Eizo screens offer extensive calibration options, and we provide
these notes as a guide to achieving a good calibration with an Eizo
screen for general photographic editing. These notes are by no means
exhaustive, and should only be considered a starting point for good
results.
The chief difference between an Eizo Flexscan line monitor and an Eizo ColorEdge monitor is in how you calibrate the monitors.
While
both lines of monitor have hardware controls for white point, gamma and
brightness that use the inbuilt hardware to make adjustments with much
higher quality than typical monitors, it is only with the ColorEdge
monitors that you can calibrate directly with the LUT (look up table) in the back of
the monitor.
If you're interested, you can read more about the different types of monitor calibration.
Calibrating an Eizo ColorEdge Monitor
Before starting please make sure you have plugged in the USB cable that came with your monitor!
The goal is to simulate paper ...
These
notes are about getting your Eizo set up to be a good proofing
environment for photographic editing and prints. It is not a guide to
getting the 'prettiest' or most colourful response out of your screen.
If you also do video work, or simply watch movies on your Eizo, you may
well want to create multiple set ups for your screen.
Using ColorNavigator
To
calibrate an Eizo CE or CG monitor with ColorNavigator is very easy. If
you have an Eye One display or Spyder calibrator, note that you do not
need to use the included Eye One Match or Spyder software at all -
ColorNavigator will do a direct hardware calibration. If you have
another type of calibrator, you should first check if it is compatible with ColorNavigator.
The first step to take before using ColorNavigator is to remove (uninstall) all previous colour calibration software you may have - this means ColorNavigator will use its own drivers for your calibration device rather than any old drivers that might be lying around on your computer.
Next, make sure you have
connected the monitor via the supplied USB cable, and for video that you are
using a DVI connection, not an analogue VGA connection (no point
running a monitor this good with a 15 year old connection standard!).
It's well worth replacing your video card if you do not have a DVI
output on your current card. Even a basic $50 video card with DVI from
any computer store will be more than sufficient for Photoshop usage.
Now, install Color Navigator. (Check www.eizo.com.au first to make sure you have the latest version).
Next, select your monitor calibration device when it prompts you.
Defining Calibration Targets
The next stage in calibration with ColorNavigator is to define your calibration targets. We suggest you start with a typical default calibration, but with a reduced contrast ratio of 225:1. One of the nicest things about your new Eizo monitor is the ability to reduce the monitor's native contrast level to a figure more reasonable for simulating prints. Here's how to define a target for this:
On the above screen, you can see a list of targets I have made for my screen. To define a new one, choose 'Create a new target'.
Unless you have a good reason (i.e. you want to simulate the gamut of some other device or colourspace), you should calibrate your screen to the full native monitor gamut.
Now we define the whitepoint we are calibrating to, in terms both brightness and colour. 6500K is the general standard for whitepoint in the photographic industry, so use that for this target, but note you can do sophisticated things like using an alternate whitepoint (say 5500K if you for example always use warmer papers), or you can even input a whitepoint that has been measured from a specific paper using a spectrophotometer. I actually use 6000K generally as it is a decent mid point between warmer OB free papers and typical commercial papers. But I also have several targets in my list, so I can easily flick between setups for different papers.
For brightness, I have here chosen 90 cd/m2. This value is dependent on the brightness of the room you typically work in, but I have found over the years that 90cd/m2 is a good starting point and that typically recommended brightness values for LCD such as 120 or 140, are simply too bright for simulating paper.
Now, we set the brightness of the black point of the monitor. This is how we control contrast. In the above screenshot, I have chosen a blackpoint of 0.4 cd/m2. This is because 90 cd/m2 (our whitepoint) divided by 0.4 gives 225 - that is, our whitepoint will be 225 times brighter than our blackpoint, or put another way, we are setting the contrast ratio of the monitor to 225:1.
We do this because the contrast of prints on paper ranges from about 160:1 to 225:1 at the absolute most. If we leave our monitor at its default contrast (my CG241W has a native ratio of 800:1), this makes soft proofing much more difficult. So we set the contrast of the monitor to be much closer to the contrast of paper.
Now, we define gamma. 2.2 is the generally accepted norm, as this modifies the tonal curve of your screen to be close to that of paper. Unless you have a very good reason, you should choose 2.2 here just as we have. You might also want to experiment with a new approach to this, known as L* calibration - but personally I find 2.2 to be more accurate to the tonal response of paper.
Now save the target. You might want to give it a more user friendly name such as 'Default 225:1 contrast, 6500K calibration'.
At this point you will go back to the original target screen and a window should appear:
Choose 'Adjust Now' to start the actual calibration process.
Attach you calibrator as per the onscreen instructions, hit 'Proceed' and sit back and relax as the entire calibration process is now completed for you, hands free!
At the end you will get a results screen:
This will show how close your calibration was to the target you requested. (The match will be close, but never 100% exact as you're operating at the sharp end of device tolerances).
You're monitor is now calibrated, you can go forth and edit your images with the confidence of highly accurate colour!
Of
course ColorNavigator can do many other things, such as emulation of
other monitors, and calibration validation but you'll need to explore
the manual and the software to discover those adventures! You can define as many targets as you like (such as for different papers), but if you use the same target for your typical set-up, all you need to do is start ColorNavigator, choose that target, and hit proceed - calibration doesn't come any easier (or better!) than that!You might want to read why you should calibrate multiple times and our article about hardware calibration targets to use as starting points as well.
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