Datacolor User to User Support Group.

When my daughter wanted to do some work with her photos on her laptop I told her I'd profile the display to try to make it somewhat accurate. Her laptop is a Dell with an LED backlight.

After I profiled it with the Spyder3 I looked at the gamut display and found that it was almost a direct overlay on sRGB. In comparison her Dell desktop displays are much closer to AdobeRGB.

Since she works with images that occasionally even exceed AdobeRGB this laptop is pretty useless for the intended purpose.

She mentioned that she often sees other artists working with MacBook Pros and wondered if there displays had any wider gamuts.

Anyone profile their MBP who can give some insight into the gamut comparison to sRGB or AdobeRGB?

Thanks

Jim

>>When my daughter wanted to do some work with her photos on her laptop I told her I'd profile the display to try to make it somewhat accurate. Her laptop is a Dell with an LED backlight.

After I profiled it with the Spyder3 I looked at the gamut display and found that it was almost a direct overlay on sRGB. In comparison her Dell desktop displays are much closer to AdobeRGB.

Since she works with images that occasionally even exceed AdobeRGB this laptop is pretty useless for the intended purpose.

She mentioned that she often sees other artists working with MacBook Pros and wondered if there displays had any wider gamuts.

Anyone profile their MBP who can give some insight into the gamut comparison to sRGB or AdobeRGB?>>

MacBooks also have a gamut that is close to sRGB. But the inability to distinguish certain very saturated greens, cyans, and yellows is not the main drawback of laptop displays; it is the narrow viewing angle. In order to reduce battery drain, laptops focus their light output in a narrow cone, and viewing them from even a modest angle produces significant variation. Better desktop displays, in addition to offering a somewhat wider gamut, offer a much wider viewing angle, such that viewing them from significantly further off-axis still shows nearly the same result. 

These are the main reasons that laptops are not ideal image editing displays, and why it is best to have a desktop display to attach to your laptop when in the studio and using it for serious editing. This doesn't mean you can't do some editing on a good laptop, but it's usually best to check your images on a desktop afterwards, and make any final adjustments that might be required. 

And yes, a MacBook Pro or even a MacBook Air is the ideal laptop for image editing; and the 27" Thunderbolt Display is a very convenient second display to use with it. But not because of the gamut size of either, rather because of the general convenience of using the two together. 

C. David Tobie
Global Product Technology Manager
Imaging Color Solutions
Datacolor inc. 
cdtobie@...
www.datacolor.com

On Nov 26, 2011, at 3:36 PM, "mdgolfbum" <jim@...> wrote:

> When my daughter wanted to do some work with her photos on her laptop I told her I'd profile the display to try to make it somewhat accurate. Her laptop is a Dell with an LED backlight.
> 
> After I profiled it with the Spyder3 I looked at the gamut display and found that it was almost a direct overlay on sRGB. In comparison her Dell desktop displays are much closer to AdobeRGB.
> 
> Since she works with images that occasionally even exceed AdobeRGB this laptop is pretty useless for the intended purpose.
> 
> She mentioned that she often sees other artists working with MacBook Pros and wondered if there displays had any wider gamuts.
> 
> Anyone profile their MBP who can give some insight into the gamut comparison to sRGB or AdobeRGB?

When I compared the Apple laptops to the iPad2 in the Apple store,  
the iPad seemed to have much less of a problem with off-axis viewing.  
There was some change, but not nearly as much as the with the  
laptops. I think I have read that the iPads use some form of the IPS  
switching technology (not sure if I have that right) similar to  
better desktop monitors. Is that true? And, if so, why couldn't that  
be incorporated into the laptops? The iPads tout very long battery  
life, so whatever technology they are using for the better display it  
doesn't seem to be a big battery drain.

Don

On Nov 26, 2011, at 6:18 PM, Cdtobie wrote:

>
> MacBooks also have a gamut that is close to sRGB. But the inability  
> to distinguish certain very saturated greens, cyans, and yellows is  
> not the main drawback of laptop displays; it is the narrow viewing  
> angle. In order to reduce battery drain, laptops focus their light  
> output in a narrow cone, and viewing them from even a modest angle  
> produces significant variation. Better desktop displays, in  
> addition to offering a somewhat wider gamut, offer a much wider  
> viewing angle, such that viewing them from significantly further  
> off-axis still shows nearly the same result.
>
>
>
> C. Davi d Tobie
> Global Product Technology Manager
> Imaging Color Solutions
> Datacolor inc.
> cdtobie@...
> www.datacolor.com
>

On Nov 28, 2011, at 11:01 AM, Don Ament wrote:

> When I compared the Apple laptops to the iPad2 in the Apple store, the iPad seemed to have much less of a problem with off-axis viewing. There was some change, but not nearly as much as the with the laptops. I think I have read that the iPads use some form of the IPS switching technology (not sure if I have that right) similar to better desktop monitors. Is that true? And, if so, why couldn't that be incorporated into the laptops? The iPads tout very long battery life, so whatever technology they are using for the better display it doesn't seem to be a big battery drain.

I assume that IPS will become standard on all Apple products before too long; once they learn a lesson or embrace a technology, they tend to maximize it...

C. David Tobie
Global Product Technology Manager


Datacolor
5 Princess Road
Lawrenceville, NJ 08648, USA
609.924.2189
www.datacolor.com

Phone: 207.685.9248
Mobile: 207.312.0448
Fax: 207.685.4455
Email:  cdtobie@...
Skype: cdtobie