LCD monitor colour tuning

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2005-10-30 06:51pm

The black on my LCD is far too bright, and turning down the brightness to fix it messes the rest of the image. I've heard you're supposed to setup your monitors colours up using some software.

My Samsung LCD came with 'MagicTune', which apparently lets you do... something... to optimise your colours. It's got no instructions at all, and opening the (useless) help crashes the app. If someone could recommend a decent tuning soft, or explain to me what I'm supposed to be doing in the one I've got, that'd be nice.

Datana · Post by **Datana** » 2005-10-30 08:41pm

Color optimization... That's something I've had to learn all too much about after getting my LCD and finding the colors FUBARed compared to my old Trinitron CRT. Anyway, MagicTune is supposed to work for this purpose, but if you can't get it operational, WiziWYG is a workable free alternative. You might also require color cards (acquirable from artstores) if you want a really good match. The best solution would involve a handheld colorimeter, but those are too expensive for casual use.

Overall, though, note that LCDs have a very hard time with properly reproducing blacks and with creating very similar colors right next to each other (such as gradients). You won't get something perfect out of color optimization, but it'll at least be usable compared to out-of-the-box.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2005-10-30 08:46pm

The MagicTune software WORKS, I just don't know how to use it. The help doesn't explain what you're supposed to do, and it crashes the app anyway.

Datana · Post by **Datana** » 2005-10-30 09:40pm

I found another copy of the manual here, but it looks straightforward enough that you shouldn't need it beyond help in getting to the color calibration section.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2005-10-30 10:59pm

Okay, I'm officially stupid.

That's the same text as I read in the help of the app; and it doesn't mean shit to me. I'm assuming the 'brightness control bar' is the bottom slider, but I have no idea what 'matching the brightness of control patch and the brightness of background pattern' involves. Nothing is labeled: am I working with the bottom boxes or the main grid? Whenever I use it, everything looks the same colour and brightness from the start, unless I move the square into a corner. To my untrained eye, the demo gif seems to suggest that you just lock colours in at random and shazam it's better, which can't be right.

Datana · Post by **Datana** » 2005-10-31 12:40am

I've never used MagicTune myself (it's only for Samsung monitors), but here's my take on it:

There's a control cursor (small, greyish block) in the middle of the window, surrounded by a colored background (the control patch), then a grey background. Get the patch to match the color of the background as closely as possible using only the brightness slider. Now, if the test patch has a color cast, drag the control cursor in the opposite direction of the matching color until there isn't a cast anymore (so if it's bluish, drag it down/left until it's grey). Repeat a few more times. The outcome should be that the background and test patch are of the same uniform color.

At least, that's what I'm getting out of the instructions. If you still can't figure it out, try the other software I mentioned earlier; the instructions are far less obtuse (essentially, match the inside square to the outside square).