Zone X on monitor

My latest enthusiasm (obsession might be more accurate) is trying to

appreciate how the high end of the tonal scale comes across on a

print. I've asked some questions about this, on this forum, and

gotten some very helpful advice and information on films and

developers with regard to this quality. The other day I noticed that

the whitest white of which my monitor is capable isn't all that

brilliant. - I don't think it could be called a Zone X. For example,

the white background of this message seems more like a very light

gray to me, not as white as a nice enlarging paper. My question is:

Are there monitors which can render a really brilliant white,

comparable to the Zone X of a beautiful print?

Yes, there are such monitors. I should think that most consumer grade monitors could yeild a pretty good white. The decent ones often offer a color temperature adjustment. There are also software compensations that can be done. Macs come with this, and I believe adobe offers a decent one.

 

Finally, there are professional grade monitors. These things are incredible, but costly. They can do anything. Awesome.

 

Anyway, unless your monitor is a real piece, you should be able to get it to give a brighter white.

 

-Ramy

Ollie, A very usefull web site that I have found with answers to

your question is http://www.normankoren.com/zonesystem.html

The brightness of the monitor is fairly incosequential. Ask yourself how bright a sheet of paper is in the dark.<br>It's the contrast ratio that's important, not the absolute brightness.<br>For example: I've measured a few 'average' monitors with a photometer, and in a darkened room they're easily capable of a 300:1 brightness ratio, up to maybe 600:1 if they're properly adjusted. A paper print can get nowhere near to this, maybe 100:1 at the very most.<p>It's not how bright the whites are, but how dark you can make the black that counts, with any display device. That's why we project films and slides in a darkened room, and why you should dim your room lights to use a computer monitor for any critical viewing as well.