How to Calibrate iMac and iMac Pro Displays

Comments

1. Dave
   May 27, 2018 at 8:12 am

   Is this compatible with Mac OS High Sierra?

   Reply
   • Nasim Mansurov
     May 27, 2018 at 4:23 pm

     Dave, absolutely. I ran it on 10.13.4 yesterday, so it is fully compatible.

     Reply
     • Guy Mangiamele
       June 9, 2019 at 10:54 pm

       Nassim, this was a wonderful article! I have been trying for years to get this done, and along with SilverFast Ai’s excellent calibration tools, nothing has gotten me closer!

       Unfortunately DisplayCal would not accept your correction file (I’m on OS 10.14.5 and the latest version of DisplayCal 3.8.2). The first time I hit Calibrate, it simply reverts to the previous window and does nothing. The second time I try it says it cannot read your file. I’ve downloaded and installed it twice; all of the your settings get pre-populated in the window, but it won’t run. I got fairly close without it, but am wondering if having your correction might even be closer! Ideas?

       Reply
       • Michael F
         June 16, 2019 at 4:15 pm

         I have the same issue. I’m also on 10.14.5. When trying to use Nassim’s iMac-iMacPro.ccss file, the software just won’t run the calibration. You can see the calibration sequence screen pop-up, but it immediately disappears and returns to the DisplayCAL screen.

         Reply
2. Jordan Basem
   May 27, 2018 at 8:33 am

   Very good article.

   I use a Windows cpu with two monitors and Datacolor’s Spyder 3 hardware and the Spyder3 Pro software ver 4.0.2. I can verify you findings that I can not get the two monitors in sync with each other no matter how hard I try.

   I have a few questions for you and hope you can assist.

   1 I see there are two different units at B&H the X-Rite 1 display and the Rite Color Munki Display I am not understanding their difference besides price of these two items.
   2 Do these units support Windows 10 the spec sheets indicate Windows 8 as the latest.
   3 I belong to a camera club in New Jersey where calibrating with the projector seems to never result in satisfactory results. We use a Sony Laptop and Canon Projector. The room has lots of windows so light varies thru the year and weather. Would you recommend one or the other of the two units for that purpose. Or have you found any other magic that could be of assistance.
   Thanks

   Reply
   • Nasim Mansurov
     May 27, 2018 at 4:34 pm

     Jordan, unfortunately, many of us end up in a similar boat because we made the wrong choices in the past. The funny thing is, both of my monitors are exactly the same model and they were bought at the same time and I still couldn’t get them to look the same. Only after moving up to X-Rite i1Display Pro did I realize that my colorimeter was junk!

     1) Get the X-Rite i1Display Pro. That’s the colorimeter you want to invest in. It is compatible with pretty much every software and hardware out there and that’s the industry standard today.
     2) Yes, absolutely. I have used the i1Display Pro to calibrate my PCs before getting a Mac and I still use the same colorimeter to calibrate my Dell monitors. The software works on all Windows versions, including Windows 10.
     3) Calibrating projectors is a real pain and I wouldn’t recommend it, unless the projector you have is a high-end unit that costs thousands of dollars. You can set the i1Display Pro on a tripod, put it close to the projector and measure the colors, but there are a number of issues you have to consider. First, it means that the computer you use to connect to the projector must always be there consistently, since that’s where the calibration profile will be installed. You cannot use the same profile for the display, so you need to make sure that the profile only loads for the output signal. Second, the projector needs to warm up for a while until it outputs at the highest brightness levels. Third, you cannot have varying levels of light in the room – if you do, your calibration is not going to work. And lastly, even with all of these things kept in mind, you still might not be able to achieve optimal results, because projectors are simply not made to be color and contrast-accurate!

     Hope this helps.

     Reply
     • Dave
       May 28, 2018 at 9:24 pm

       The sensor for i1 Display Pro and the Color Munki produce the same color data, but the Color Munki is slower. The packages differ in that the Pro has better software. Since you recommend using DisplayCAL / ArgyllCMS the better software is of no value so all you are paying for is a faster sensor. I have used both the i1 Display Pro and the Color Munki with DisplayCAL / ArgyllCMS with identical results, but the Color Munki is slower. I recommend buying the Color Munki unless you value fast calibrations. I do not. DisplayCAL runs unattended after I get it going. Save yourself some money.

       DisplayCAL / ArgyllCMS is free but if you use it you should send a donation. Take some of the money you save on the sensor and send it to them. The software they are providing is excellent and they deserve financial support.

       Reply
       • wfp
         May 29, 2018 at 12:11 am

         Thanks Dave. I shoot in a developing country (thanks wife!) where people pay a pittance for pro photography compared to my home country, so ordering in something to replace my now aging (read obsolete) and fairly inconsistent Spyder means looking long and hard at $$ difference between the munki and the pro. Your help appreciated.

