give it a try tonight.
 
koffiejunkie said:
I've done some reading on this and the general opinion is worrysome. The screens they sells us are crap :) Part of the problem is that most notebook LCDs and cheaper stand-alone LCD screens are 6bit per channel, which may or may not confuse all but the most expensive screen calibrators.

This post mentions the colour cast I see and suggests that on glossy displays putting the calibrator in horizontal position, instead of vertical, gives good results. I'll give it a try tonight.
Click to expand...
Good luck - a well calibrated screen makes all the difference (and then making sure you use the correct browser when you view the photos online . . . if you're embedding profiles;))

Mine looks great :)
 
bwana said:
Good luck - a well calibrated screen makes all the difference (and then making sure you use the correct browser when you view the photos online . . . if you're embedding profiles;))
Click to expand...

Speaking of which, does Aperture embed the profile when you export as JPEG? If so, can you tell it not to if you're exporting for web?
 
koffiejunkie said:
Speaking of which, does Aperture embed the profile when you export as JPEG? If so, can you tell it not to if you're exporting for web?
Click to expand...
That is controlled via the export presets.
 
OK, so which profile (under "ColorSync Profiles") should I use to omit the profile? Generic RGB Profile?
 
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