How To Calibrate Your Monitor

Calibrating your monitor to Full Color is not required; unless you choose to use to manage your own color. If you wish to calibrate to Full Color you must:

1. Properly white balance and obtain good exposure.
2. If using Photoshop, make sure your color settings are correct.
3. Profile your monitor (see video at right).

Calibrating Your Monitor

The best way to profile your monitor is with a hardware monitor calibration device. We recommend i1 Display2 by X-Rite, but there are many calibration packages you may choose. 

This device attaches to the front of your monitor and reads color patches displayed by the software. Using these readings, the software removes any color cast from your screen, helps optimize the brightness, contrast and color output, and creates a profile describing how your monitor displays color.  Photoshop then uses this profile when displaying images to give you the most accurate color display possible. Laptop computers are not recommended by Full Color as a viable solution for a properly calibrated monitor.

Note: We suggest setting your target White point to 6500k and Gamma to 2.2.  This is only a recommendation; you may find that your viewing environment has warmer or cooler lights, in which case you could experiment with your White point.

If you have any questions about installing and configuring the monitor calibration system you purchased, please refer to the manufacturer.

Working Space & Photoshop Settings

When sending files to Full Color, it is important that each file has a valid ICC profile embedded. We recommend using SRGB as a working color space. Follow these steps to set your Photoshop Color Settings in Photoshop 6.0 and above:

1. Open Photoshop and go to Edit > Color  Settings
2. Under Working Spaces > RGB select sRGB IEC61966-2.1.
3. Under Color Management Policies > RGB select "Convert to Working RGB."
4. Next to Profile Mismatches check "Ask When Opening" and "Ask when Pasting." Photoshop will prompt you to convert files whenever you open a file saved and tagged in another color space. If you would rather have Photoshop automatically convert files, uncheck these boxes.
5. Next to Missing Profiles, uncheck "Ask When Opening."
6. Under Converson Options set Intent to Pereptual, and unckeck "Use black point compensation."

Click here to see the dialog box.

Note: Photoshop will assume files not tagged with a color space are in your working space. When saving JPEGs out of Photoshop, check “Embed Color Profile” in the Save dialog box, as shown here.  Leaving this unchecked will result in unpredictable color on your prints.

Calibrating to Full Color

Order up to 3 free 8x10 prints from properly exposed files through our calibration print submission form. These prints will become your control prints.

When you receive your control prints from Full Color, place them in the photographic view box (see #3, Before Getting Started). Do not use florescent or available light.

Open the file in Photoshop 6.0 or later (only after Step 3 has been completed).

Using your control prints ordered from Full Color as a guide, make any necessary adjustments to your monitor (changing color temp or gamma - see manufacturers instructions on changing these settings on your monitor), and test again if necessary.

Check work coming back from Full Color to your monitor on a regular basis.

If you wish to use our output profile for viewing in a proofing application of your choice, you may download it below. It is not necessary to have our output profile to calibrate to us.

Get Full Color's Output Profile

Before Getting Started
When color correcting digital files to send to the lab, a neutral workspace is best. Listed below are several tips on creating a neutral environment.

1.  Lighting in your computer room should be consistent; avoid bright lighting and make sure no sunlight is coming in from the windows. Make sure there is no glare on the monitor.
2. Avoid using colored wallpapers or screen savers on your monitor; the monitor background should be set to gray or a grayscale image.
3. Use a photographic view box to view the control print. The light source to view the control print should match your monitor brightness. GTI Graphic Technology is one source for view boxes.
4. Room surroundings should be neutral.
5. When working, it is best to avoid wearing bright clothing, as it will reflect in the monitor and change color perception.