My gamut is wider than my head.

Question

Level 6

12,614 points

My gamut is wider than my head.

Recently needed a second second monitor (I work in two locations, port my laptop from one to the other, and need a color-calibrated monitor both places) and decided to go with a wide gamut monitor. Now my colors in Aperture are wrong, and color-management in other programs has been affected as well. Colors on the wide-gamut monitor are over-saturated even after repeated calibrations (no idea how to fix). Also, luminance is too high, and resetting the target luminance value for the wide-gamut monitor seems to have little effect.

Generally:

. what should I do if I want to start from scratch and built a color-managed workflow? Is there a standard and thorough method to regain color control and accuracy which takes into account the current state of the OS, different monitors, and different programs?

. is there a useful reference for OS X color management?

Here is my set-up:

Mac OS X, MacBook Pro 13" '09 (2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo w. NVIDIA GeForce 9400M w. 32-bit pixel depth on all monitors (according the System Profiler)). Main use is Aperture, also Safari, etc. All software up-to-date.
NEC Multisync 2490WUXi2 (have used this for months, works great)
NEC Multisync PA271W (just purchased, have not been able to set it up correctly)
SpectraView II v. 1.1.07 (NEC's software to calibrating their monitors)
ColorMunki Photo (photospectrometer, works with SpectraView II)
(Epson 3880, printing almost entirely on Epson Hot Press Natural with matte black ink. Have recently been printing with an Epson 9900 as well.)

Thanks. I've been unable to edit or print with the PA271W connected.

(Similar request for help posted on the Luminous Landscape Color forum, but after 70 views no one has responded.)

Message was edited by: Kirby Krieger

MacBook Pro 13, Mac OS X (10.6.7), 8 G / 500 G internal / 5 TB external / NEC 2490 / ColorMunki Pho

Posted on May 9, 2011 6:40 PM

Reply

Answer 1

May 9, 2011 8:16 PM in response to Kirby Krieger

I have always found Gary Ballard's guidance most useful:

http://www.gballard.net/psd/go_live_page_profile/embeddedJPEGprofiles.html

I am no fan of the website design however...

HTH

-Allen

Reply

Answer 2

May 9, 2011 10:00 PM in response to Kirby Krieger

When you go into "System Preferences" -> "Displays" and select the "Color" tab, what "Display profile" are you using and is it the display profile created and added via your ColorMunki?

Also is there any possibility that you have more than one account on your Mac and used ColorMunki to profile the display with a different account than the one you are using to run Aperture?

Reply

Answer 3

Ir. Bob

Level 2

346 points

May 10, 2011 6:29 AM in response to Tim Campbell1

How exactly did you setyp both screens? Does your 'external' one mirror your 'internal' one? If so, you're external one will use the color profile of the internal one, which may result in oversaturated colors. And are you sure the correct profile is applied to the correct monitor. If you've setup your 'external' as an 'extended desktop', you can apply a different color profile to each of the monitors.

Reply

Answer 4

Kirby Krieger Author

Level 6

12,614 points

May 10, 2011 9:51 AM in response to SierraDragon

Thanks Allen -- that's actually a much better organized page than the one I'd already stumbled upon. Still, it seems a couple years out of date. I'm trying to find the time to work my way all the way through.

Reply

Answer 5

Kirby Krieger Author

Level 6

12,614 points

May 10, 2011 10:02 AM in response to Tim Campbell1

Tim -- thanks for the suggestions.

The laptop display color profile is created using the ColorMunki software and hardware. The NEC monitors retain their own profiles and LUTs. Their display color profiles are created and saved to them using NEC's proprietary software SpectraView II and the ColorMunki hardware (which the software is designed to work with).

The profiles are all correctly created and correctly assigned, as far as I can tell. (I actually use a third second monitor -- a Dell S2309W -- and the OS is clever enough to identify this and apply the correct profile. There are different profiles for using it via an analog or a digital connection.)

The one anomaly I've detected (other than performance) is that the highest resolution I can set the PA271W to is 1920 x 1080 (iirc -- it's not connected right now), whereas the specs for the GPU in my laptop indicate I should be able to set digital monitors to c. 2500 x 1400.

I now wonder if the problem is the mini-displayport on the laptop.

I have only one User Account on this machine.

Reply

Answer 6

Kirby Krieger Author

Level 6

12,614 points

May 10, 2011 10:09 AM in response to Ir. Bob

lr. Bob -- thanks for the response. I use the ColorMunki software and hardware to profile my laptop and all non-NEC monitors; I use NEC's SpectraView II software and the ColorMunki hardware to profile my NEC screens.

