LCD Monitor

  • Thread starter Thread starter Don
  • Start date Start date
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Don

Likely a bit off topic for the NG, however of the groups I
monitor/particpate, I believe this one my best chance for assitance.

I do some heavy duty scanning and archiving of old black and white images.

Until a few days ago (and for the past three years), I was using an old
tube-type IBM monitor. It's been acting up for more than a year and as much
as I was tempted to go with a CRT monitor, I made the transition to LCD.

ALL my black and white images are displaying as "sort of" blue sepia. I
realize my images haven't changed from their original scans/digitiaztion
and I'm hoping for the possibility and suggestions as to how I may make
adjustments in my monitor settings to regain my black and white display.

The monitor I purchased is a Optiquest Q171b 17".

Thnaks in advance
 
Don said:
Likely a bit off topic for the NG, however of the groups I
monitor/particpate, I believe this one my best chance for assitance.

I do some heavy duty scanning and archiving of old black and white images.

Until a few days ago (and for the past three years), I was using an old
tube-type IBM monitor. It's been acting up for more than a year and as
much
as I was tempted to go with a CRT monitor, I made the transition to LCD.

ALL my black and white images are displaying as "sort of" blue sepia. I
realize my images haven't changed from their original scans/digitiaztion
and I'm hoping for the possibility and suggestions as to how I may make
adjustments in my monitor settings to regain my black and white display.

The monitor I purchased is a Optiquest Q171b 17".

Thnaks in advance
Click to expand...

I am not familiar with the Optiquest Q171b LCD monitor.

I would first check the color profile assigned to your monitor in Windows
XP.
If you were using a CRT monitor and have not changed the color profile, it
is possible that the current profile windows is using is the wrong profile
for your new monitor.

Right click on a clear area of your desktop > Properties, Select Settings
tab, Click the Advanced button at the bottom of window. Then Click on Color
Management. This final tab is depending on the Video card you have installed
in your computer.

On the Color Management tab you can choose various color space profiles, You
can even use a color profile provided by the monitor manufacturer (provided
you installed the manufacturers color profile from the monitor installation
CD). To access the other profiles installed on the computer click the Add
button.

The most common color profile to use is sRGB.

You should assign the same color profile to all of your devices, scanner,
and printer. Less so the scanner, sometimes it is best to NOT assign a color
profile to the scanner.

A color profile on the scanner sometimes locks in the scanner parameters and
does not allow you to change scan settings for different scanning
situations.
 
CSM1 said:
..

The most common color profile to use is sRGB.

You should assign the same color profile to all of your devices, scanner,
and printer. > CSM1
http://www.carlmcmillan.com
Click to expand...

That is complete rubbish, although it is a common enough misconception.

sRGB is a Working Space Profile, which is intended to be used, in the
background, by an editing program.

For a Monitor you need a Monitor Profile, either supplied by the Monitor
Maker or produced by Calibration Hardware, such as a Spyder.

For a Printer you need a Printer Profile specific to the Printer, and its
Inks and the Paper.

Have a read about Colour Management.

Roy G
 
Are there any settings on the monitor for color temperature? If it's
set to 9300, you might try 6500 and see if that improves things at all.

If not, I'd highly suggest taking Roy's advice and investing in a
hardware monitor calibration device. Unfortunately, software programs
like Adobe gamma aren't really meant to work with LCDs (and don't work
that well for CRTs).
Your monitor manufactuer may have a generic profile you can use, but it
may or may not accurately reflect your device.

Real World Color Managment by the late Bruce Fraser might be of use to
you. Also, read through the pages on DryCreek Photo about these topics.
 
Are there any settings on the monitor for color temperature? If it's
set to 9300, you might try 6500 and see if that improves things at all.

If not, I'd highly suggest taking Roy's advice and investing in a
hardware monitor calibration device. Unfortunately, software programs
like Adobe gamma aren't really meant to work with LCDs (and don't work
that well for CRTs).
Your monitor manufactuer may have a generic profile you can use, but it
may or may not accurately reflect your device.

Real World Color Managment by the late Bruce Fraser might be of use to
you. Also, read through the pages on DryCreek Photo about these topics.
Click to expand...

Many thanks to all that replied,

The Display Properties are set to "Plug and Play" (I don't see any way to
change this from within Windows XP.)
I was able to change the Display Properties for "Monitor" to the current
Optiquest monitor Profile (although I failed to see any improvement when
making that change.)

Rogers last suggestion of changing the speed of the monitor colour caused
me to poke around more.
Previously I was postitive (DUH!) that the monitor itself was set on sRGB,
however I was in error and it was set on 6500.
The change to sRGB improved my image color (at least closer to the
Greyscale/Black and White the I'm accustomed to.) On the other hand in text
view (of which I also do heavy duty scanning) there was a big drop in
screen display quality.
I then tried both 9300 and 5400 for the monitor settings, however all of
these were very close (at least to my naked eye) of the inital problem I'm
attemting to resolve.

