Digital BW, The Print

Steve,

A color management consultant and friend of mine calibrates his Apple 
Cinema Display at 5000K and 80 cd/m2.  I know this next part sounds 
unbelievable, but he sets his gamma to 1.5.  His reasoning is that 
the contrast level of the apple LCD is so high he has to lower the 
gamma so he can get the proper distribution of tones.  I found it 
hard to believe, so I went to his office and watched him calibrate 
his monitor at various color temperatures, luminance levels and 
gammas.  He convinced me.  The absolute best match (at least on his 
system) was 5000K, 80 cd/m2, and gamma 1.5.  His entire office is lit 
with 5000K lighting.  

He is a true color geek.  He has been doing color management and 
consulting work for about 15 years and works with commercial 
printers, museums, photographers and artists doing high end 
reproductions.  He used to work for a commercial printer and has been 
a scanner operator.  

I'm not saying you should adopt these settings, but it is food for 
thought.  My CRTs at home and work are calibrated for 5200K, 95 cd/m2 
and gamma 2.0.  These work for me.  

FWIW, Lou

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Steve Kale 
<stevekale@b...> wrote:
> FYI the luminance Eye One recommends for CRTs is 100.  I redid my
> calibration at 120 but would be interested if anyone knows why Eye 
One would
> recommend such a high luminance (with D50).
> 
> 
> > From: Phil Rose <pjrose@f...>
> 
> > 
> > 
> > --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Steve Kale
> > <stevekale@b...> wrote:
> >> OK so I just took another look at my monitor calibration and
> > realised it was
> >> set for native white point and so I decided that since 
my "average"
> > lighting
> >> was likely a lot lower than this I decided to re-calibrate at
> > 5000/D50.  The
> >> Eye One recommends a target luminance of 140 for an LCD but I 
can't
> > get this
> >> even with full brightness on my Apple HD Cinema Display with a 
white
> > point
> >> of D50 (I can easily exceed this figure using native white 
point).
> > So what
> >> should I do from here?
> > 
> > I would disregard that Eye One recommendation. I use a luminance 
of
> > about 85 with my CRT. Of course a lot depends on your ambient 
light
> > intensity--I assumed it would be fairly subdued. IMHO, 140 cd/m2 
is an
> > extremely high luminance (too high)--for your (well, for my) eye
> > comfort and especially for your print-matching efforts. If using 
such
> > a high monitor luminance, you'd probably be unhappy that your 
prints
> > are "too dark". A luminance _below_ 100 is commonly recommended.
> > 
> > Phil
> > 
> >