What colour mode should I choose for my external monitor?

Question

Level 1

49 points

What colour mode should I choose for my external monitor?

Hello,

My current MacBook Pro 15" (2011) display is set to colour mode "Color LCD", which seems pretty accurate.

However, when I connect my external monitor to my MacBook Pro, choosing the colour mode "Color LCD" seems very unnatural.

Which of the following options should I choose for a most accurate colour (sRGB) for my external monitor connected to my MacBook Pro? Should I choose the sRGB one or is it outdated?

Thanks,

- L

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Jun 20, 2015 11:33 AM

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Answer 1

Kurt Lang

Level 9

68,376 points

Jun 20, 2015 12:01 PM in response to xevtbng

Not sure what you're displaying there. Open the System Preferences and click on Displays. Choose the external monitor (I'm assuming both the laptop's display and the external will both be shown so you can choose). Then click the Color tab. At the top of the list, above the gray line are the profiles OS X pulls directly from any attached monitor.

All newer monitors, including built-in displays, come with their default profile embedded in the monitor's firmware. Those are pulled by the OS to the /Library/ColorSync/Profiles/Displays/ folder.

So you should see two profiles listed above the line. One for the MacBook Pro, and the other for the external monitor. Chose the appropriately named profile for the attached monitor.

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Answer 2

xevtbng Author

Level 1

49 points

Jun 20, 2015 2:02 PM in response to Kurt Lang

Hello,

Thank you for your reply. I was just using an app SwitchResX to change my resolution and colour mode. However, you're right you can also see it like this:

My external monitor is the Philips one. However, my MacBook's display is set to Color LCD, I don't know whether I should keep my external monitor's setting at its default (Philips 288P6) or should I change it to Color LCD or something else? There are so many options and I don't know the most accurate one.

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Answer 3

Kurt Lang

Level 9

68,376 points

Jun 20, 2015 2:21 PM in response to xevtbng

Color LCD is the default profile for the MacBook Pro. Philips 288P6 is the default profile for the external.

However, none of them are accurate. The defaults are just the closest profile for each respective panel when they're new (or at least reasonably new), and you actually like the default 6500K white point and 2.2 gamma. With the brightness of each set as close to each other as you can visually get them, If they don't look the same or close with the default profiles, then the displays have already drifted away from anything resembling "accurate". No matter how much you pay for one, all monitor color drifts at a hardware level. Meaning, the panel's color itself changes as it ages. For LED and LCD panels, that's almost always toward the pink side. That, and color slowly loses its saturation over time.

None of the rest mean anything to your monitors. They're just various RGB color spaces that have nothing to do with the panels in front of you.

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