Monitor Calibration
VIDEO DISPLAY MONITOR GAMMA ADJUSTMENTS

1. Take a good look at each step in the grayscale bar image shown below. There is 21 steps of 5% increments ranging from 0% Solid White to 100% Solid Black.
   

2. Can you see each of the 21 steps in a gradual and consistent increase/decrease?. Is there a color cast?
   

3. Gamma is the measurement between the Lightest 0% to the Darkest 100% areas of any image. Shown in that 21 step grayscale is about the best visual way to determine if your monitor adjustment is in calibration standards or too dark or bright.
   
   

4. The usual or normally correct way for video display monitor adjusting is done as follows:
   

5. 1). Please Be Aware that not all monitors are the same or are going to react in the same way while you perform these adjustments. Be absolutely sure that you record the setting that the display reads before making these calibrations, this is so you may return to them if your display does not look correct.

6. 2). Start by adjusting your Contrast setting to its highest setting, 100 or 100%

7. 3). Now, While viewing the 21 step scale in normal room light conditions, adjust your Brightness until all the 21 steps appear to be evenly and consistently toned and all 21 are showing. Your 5% and 95% steps are the most critical areas and if they can be viewed correctly then usually the mid-tones and quarter tones will fall nicely into place.

8. 4). Your all done...How'd you do? Some monitors may require a fine tune adjustment per the owner's likings. This is ok, but remember use the " 21 STEP " grayscale and do not get too carried away with changes.

9. 5). The Gamma Calibration Software shown in the link above can further make fine adjustments to pinpoint your display. After installation and rebooting, you will have a new icon in your control panel which runs the controls of this simple program.

Monitor Calibration
ABOUT COLOR AND THE WEB

Regardless of the software you use, the rules of Web publishing don't change. Rule number one states the Web is an imperfect medium, and you're going to have to sacrifice some of your photograph's integrity in order to showcase it online. Once you've accepted that, rule number two becomes easier to swallow: Your visitors have less of an emotional attachment to your images than you do, and they're not going to wait forever to see them. Here are some ways to limit the size of graphics files shown below.

When quality counts
If you're not ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of speed, save your files as JPEGs. Of the two file formats widely supported by the Web-JPEG and GIF-JPEG provides a higher quality image. Both compress file size, but JPEG supports millions of colors. As long as your system is set to 16- or 24-bit color resolution, your browsers will display JPEGs at the best possible quality. But keep in mind if users are viewing your images at a 256-color resolution, they're seeing only 216 colors. Standard browsers are limited to the 216-color Web-safe palette at this resolution. The format's compression will result in some quality loss, but it's often so minute it's impossible to discern.

Compromising colors
If you don't mind sacrificing some colors, go with GIF. The GIF file format supports only 256 colors, and the Web-safe color palette further reduces that to 216 colors. This may make your image appear significantly dithered or grainy. If you're not ready to take that kind of quality hit, at least create thumbnails of your images in GIF format. That way, visitors can get an idea what's at the end of the wait.

Reducing resolution
The standard resolution for Web viewing is 72 dots per inch, so always save your images at this resolution. But start out with high-res images and make sure your system is set to at least high color (not 256 colors) when you edit the original images.

File size matters
Keep your files as small as possible (30KB is reasonable ) to help decrease download times. Reduce the height and width of large images to no more than 640x480 (the default monitor resolution) whenever possible. Compress your JPEGs whenever you can and keep your GIFs' color palettes small.

Monitor Calibration
VIDEO MONITOR COLOR ADJUSTING

1. If your experienced with making a color change to your RGB monitor settings, then this is your goal setting to achieve for best results.
   

2. This " 21 STEP " grayscale is the perfect shade of gray, hence the name. If yours looks Green, Blue, Red or Yellow in a slight cast or possibly a more severe color cast, then find your monitor's setting adjustments and make very small adjustments until the Scale has reach the best possible Neutral Gray Tone.
   

3. Once you think your in the ballpark, Get up from your chair and move away from the monitor for a minute. Return back and take another look, after your eyes have re-adjusted themselves. If it looks Great to you, Congratulations you just completed this lesson in calibration. If not and you tweaked out the color too much or things got worse, then go through the monitor's settings until you find Recall, this will correct your monitor to factory settings and give you another chance. Be sure that you take special care and note your changes as you go. Remember, Do Not Make Big Adjustments, Tuning your monitor should be in very small increments to achieve gray.
   

4. Don't Forget to take a break for your eyes to re-adjust and self correct often and try not to have strange contaminating light that can distort the true color of gray on your screen. During my career we have always worked in an atmosphere similar to a movie theaters darkness so that no color distortion would be present from incandescent or florescent lighting. We also used very special lighting boxes for viewing our proofs or art. This was so that we could achieve a true color match with any surface of color.

EXAMPLES:

GAMMA: Number indicating the degree of contrast between the darkest and lightest parts of a photographic image.	COLOR Cast adjusting or usually needed if you own an Old monitor and controls get maxed out in any direction. Follow software directions