Following is a set of instructions to guide you through a typical monitor calibration using the Xrite i1 Display 2. This is a fully featured device that gives the user access to all calibration options such as white point, gamma and luminance targets, reminders when monitor profiles should be redone, ambient light measurements to assess viewing conditions and before and after comparisons.

Start by installing the software before plugging in the device to a usb port. You will need a port that is close enough to your monitor that the calibration puck can sit on the face of the monitor with the cable running over the top. This is because a counterweight is required to be attached to the cable behind the monitor to prevent the puck from sliding down the face of the screen.

The application used with the i1 Display is called i1Match. The current version of the software is V3.6.3 for Mac (Snow Leopard compatible) and V3.6.2 for Windows (Windows 7 compatible). When installing on a Mac you can run the application immediately. When installing on a Windows system, you will be required to restart  after the software install before you can use the device.

If this is the first time you have calibrated your monitor, it is a good idea to set the screen controls back to their default factory settings. In the screen menu there is usually an option to do this. If you have a Graphics card in your PC with options such as an Nvidia card, you may want to look in the control panel and check that the settings there are at their default also. There is a slider in the Nvidia control panel called vibrance that is sometimes defaulted to a high setting resulting in over saturated colours. This is great for gaming but not suitable for screen-print matching. Turn this setting down to zero.

You will also need to find the controls for the placement of the on screen display (OSD) menu. Most monitors have a control to move this around the screen either by setting a horizontal and vertical offset or by selecting a corner of the screen to put it in. It needs to be away from the centre as the puck will be trying to make readings at the same time that you will be making changes to the screen settings (mostly brightness). If the OSD is in the way the puck will give a false reading.

1. Start i1Match.

You will see the intro screen with the functions that are available to you.

2. Since we are using only the i1 Display 2, only the monitor profiling function is available to us. We have the option of performing either an Easy or Advanced calibration. I like to run the device on Easy first to get a feel for the monitors default behaviour. You will see a guide to the steps we are taking on the right hand side of the window as well as a check for updates button on the left which will determine if there are any new versions of the software available (you will need an internet connection for this).

Click on the Easy radio button and then on the right facing arrow to proceed.

3. Choose the type of monitor you will be calibrating. There are not many people using CRT monitors now days so LCD or Laptop will be your usual choice. Click the forward arrow to proceed

4. You will be asked to place your device on the monitor. Loop the cord over the top of the monitor as shown in the image above. Position the puck so it is as close to the centre as possible. You will need to attach the small black counter weight to the i1 cable on the back side of the monitor. This will prevent the device from sliding down the face of the monitor. It helps to tilt the monitor back so the the puck sits flat on the face of the screen. We want to ensure that there are no gaps around the edges that will allow stray light to sneak in to the sensors. When you are satisfied withe the positioning of the puck, click the forward arrow to proceed.

5. You will be asked to set the contrast setting of your monitor to 100%. I usually ignore this setting initially as it usually comes in at the right setting by default. Click the forward arrow to proceed.

6. The screen will start to divide into grey and white sections with the white section gradually getting smaller until a square sits under the device. This is the software going through the process of finding where the sensor is on the screen. When it has completed this process it will measure the contrast of the monitor and show the result on a contrast indicator in the top right of the screen. The black bar should be centred in the green section of the indicator as shown. Click the Stop button when this step is complete. You will return to the Contrast screen and click the forward arrow to proceed.

The monitor will now start to show a series of colour patches and a progress bar in the top right of the screen will show you how it is progressing. It displays primary and secondary colours in various percentages as well as shades of grey. This is the process of determining the colour characteristics of your particular monitor. When this procedure is completer the Report window will appear.

7. This window shows the results for the three main parameters of screen calibration.

Colour Temperature: When we use the Easy mode of calibration the software measures the native colour temperature of the monitor. This is the colour of white displayed when the video card Look Up Tables (LUTs) are at the defaults. This is generally when the monitor displays its best colour gradation. It is sometimes a a perfect value of 6500K but more often it is something a little higher or lower. In this case it is measuring 7200K which is a bit too blue for my liking. This is on my 15" Macbook Pro.

Gamma: This is usually in the region of 2.2. If if is 2.1 or 2.3 it should not be a problem. If if is way up or down then we will need to set the gamma in Advanced mode.

Luminance: This is the brightness of the screen. When modern screens are first taken out of the box and set up, the brightness is often set way too high, sometimes up to 3x as bright as we need it. We are usually aiming for a value of between 80-120 cd/m2 (candles/meter squared). As we can see from this reading our luminance is 175.8cd/m2. This is too high for editing use so we will have to go back to Advanced mode to set the luminance we require.

