i1DP-Mac-18

[Damien Symonds]

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Troubleshooting

If colour is the problem

If you are unhappy with the colour of your calibrated screen … well, your screen itself doesn’t give you any flexibility, so we need to look to the calibrator instead.

But first, ask yourself if your calibration was as good as it could be. Was the device sitting perfectly flat against the screen? Was there too much light glaring on the screen? Was there any risk that the screen might have dimmed during calibration? If there’s any doubt in your mind about those questions, try a plain (careful!) recalibration.

Furthermore, be brutally honest with yourself – is your room lighting ok?  The MOST common cause of calibration issues is not the screen or the calibrator, it’s the light in your room.  A lot of light bulbs in a lot of  homes/offices are too yellow.

At this point, please let me reiterate – have some tolerance. Calibration isn’t some kind of magic. It can never make ink on paper exactly match light coming from a screen. “Acceptably close” is what we’re aiming for.

White point targets

If plain recalibration isn’t necessary, or doesn’t work, then you have to explore the only available avenue of flexibility – the white temperature targets.

Remember how we chose “Native” the first time? Well, now it’s time to try the other options.

Did you take note of your screen’s native white point? If you feel your screen is too warm, try one of the targets which is higher than your screen’s native. Or, if you think your screen is too cool, try one of the lower targets.

For example, my screen’s native temperature was 6258K. If I wanted a cooler result, I could try 6500K (“D65”) or even 7500K (“D75”). If I wanted a warmer result, I would try D55 or D50.

If you want even more fine-tuning, choose “Daylight Temperature”, which will give you a slider for even more careful targeting. But I hope it won’t come to that for you.

I won’t lie to you – this could take a while. You might need to try calibrating a number of times before you find the best target.  But I'm crossing my fingers for you, and hoping you'll be able to arrive at a satisfactory print match.

Got a good result? Go here >>
Still not right? Go here >>

[Sammy]

I got this reading for my calibration with native for white point. does this mean my screen is too warm or cool?

My lab suggests calibrating to D65. Should I do it to D65 then? (I think Native may  be a better match to my prints but I'm not sure)

[Damien Symonds]

Hi @Sammy,

At face value, a value as high as that would seem to be too cool.

But values schmalues, you know?  What REALLY matters is the comparison between your screen and your prints.  If you're happy with the match, you can stick with this.  Or you can explore the other targets.