question is for anyone who manually calibrates their own monitor.

my contrast ratio is 1000:1, which i dont like bc it makes things sharper/brighter and more contrasty than they'll ever print.

can you guys give me a run down on your personal specs...what you feel is right and works best for you, especially ppl who do print.

also, does anyone use a gamma other than 2.2? not sure if adjusting mine to 1.8 would help or make things more complicated.

any rough specs would be cool, thanks.

Try a white point of D50, luminance of 160 cd/m2, gamma of 2.2 (unless you can choose L*) and a black point of 0.40 cd/m2 (or Absolute if you have that option).

On a newer Apple cinema display, you'll find that the display brightness ends up being about 1/2 of it's full intensity when you shoot for 160.

These numbers get me very close to Epson proofs (proofs, not prints). A custom proof view in Photoshop gets me even closer.

jp

thanks JP, will experiment with those #'s tonight.

one other question, the 5000 is a very warm white right....any reason for that setting over a cooler one?

No reason beyond it's just been working great on our monitors to match our proofs! We've been calibrating displays for years, using several different software/hardware packages as they advance, and have used 5000 since we started with no real issues. Could be that we are outputting prints for publications and rarely use ultra white paper stocks.

5000k is usually used in Prepress shops, along with 1.8 gamma.
photographers tend to use 6500k and a 2.2 gamma.

I tend to like the 5000k setting myself just because I have been used to it for the last 15 years and I just prefer a warmer tone.. But I do find that when I go out to calibrate peoples monitors for them they nearly all ask for the Photographers settings.

As MisterJP says, if you have the capability of going with L* it is usually the best setting.

Chris