What color profile do you use when not editing and printing photographs?

[russellcbanks]

I've made good progress setting up my Eizo display with profiles for my specific papers and my Epson 3330 printer.

However, these profiles designed for processing images in Lightroom and Photoshop for printing seem a little dull for general computer usage.

What should I use when I'm not editing photos? In my Mac's display settings, there are a lot of choices for the color profile:

• Apple RGB
• Color LCD
• Display
• Display P3
• sRGB

Or should I make something different with my Eizo's ColorNavigator profile maker?

Thanks,
Russell

[AlanKlein]

Adjust the CD brightness to be brighter.  Mine is at 140 cd/m2.  I think my color is on Native for the monitor and/or sRGB.

[digitaldog]

For general viewing, pick the widest gamut your Eizo supports (likely Adobe RGB (1998)) and your Mac (DCI-P3) and leave everything else alone; that's what I have set for my wide gamut display smart display system. In color-managed app's and web browsers, it will all be just fine. 

Edited May 27, 2023 by digitaldog

[digitaldog]

For general viewing, pick the widest gamut your Eizo supports (likely Adobe RGB (1998)) and your Mac (DCI-P3) and leave everything else alone; that's what I have set for my wide gamut display smart display system. In color-managed app's and web browsers, it will all be just fine. 

[russellcbanks]

Alan, what does "CD" mean when you write, "CD brightness"?

 

BTW, how do you respond to a particular post in this photo.net interface? All I see is a "reply" button for the entire topic at the bottom.

Thanks,
Russell

[russellcbanks]

Thanks, Andrew. 

What is the relationship between setting one active profile with the Eizo software, and a different one in the Mac's display settings?

(such as your suggested Adobe RGB for Eizo and DCI-P3 for the Mac's display settings)

When I switch to DCI-P3 I notice that a lot of dark gray interface/backgrounds, such as the OmniFocus Dark setting and various other dark modes, lighten up quite a bit, and colored text loses a lot of saturation.

 

[digitaldog]

There is no relationship between the two displays; they are entirely independent of each other: calibration (brightness in cd/m2, color gamut, TRC/Gamma, even backlight technology). Both need calibration and a profile where calibration places the device into a desired behavior, and the profile defines that behavior for color-managed applications. So now we come to whatever OmniFocus is. And is it color-managed? If so, what you see there and in all other color-managed applications like Photoshop or a color-managed web browser* will match. If it isn't color managed, they will not, and you should either ignore the previews or use something else. 

* You may have heard or may soon be told, "The web is sRGB" which is hogwash. The 'web' is no different than any other way of dealing with 1s and zeros; the app used to access numbers is either color-managed so the numbers have a meaning and the display previews are managed, or they are not. 

[paddler4]

I assume "CD" refers to a measure used for brightness, candelas per square meter. That's the cd/m^2 in Alan's post. For general purpose viewing, set it however bright you like. For photo editing, most people recommend fairly dim, say, 80 to 120 cd/m^2, but IMHO, there isn't one ideal level, as it depends in part on the level of ambient light. The key is to set a level that makes your prints look roughly as bright as the screen. When people complain that their prints are too dark, what that usually means is that their monitor is too bright for photo editing.

[AlanKlein]

5 hours ago, paddler4 said:

I assume "CD" refers to a measure used for brightness, candelas per square meter. That's the cd/m^2 in Alan's post. For general purpose viewing, set it however bright you like. For photo editing, most people recommend fairly dim, say, 80 to 120 cd/m^2, but IMHO, there isn't one ideal level, as it depends in part on the level of ambient light. The key is to set a level that makes your prints look roughly as bright as the screen. When people complain that their prints are too dark, what that usually means is that their monitor is too bright for photo editing.

+1 

I found the same problem with too dark pictures happens when using Blurb to make a photo book.  Fortunately, they allowed me to redo it at no additional charge. 

[AlanKlein]

9 hours ago, russellcbanks said:

Alan, what does "CD" mean when you write, "CD brightness"?

 

BTW, how do you respond to a particular post in this photo.net interface? All I see is a "reply" button for the entire topic at the bottom.

Thanks,
Russell

see Paddlers 4 post.  Adjust the brightness.  That's measured in cd/m2. 

Edited May 28, 2023 by AlanKlein

[digitaldog]

1 minute ago, AlanKlein said:

+1 

I found the same problem with too dark pictures happens when using Blurb to make a photo book.  Fortunately, they allowed me to redo it at no additional charge. 

The book was too dark?

You made the images too dark due to your incorrect display calibration? 

[digitaldog]

16 minutes ago, AlanKlein said:

see Paddlers 4 post.  Adjust the brightness.  That's measured in cd/m2. 

That is a measure of luminance. What you perceive is brightness.

“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter. ‘tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” - Mark Twain 

Edited May 28, 2023 by digitaldog
Add HP explanation.

[doug_dolde]

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