To Gamma; Or Not To Gamma?

[SonicMax]

People,

On my most recent project (a photo album), I noticed that the placed .jpg's, .tiff's & .psd's printed much darker than displayed on my monitor (Dell M992.) I knew it wasn't the fault of my printer, due to the fact that I had the correct media & other settings selected; & also the fact that colors & saturation print exact in other applications (Paint Shop Pro, etc.)

This problem brought out one of the weak spots in my digital imaging knowledge: monitor calibration vs. printing vs. video card vs. image application.

I've never been able to get a handle on this relationship.

In my System Config Utility, Adobe Gamma Loader (for both Illustrator & Photoshop) are unchecked in the Startup dialog. I thought this was the way to go, after I read the following in the help files of both Illustrator & Photoshop:

"Although Adobe Gamma is an effective calibration and profiling utility, hardware-based utilities are more precise. If you have a hardware-based utility that can generate an ICC-compliant profile, you should use that instead of Adobe Gamma."

I took this to mean that my video card (NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420) set-up might be more precise.

In Illustrator, I've also never been able to go to View > Proof Setup, to select my monitor (as I'm able to do in Photoshop.)

So my questions here, are:

1) What is the best way to calibrate colors in order to have them print accurately (as displayed on the monitor?) Should I have Gamma Loader load? Should I look to my video card? Is there a setting in Illustrator that I am missing?

2) Can someone please point me toward some understandable tutorials on the relationship between Illustrator & the printer, display & video card on this issue?

Thanks very much,

mark4man

Dell Dimension 8250
Windows XP (Home Edition)
Intel 850E Motherboard & Chipset
Intel P4 2.53GHz CPU (512 KB L2 Cache, 533 MHz FSB)
512 MB PC1066 RDRAM
Dell M992 19" Monitor
Nvidia 64MB GEFORCE4 MX420 AGP

 

[aldog]

Many good video cards have the ability to adjust color, contrast, gamma, ect. by using the Display Settings, rather than the monitor or Adobe Gamma.

Make sure you have the latest driver for your video card. Go to the Control Panel, and then go to the Display, and choose the Advanced Settings. There you should be able to adjust the brightness and contrast directly from the video card.

 

[SonicMax]

aldog,

Thanks . . . I'll try it. I think you're correct in that it may be the best way. I tried to create an ICC Profile in Photoshop the other day; & the entire process was very iffy. If I had to do it again, I would first adjust my monitor the way it looked best; & then just go through the Profile Wizard without changing any settings.

Thanks again,

mark4man

 

[Walkbones]

It's been suggested that we try Pantone's Spyder display color calibration kit. We haven't yet but it looks interesting. Has anyone else tried it yet?