I never run with the OS preference set to "Mirror Displays".

I am sure the correct profile is selected. I have created profiles for every display I use (the laptop and five different external monitors (don't ask). At this point, only two of the monitors need to be completely color calibrated). I update each profile at least every two weeks.

Any other ideas? It seems I also can't set the resolution of the PA271W as high as I should be able to.

Thanks.

Reply

Answer 7

Ir. Bob

Level 2

346 points

May 10, 2011 10:58 AM in response to Kirby Krieger

As far as I know, you never need proprietary software to apply a display profile. So your display may be double colormanaged now. Could you try to 'bypass' the NEC software? And have you contacted NEC support?

Reply

Answer 8

Kirby Krieger Author

Level 6

12,614 points

May 10, 2011 12:28 PM in response to Ir. Bob

You are correct that it is not needed -- but it is recommended for any color-managed workflow. The ColorMunki is an affordable software/hardware package. In order to get the most out of any of the high-end (a/k/a "professional") NEC monitors one has to use their calibration software (or something even more expensive). I have never before had any trouble using either the ColorMunki software or NEC's SpectraView II.

I greatly appreciate the suggestion to contact NEC Support, which I have now done. (It did not and would not have occurred to me.) We're trouble-shooting. I'll post results when I have them.

Cheers.

Reply

Answer 9

Ir. Bob

Level 2

346 points

May 10, 2011 12:55 PM in response to Kirby Krieger

I was referring to the SpectraView software, that shouldn't be necessary (though I never owned a NEC so I cannot tell for sure). You definitely need hardware (the Colormunki) and the software for the spectrophotometer, but that alone should be enough to get a 'professional' workflow.

PS just googled for Spectaview, and it seems basically a software package for use with the iOne display spectrophotometer. The colormunki and the iOne however come bundled with different software on their own. So are you sure the colormunki is compatible with SpectraView?

Reply

Answer 10

May 10, 2011 12:53 PM in response to Kirby Krieger

Bob makes a good point... X-Rite (ColorMunki) is careful to warn that although many printers can store their own color profiles, it is important to make sure that the profile is used either _only_ in the printer or _only_ on the Mac... _never_ both. If the color is corrected more than once then it will make things worse.

I am not familiar with the NEC monitors or the SpectraView software... but I'm wondering if you're tried just disabling that and using the ColorMunki to create the profile and using that profile to control the monitors.

Reply

Answer 11

Kirby Krieger Author

Level 6

12,614 points

May 12, 2011 3:03 PM in response to Ir. Bob

Spectraview II is designed to work with several calibration devices. The ColorMunki is one of those supported. It has worked well with my other NEC monitor (an LCD2490WUXi2).

Reply

Answer 12

Kirby Krieger Author

Level 6

12,614 points

May 12, 2011 3:07 PM in response to Tim Campbell1

A good thought -- but the NEC monitors/SpectraViewII are clever enough to allow only one calibration set to be used at a time.

(The Epson color profiles for printing disable the OS Colorsync settings -- perhaps SpectraView II is doing something similar.)

Reply

Answer 13

Kirby Krieger Author

Level 6

12,614 points

May 12, 2011 3:17 PM in response to Kirby Krieger

The answer was supplied by NEC technicians. They were very helpful.

The problem is that my computer doesn't supply enough power to send a DVI dual-link signal to the monitor. The connection then drops to DVI single-link, which lowers the achievable resolution, and apparently wreaks havoc on the color-space and/or calibration settings. The solution was one of two options:

Apple sells a USB-powered Mini-DisplayPort to DVI (dual link) adapter for $100. Seems to be a clever, but expensive, solution (the cable uses a USB port to draw the power it needs to successfully send the DVI dual-link signal).

NEC techs suggested a better, cheaper solution. NEC overnighted a Mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable to me (I paid $30 for it). I'm just now testing various calibration targets -- but I seem to now have full access to the monitor I purchased. Will update with more information if this isn't a full solution, but I can already report that the luminance is being properly set for the targets chosen, the color looks good, and I am currently running the external monitor at 2650 x 1440. The difference may not literally be "night and day" but is certainly close to "Mickey Mouse" vs. reality.

Thanks to everyone who responded and/or thought about it. I don't know how I ended up marking my post as "Helpful" -- I was trying to mark another one.

Cheers. I might actually get some work done today. 🙂

Reply