And right up Robs street http://www.imatest.com/docs/colorcheck.html :D

Don

Monitor Calibration
 

Hi Saphire, As I said I use a Colorvision Spyder2 on my monitor - it was last done two days ago. I have been to Don's link for the greyscale and dragged it over the greys on this site. They show through and read as follows:
Light grey merges in between f/g;
Middle grey merges in between l/m;
and dark grey merges in between r/s.

I have to say that a device like the Spyder that calibrates the monitor and creates an equivalent profile for a variety of printers helps save photo paper and also ensures you print what you see on the screen. I reset mine every fortnight and I really don't know if it is worth trying to do this on the cheap. I get a full range of greys from brilliant white to darkest black and I was never able to get that manually. When printing I always had to increase brightness by about 25-30% and now it sorts itself out automatically.

Thank you Andy for taking the time to do that, that gives me something to work on in the future if it goes pair shaped again.
After a lot of playing with various setting it turns out that my gamma was way out, once that was corrected I only needed a bit of brightness and contrast.
The new Acer monitor wouldn't adjust enough so I have left that at its default settings. I used nvidia to create a colour profile which I have now saved.

Andy
I am interested in the Spyder2Pro monitor calibrator, but have yet to make a decision.
From your experiences, is the spyder worthwhile? Also, does it calibrate automatically or do you have to make your own adjustments?
Barry

Hi Barry. Please bear in mind I am an Apple/Mac user but I understand it is the same with a PC. The colorimeter automatically creates a monitor profile for the monitor you attach it to. You run the program and end up with a profile and if necessary you just make the monitor run that profile and it automatically adjusts it to those settings. The beauty of it for me is that it comes with an equivalent printer program - I use an Epson 1800 - and you then run the monitor profile through the printer program an it creates a printer profile for that printer. You need to see that you have a matching photo printer as listed on their web site, but I have an Epson Aculaser C900 which is not on the list. However it has an sRGB Laser profile that I find works perfectly. The result with both is WYSIWYG !!

Would you say it was an easy program to use? I have been trying to calibrate monitor and printer using Naturalcolor, the program that came with my monitor and I don't seem to be able to get the results I would like. My printer is still darker then my monitor. I suspect that some of the pictures that i post are being seen as dark on other people's monitors.

Hi Andy
Thank you for the advice which I find really helpful. I will have to check my printer - an Epsom 1400 - to see if it is compatible. In any event, I will investigate further. Thank you once again.
Barry

It is a very easy program to use. You load it. Then follow on screen instructions. I takes about 5 mins. It reminds me every fortnight to check again. As I said earlier - I do it in complete darkness to avoid any light contamination.
The following is the list of supported printers from their website:
Canon S9000
Canon i9100
Canon i9900
Canon i9950
Canon i900d
Canon i950
Canon i960
Canon i965
Canon iP8500
Canon iP8600
Canon iP4200
Canon iP6220d
Canon iP6600d
Canon 9900i
Canon I-Series Printers
Canon iP-Series Printers

Epson 1280
Epson 1290
Epson 2100
Epson 2200
Epson 4000
Epson 7600
Epson 9600
Epson R1800
Epson R2400
Epson R200
Epson R210
Epson R220
Epson R300
Epson R310
Epson R320
Epson RX500
Epson R4800
Epson R7800
Epson R9800
Epson R800
Epson C62
Epson C80
Epson C82
Epson C84
Epson PictureMate
Epson PX-G5000
Epson PM4000PX
Epson PX7000
Epson PX9000
Epson PXG900
Epson Dye Ink Printers
Epson Pigment Ink Printers

HP DesignJet 30
HP DesignJet 90
HP DesignJet 130
HP PhotoSmart 7660
HP PhotoSmart 7760
HP PhotoSmart 7960
HP PhotoSmart 8250
HP PhotoSmart 8450
HP PhotoSmart 8750
HP PhotoSmart Series Printers

RGB Color Laser

Interesting thread - I am just about to buy my first LCD monitor as my trusted CRT is on the way out. I am looking at the Dell 2407 -HC but understand that it needs to be properly calibrated for photo editing.

I think that I'm going to have buy the program. I'm just not satisfied with my present situation.