Digital BW, The Print

On May 30, 2009, at 11:14 PM, photog0946 wrote:

>   Now I come to the crux of this query. I have been calibrating my  
> displays with ColorEyes Display Pro and the Spyder2 Pro hardware.  
> With the NEC LCD2690 I decided to step up to the Spyder3 Pro, due to  
> the larger sensor and better capabilities for LCD Displays. I find  
> the ColorEyes Software to be very comprehensive and full featured,  
> and the documentation is excellent. Every calibration is fully  
> validated and verified and I sometimes send the information to the  
> ColorEyes site for the techs to check for my own satisfaction as well.

Yes, the Spyder3 and ColorEyes Display is definately a great choice  
for the Geek who wants lots of features, and doesn't mind waiting for  
the extra time advanced calibration takes.


> However, no matter how well the calibration is, I have NEVER  
> experienced a match between the display and the output. I'm using 2  
> SP7600 printers with the Atkinson profiles, so I really don't  
> believe that's the source of the problem.

You haven't covered all the factors yet. There is still ambient light  
level, proofing light type, proofing light level, softproofing  
functions, and printer profile tuning...


>  I also use "soft proofing" extensively.  With the NEC Display my  
> calibration targets are as follows: White Point=D65, Luminance=120cd/ 
> m2, Gamma=L* and Black Point=Absolute. I am considering using Black  
> Point=Relative/Minimum.

L* and Absolute Black Point are great Geek features, but unless you  
are using a full L* workflow including an L* workingspace, and unless  
you are building L*  related printer profiles, then you aren't really  
going L* all the way, and probably shouldn't be using L* at all.  
Similarly, you may find a relative black makes proofing matches  
easier, depending on what settings you use with your printer profiles.  
But since you don't actually build your printer profiles, you don't  
have full control of these aspects.

> After calibrating and verifying I have been using a little app for  
> the Mac called Gamma Control to build a profile of sorts that exists  
> outside of the OS and doesn't interfere at all with the Display LUT.  
> Gamma Control allows me to tweak the display in a manner that  
> approximates the output much more closely than the calibrated display.

Thats a cheat, and one I would not reccomend. What you are really  
saying is that you don't, after all that fancy display calibration,  
even use ICC-based display calibration and profiling, you use "mess up  
my display to look like my prints" non-ICC display adjustment.  
Frankly, in an ICC0-based system, the place to be doing your adjusting  
is in the printer profiles, not the display profile. For several  
reasons, but I"ll just not a couple. First, because you can't mess up  
your display to emulate a number of different printers, inks, papers,  
etc... only one. Second, your display is in who knows what state for  
visual corrections for work to be sent out for other uses and other  
printing.


> I usually build two of these "profiles", one for MK and one for PK  
> printing.

Yup, into the "multiple messups" situation already...

> Now of course I do realize that a properly calibrated display is  
> essential for many reasons, but print matching has never been one of  
> them in my experience.

That would appear to be because you are using your wrench as a hammer,  
and pounding on your display, instead of working on tuned printer  
profiles, and tuned printer profile softproof functions... with  
possible side issues in the lighting area.

> I don't believe it should be necessary to invoke such apps as Gamma  
> Control in order to pull a calibrated display closer to the output.

Agreed. But that doesn't mean a simple display profile will magically  
match a generic, untuned printer profile to your screen, under  
unspecified lighting conditions. So you are asking most of the right  
questions, but going about trying to solve them in a less than ideal  
manner.

C. David Tobie
Global Product Technology Manager
Digital Imaging & Home Theater
CDTobie@...


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Datacolor
www.datacolor.com/Spyder3



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