Monitor calibration and contrast adjustment

[adzy]

I currently use the Monaco Optix to calibrate my monitor (the older

one, not the XR one). It starts off with "set both contrast and

brightness to 100%", subsequent steps go thru setting the brightness

level, but not the contrast. So the result is that after I am done

with the calibation process, the contrast is still set to 100. This

seems a bit odd to me- also my prints come out a bit darker than

they seem on the screen.

 

So, does the calibration software assume that the user should adjust

the contrast, or should i just leave it as is ? Is this because of a

shortcoming of my monitor or do all monitors/video cards behave this

way ?

 

I have an inexpensive 21" envision CRT monitor. The video card is a

nVidia card. I am running winXP.

 

Thanks,

 

Azi

[steven_clark]

Nominally contrast on a CRT monitor should never need to be set below 100.

[zee]

Not to sound insulting, but have you calibrated your printer as well (and scanner, if it's part of your workflow)? Once you've finished calibrating, are you setting the proper profiles in all of your applications?

[adzy]

Zee,

I use the epson 1280, and all the papers that I use have their own profiles, and I ofcourse use these very profiles while printing etc.

[adzy]

Zee, sorry forgot to mention this. No I dont use a scanner. I use a digital SLR- the canon 10d. I shoot in raw- adobe rgb profile. I do raw conversion using photoshop cs.