Monitor Profiling
This workshop will explain how you arrange to have your monitor display profiled.
How to arrange to have your monitor display profiled.
The club provides a free service to members, which involves a visit to the member’s workstation for the process to be carried out in situe.
To make arrangements for the service please contact Brian Sankey or Trevor Clowes at any club meeting or leave a message on the club’s hotmail address from which follow-up arrangements will be made.
On the agreed date, please arrange for your computer to be started several hours prior to the profiling session so that the monitor reaches it’s optimum working temperature.
(Temporarily isolate any power management schemes where applicable to keep the display active.)
Why do I need monitor profiling?
Each manufacturer has its own varying perception of “correct” colour rendition and even identical models from the same source are unlikely to present an identical colour display, due to aggregated electronic component variations in value.
Colour profiling involves installing a programme on the individual member’s computer, which causes the monitor to sequentially display an array of known hues. A detector, suspended to rest on the screen of the monitor, measures the wavelength of the colours displayed and makes a comparison to expected values. From this comparison a small file is generated known as the colour profile and when inserted into the display software, corrects the display to values as close as can be achieved to those expected and designated by the International Colour Consortium (ICC).
A profiled monitor is thus a pre-requisite to composing and managing the required colour balance of a digital image prior to printing or projecting.
The image thus composed will allow a better possibility of faithful re-production as a print on a printer which has been similarly profiled or as a projected image on a profiled projector.
Will the monitor require re-profiling?
All electronic devices suffer to a greater or lesser extent from component value drift with the aging process, which results in the need for re-profiling. It would seem reasonable for equipment which is used less intensively by amateurs, to expect a profile to hold good for a year. The aging process is usually at its most rapid during the burn-in period, which is probably the first month or so of initial operation following a new purchase. It is probably sensible therefore to profile or re-profile after a month of regular use when it should reach a fairly stable state.
If however it is suspected that changes have occurred, then re-profiling can be carried out at any time by request.
The monitor profile can be suitably named as required, but it is always sensible to accept the inclusion of the date on which profiling took place as included by default.
On a “Windows” computer follow these steps to check the date on which the current monitor profile was created:-
My Computer>Control Panel>Display>Settings>Advanced>Colour Management.
A window will now show “Default Monitor Profile” – “NCC Monitor Profile 17-11-2008” and further down “Colour Profile currently associated with this device” – “NCC Monitor Profile 17-11-2008”
Linked related topics
Installing and Using Printer Profiles
To download a printable version of this workshop, click on the link below