Many thanks again to each of you for taking the time to respond.

I was hoping there was a simple configuration adjustment.
I was also previously not aware of this difference between CRT and LCD
regarding Black and White.

I'm going to poke around on the Opitquest site and see if any solutions
are offered there.
It's likely in the end that I'll need to become aware of the color
management that all of you have suggested.

My Printer is an old HP LaserJetII and is used for text only. The printer
has a limitation of 300dpi.
On the rare instances that I need a quality print of an image, I visit the
local Office Max.

I'm not to excited about making any adjustments with my scanner, as it
works fine and many of the images that I've shared are complimeneted for
their quality (as well as their rarity).
I used a scanner from 1996 through 2003 and even though those early
scanned images appeared of lesser quality (due to the 1996 scanner image
software) were of an equivalent quailty when compared to the 2003 scanner
and using 2003 image software (Ifranview or Photoshop).
 
I think you are confusing a number of things. The "plug in play"
versus monitor type has less to do with color and more to do with the
resolutions and refresh rates it supports. That's not going to help
you at all.
Rogers last suggestion of changing the speed of the monitor colour caused
me to poke around more.
Previously I was postitive (DUH!) that the monitor itself was set on sRGB,
however I was in error and it was set on 6500
Click to expand...
What exactly did you change to SRGB? A control on the monitor? In the
driver somewhere?
The change to sRGB improved my image color (at least closer to the
Greyscale/Black and White the I'm accustomed to.) On the other hand in text
view (of which I also do heavy duty scanning) there was a big drop in
screen display quality.
Click to expand...
Um, that sounds like you shouldn't be using SRGB wherever you are
setting it.
I then tried both 9300 and 5400 for the monitor settings, however all of
these were very close (at least to my naked eye) of the inital problem I'm
attemting to resolve.
Click to expand...
If you just want to try to hack a solution, see if there is a "color"
tab in your display driver. ATI gives Red, Green and Blue curves.
Adjust them until you get a neutral greyscale. Hardware devices will
do a much better job at this. Check out this page for more:
http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html
I was hoping there was a simple configuration adjustment.
I was also previously not aware of this difference between CRT and LCD
regarding Black and White.
Click to expand...
Not just B&W- LCDs can arrive with seriously strange colors out of the
box.
My Printer is an old HP LaserJetII and is used for text only. The printer
has a limitation of 300dpi.
On the rare instances that I need a quality print of an image, I visit the
local Office Max.
Click to expand...
Try winkflash.com
I'm not to excited about making any adjustments with my scanner, as it
works fine and many of the images that I've shared are complimeneted for
their quality (as well as their rarity).
Click to expand...
You don't need to, so long as your monitor is in line and not causing
you to misjudge the images the scanner is feeding it.
 
Roger S. said:
I think you are confusing a number of things. The "plug
Click to expand...

Hi.

Roger has raised some very good points.

You need to apply a bit of logic to what adjustments you are making and know
why you are making them.

You do not need to adjust your scanner, or apply a Profile to its output. A
lot of the scanning experts advocate using the scanner in linear mode and
then "asssigning" a profile once they get the image into Photoshop.

Have a read at www.digital-darkroom.com for Colour Management Theory and
Practice.

Roy G
 
Don said:
... I made the transition to LCD. ALL my black and
white images are displaying as "sort of" blue sepia.
Click to expand...

All mine are pink in the light grays.

It's apparently a limitation of today's LCDs, which tend to
be only 8 bits per primary at the screen, and which have
a sort of "S" shaped light output curve.

Simple single-knob (exponent) gamma adjustments cannot
correct it. Multi-point color calibration management can get
closer, but may result in visible terracing in the light shades.

Discussed a couple of years ago in:
comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.video
<http://tinyurl.com/ugro3>

Unfortunately, the priorities of the LCD panel makers are:
1. response time (useless for pre-press)
2. contrast ratio (higher is arguably useless at 8bbp)
3. wider gamut backlight (e.g. LED, would be helpful)
4. 10 bits or more per primary per pixel (essential)
 
I was hoping there was a simple configuration adjustment.
I was also previously not aware of this difference between CRT and LCD
regarding Black and White.
Click to expand...

LCD screens often have an "engineers" menu (or additional option to the
standard menu)

These can often be accessed by switching off from the front panel switch
then holding down the menu button and one of the others while powering the
screen on. This will probably give you the option to fine tune the colour
levels for Red, green and Blue and probably other settings too.
 
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