         Reply
       • ColorConsultant
         May 29, 2018 at 1:05 am

         No hardware calibration support for Munki Display on any manufacturer.
         If you plan to buy a NEC, Eizo… or even Benq or Dell widegamut an i1DisplayPro is a must… and a Munki Display is just a waste of money for that situations.

         At the same time ther are comsumer LUT3D at software level (madVR). Accurate LUT3D needs a huge number of patches. 1500 patches in 40 minutes with an i1DisplayPro is worth the extra money.

         Munki Display is just an accurate but slow solution for those who use typical sRGB IPS displays without hardware calibration, laptops or limited displays like an iMac (but just for those *who do not plan to buy a monitor with HW calibration*).
         On any other scenario Munki Display IS NOT RECOMMENDED because you will need to buy an i1DisplayPro and waste money invested in a Munki Display

         Reply
3. Richard S
   May 27, 2018 at 11:17 am

   The commercial printer I’ve been looking at recommends a white level of 60 cd/m2 to 120 cd/m2, so in their case, 90 cd/m2 might be a good compromise, and 120 cd/m2 might be a little high. I wish they were even more precise, but at least they have some recommendation, and some commercial printers don’t at all. The website buries this recommendation in an obscure page, but you can find it if you’re looking for it. Alternatively, I could use their optional automated brightness and contrast adjustment, but that’s even more likely to result in unpredictable and unacceptable results. If you’re not printing yourself, I think it’s this brightness issue that causes more fretting than anything else. I’ve seen more comments on the web about prints being too dark than being off color.

   Reply
   • Mark W
     May 27, 2018 at 12:01 pm

     Getting into color management for printing on a press gets messy quickly. The media used (newsprint to premium matte catalog stocks), and the LPI used, as well as the number of colors that will printed, all come into play in terms of dot gain, the main challenge one is fighting when dealing with print publishing.

     The challenge with screen luminance recommendations is two fold. The key element is the viewing environment. A screen at 60 or 90 in a properly darkened room without cross light/light contamination is not the same viewing conditions as a person working in an office with overhead light and perhaps even light from a window – that is three sources of light, all impacting your understanding of color on the display.

     For color management to really work, you want to have it from start to finish and be as consistent as possible. In an ideal world, your profile would be accurately profiled, you would be in a light controlled environment (color and luminance of the light is important), AND you would have a output profile (from the press that is based on the media and LPI of the project). This later one is nigh unto impossible to have, so you have to find as close as possible, then aim to work informed. Color correct for best case, then make notes on how the job did. There are so many variables that come into play, that any simple thing can throw a wrench into a given product. Ink brand or vendor change, media change. There are a host of brands of this stuff. What is chosen is usually a function of budget – a person knowing little to nothing about color management will choose a cheaper paper for business reasons and it impacts dot gain. Or, they can choose a cheaper ink, with more contaminants and that can lead to more color gain or darker in a given color (magenta tends to be most prone to this – purer/better inks are more expensive).

     In my experience using an industry standard for the reproduction type (web or sheetfed), the kind of paper, and the line screen (if possible) lead to the best RGB to CMYK conversions. This approach served me well the many years I was involved in publishing as a designer, producing everything from small black and white and color work for newsprint, as well as high end shorter run projects that were done on both web and sheetfed presses.

     The key, though, starts with a screen/viewing environment that will be accurate to the file. If you don’t know what you have, it’s hard to convert that color well for a given output. Generally I would do a basic conversion, then make some levels, curves, and or hue/saturation tweaks so that file would produce the ideal results for that particular project – and given what I was paid, I think customers were pretty satisfied with my process.

     Good luck.

     Reply
   • Nasim Mansurov
     May 27, 2018 at 4:38 pm

     Richard, 120 cd/m2 is recommended for post-processing images, but you are right – it might still be a bit too bright for printing. Personally, I wouldn’t be able to work with a 90 cd/m2 brightness, because it is too dim for my environment. I would have to turn off all the lights in the room, which would put a bit too much strain on my eyes. Printing is a whole different deal though, so I understand that my images might look too dim when printing, which is why I normally brighten them up specifically for printing.

     Mark has some good suggestions in his comment.

     Reply
   • ColorConsultant
     May 28, 2018 at 2:40 am

     Viewing conditions for print & screen match (to a “certain degree”):

     Option 1) ISO P2 practical appraisal conditions (softproof).
     Monitor D50 and about 160cd/m2 or more, viewing booth D50 and more than 500lux, use softproof with simulate paper white in print profile.
     On an idual scenario this leads to:
     Monitor D50 + softproof profile (white point softproof correction may drop brightness) = D50 reflected by paper
     160cd/m2 = near perfect diffuse reflection of 500lux (Lambert cosine law)
     The good part of this approach is to work with several people at several locations and still get a good match across all workplaces.
     It’s expensive and narrow spectral peaks in D50 normalized fluorescent light may lead to other problems, I wish that industry moves to multiphosphor LED (also multi LED for uV content) solutions as soon as they can.

