[argyllcms] Re: Display of iMAC
- From: "edmund ronald" <edmundronald@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: argyllcms@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 27 Jul 2008 19:30:23 +0200
In a single-user context one has more latitude to construct a
color-managed system. If the iMac is the only display,the white point
settings aren't critical as it doesn't need to match any others as
regards luminosity or color temp. Furthermore, if you don't happen to
own a color-stabilized light-box, then the precise color temperature
of the white point of the display is -in my personal opinion- a matter
of preference rather than necessity.
Of course, you would profit by leaving some white or grey borders
around your images when viewing to allow your eye to adapt to the
white point of the display.
I'm sure I'm going to get a lot of flak for the above non-orthodox advice :)
I would of course agree with Ben Goren's recommendation that the iMac
should be run at minimum brightness. I would measure and then attempt
to profile it at the native color temp and minimum native brightness
in order to give the profile itself maximum bit-space to correct for
the invariable non-linearities.
By the way, a couple of cheap clip-on Solux lamps might make a good
complement to the iMac, giving you a decent viewing light for prints.
Edmund
On Sun, Jul 27, 2008 at 1:35 AM, Ben Goren <ben@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 2008 Jul 19, at 1:55 PM, Volker Sauer wrote:
>
>> I'm thinking of getting an iMac (24") as a replacement for my linux
>> box.
>> Some people told me, that the display of the iMac is crap because it
>> actually can't be really calibrated - only by some software settings
>> in the iMac.
>> Other people say, that quality is good, it doesn't need calibration and
>> profiling is enough to achieve good colors.
>>
>> What's your experience on that?
>
> I have an aluminum 24" iMac that I'm very pleased with. I would say that the
> quality is quite good, but it's not excellent. I'm sure the folks who do
> color-critical work at, say, National Geographic, would find it
> insufficient. For the rest of us mere mortals, it's all we need.
>
> I would offer a few caveats to be aware of. First, I've observed a rather
> significant drift in the native color temperature over time. Search the
> forums for my name and you'll see a few different posts with the output of
> dispcal -R and you'll see what I mean. I think it was around 6700K when I
> got it, and now it's in the 5800K range. If you're doing critical work,
> you'll probably want to calibrate and profile weekly or whenever you do
> color-sensitive stuff, whichever is less frequent.
>
> Next, it's subject to persistence aka ``burn-in.'' Much more so with full
> brightness and elevated temperatures. The display is around 160 cd/m^2 at
> minimum brightness, which is quite useable and not only reduces persistence
> but saves you about 50 watts of power (and heat). You'll want to use
> smcFanControl to run the fans at the highest speed where the sound isn't
> noticeable or objectionable (around 2K rpm for me, but there's more ambient
> noise then I generally like here...you may well prefer slower if your office
> is quiet). And, either use a solid white image for the screen saver or LCD
> Scrub. If you set your desktop background to 50% / 18% gray, it'll be easy
> to spot the burn-in, which is most noticeable along high-contrast areas like
> window borders.
>
> Last, what everybody talks about: the reflectance. If your work environment
> is properly set up, the glossy screen is wonderful, better than the old CRT
> displays (which, you may recall, were also all glossy). If you have bright
> lights behind you, you're screwed -- but you wouldn't be able to do
> color-critical work on a non-glossy display in such conditions, anyway.
>
> I'd say that, in general, it's an excellent value for the money. It's not
> cheap, and you get something that's quite good. It's also not
> top-of-the-line...but you're not paying top-of-the-line prices for it,
> either. If you're aware of the limitations and either they won't affect you
> or you can work around them, then go for it.
>
> I have no regrets whatsoever about my purchase. If my budget were the same,
> I'd do the exact same thing again. Of course, if I had tens of thousands to
> spend, I wouldn't give it a first thought, let alone a second, but....
>
> Cheers,
>
> b&
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