Easy mode is a great first step to see what your monitor is doing but is rarely the best option for what we want so we will go back and and start the procedure again. Click Finish Calibration to complete the process.

You will see a message saying the profile was saved. Click OK to finish and exit the software.

 

8. Advanced Mode

Start the i1 Match software again. 

9. When we get to the options screen (step 2) choose Advanced instead of Easy. Click the forward arrow to proceed.

You will be asked for the monitor type as in step 3. Your previous choice will still be selected so click the forward arrow to proceed.

Here we can now choose the parameters that suit our needs and force our monitor to reach certain targets.

White Point: I am setting my white point to 6000K, which is the same value I set my Eizo CG243w at. This way the images will appear very close in colour on both screens. The accepted standard value is 6500K for viewing prints under a 5000K light source. My own personal tastes prefer 6000K but you may like to start at the accepted 6500K. The drop down menu will indicate that 6500K is recommended.

Gamma: This is referred to as the Tone Reproduction Curve (TRC) value and standard is 2.2. Again the drop down menu will offer it as recommended.

Luminance: This is the brightness of the screen. As mentioned before this is often too high. Clients often say "My prints are too dark." when often it is the monitor that is too bright. I set my screens at 90cs/m2. I find this gives me a realistic appreciation of the density of the shadows in print. If I set it too much higher than this then I see more shadow detail in the screen image than in the printed image. The luminance setting is very much dependant on the viewing conditions of your print. If you work in a very bright environment, you may wish to set your luminance higher. Be aware that if you are calibrating an Eizo, the warranty period is only valid if you calibrate below at 100cd/m2 or below.

If you wish, you can attach the white diffuser to the front of your i1 and click on the Perform ambient light check option to confirm the quality of your print viewing conditions. I have left it unchecked in this example.

Click the forward arrow to proceed.

You wil see the same screens asking you to place the i1 on the screen and perform the contrast adjustments as in steps 4 & 5. Follow the same procedure as in the Easy example.

10. You will be asked to select the type of white point adjustment you have available on your monitor. This is mostly applicable to CRT monitors where you can individually control the RGB guns. If your monitor has presets for colour you can select one here. Often they have vague settings like Cool, Normal and Warm. Some have numerical values like 5000K or 6500K. If you are calibrating an Eizo Flexscan or Premium Flexscan you can set the exact colour temperature in the menu on the screen itself. If you don't have useful controls to adjust white point, click on the forward arrow to proceed.

Click on Start to measure the current white point of the monitor. You will see a guage with the target and the measured value:

If you have controls available to you adjust them now. The current white point setting will update as you make your changes. Click Stop when you are done. You will be returned to the Set White Point screen. Click the forward arrow to proceed.

11. This is where we set the luminance of the screen.

Click Start to begin.

Use the brightness controls on your screen to adjust the luminance to reach your target. The black bar will jump around a bit as you make your adjustments. Give the screen and i1 a few seconds after you make each adjustment in order for the values to stabalise. When you have reached your target click stop. You will be returned to the luminance screen. Click on the forward arrow to proceed.

12. Measurement and results.

Once again, the screen will begin to display colour patches while the i1 takes readings. When completed we will again see the report screen.

We now see that we have a more acceptable colour temperature of 6000K, our Gamma is still 2.2 and our luminance has dropped to 88.5cd/m2. If your luminance is out by a couple of points don't worry too much. If it is out by between 5-10cd/m2 then you may want to go back and adjust the brightness of your screen up a little to compensate. It is quite common for the reading in step 11 to not exactly match what we see in the Step 12 results.

You will notice that the RGB curves in this report widow are more spread than the ones where the report showed the native colour temperature of 7200K in step 6. This is because we are frcing the video card to make some adjustments to the LUTs in order to reach our desired white point. It is a trade off between optimum gradation and desired colour temperature that we need to decide on. I do all my colour critical work on an Eizo so I am happy to sacrifice tonal gradation for colour on my laptop.

Step 13 Before and After.

Click on the Before and After button to see the visual results of calibration.

Click on the Calibration Off button to see the difference between pre and post calibration.

You can click on the Activate reminder for the monitor calibration check box to give you the option of being reminded to re calibrate after 1,2,3 or 4 weeks. I usually set 4 weeks.

Click on Finish Calibration to save the profile and you will see the confirmation screen we saw in step 7. 

The monitor profile will be saved in the appropriate directory on your Mac or Windows PC. Colour managed applications such as Photoshop and Lightroom will automatically pick up this profile for use. Windows versions of Photoshop may need to be restarted to activate the new profile.

 

If you have any more technical issues, look on the Xrite website here for more instructions and FAQs.