     Option 2) your printer’s lab practical appraisal conditions (softproof).
     Same as above but your printer may have choose a more relaxed viewing conditions to their customers since most of them will lack of a normalized light source (or near blackbody locus 5000K light source -Solux- or near daylight D50 Vrgb LED -Yuji-) or even a viewing booth.
     For example D50, 90cd/m2 for monitor… but it’s your printer’s choice, and you will need more or less the same print viewing conditions as your printer’s reference.
     IMHO they should stick to ISO P2 but this way they “mitigate” most of the customer’s complains about “they are too dark” since most of their customers won’t bother about light enviroment in their print view location.
     To get an actual match with “unknown” viewing conditions in customer’s home or office is not granted.
     My advice: ASK YOUR PRINTER LAB for softproof profiles and print viewing enviroment, then try to meet that print viewing enviroment criteria “the best you can” (monitor’s cd/md * PI less than or equal to lux measured value at paper location with your setup)

     Option 3) your own practical appraisal conditions if you print by yourself
     Same as above but you may (or may not) want to skip paper whitepoint simulation on softproof and just adjust visually monitor whitepoint in a* or b* axes (Eizo/NEC HW calibration or DisplayCAL’s GPU LUT calibration with RGB gain whitepoint tweak on monitor) until it matches your own viewing booth (D50 fluorescent, Solux, Yuji high cri led, Yuji D50 LED,… whatever you have). Keep in mind Labert cosine law, booth light source will need (lux measurement at paper position) at least PI*cd/m2 in monitor. Also beware papers with OBAs, print profiles with OBA measured white (M1/M0) but lightsource without uv content, etc…
     IMHO ISO P2 conditions are a good starting point if you have a “good” viewing booth, even a custom/DIY one. Then you can tweak this starting point until it fit your needs.

     Reply
4. Patty Spinks
   May 27, 2018 at 12:20 pm

   I worked for X-Rite… best company ever for employees. They took care of me during a health crisis and I will never forget them.

   Reply
   • Nasim Mansurov
     May 27, 2018 at 4:40 pm

     That’s great to know Patty, thank you for sharing your personal story. I have no affiliation with X-Rite and it is great to know that we are recommending a company that treats its employees right.

     Reply
5. surya
   May 27, 2018 at 10:57 pm

   Good mornig sir, Iam using Nikon D810 with 24-120 lens, iam suffering to take groups in weddings,both sides of photos exposed not corectly.pls help me.

   Reply
   • Nasim Mansurov
     May 28, 2018 at 3:03 pm

     Surya, please ask your question in an appropriate location (our forum, or perhaps an article that is related). I will not answer your question in an unrelated article.

     Reply
6. Joachim
   May 28, 2018 at 3:47 am

   Hello Nasim,

   I bookmarked your – as usual – highly informative post, thank you very much for your efforts. I also turnt away from Spyder and got me a Color Munki 5 or 6 years ago. Which I was hoping to use for print calibration as well. But although it’s of great use for any monitor – on a Mac I could not switch off the color management for some Canon or Epson office (with “Photo” in the name) printers.

   Here I would need to purchase a real photo printer and then calibrate a small set of papers. I don’t think that will happen any time soon: Limited space for the printer but even more limited number of walls to put the prints on – and frequent printing is the only thing to avoid dry printer heads. I get the idea it would be nice to have some dedicated space for new pictures and store the old ones. Kind of “my picture of this week…” which also could be a motivation to put in more effort.

   Reply
   • Nasim Mansurov
     May 28, 2018 at 3:05 pm

     Joachim, a lot of people don’t end up buying printers for the same reason, including myself. Ink cartridges dry up when not in use, which becomes a burden and too big of a cost to maintain overtime.

     Reply
7. Turtle Cat
   May 28, 2018 at 7:29 am

   Let me preface this with saying I do calibrate and I have a Mac…

   I’ve come to think that the only reason to do calibration is if you’re wanting to be in charge of the end product for your purposes only. That is, it is only beneficial if you’re also calibrating your printer or using a third party’s calibrated printer. It is marginally beneficial for your own purposes on your own display. Outside of that, I don’t think it really helps anything any longer.

   Why do I say that? First, let’s face two facts: the vast majority of devices either can’t be calibrated or won’t be by their users. Second, the display technology changes and that throws things off. An OLED based screen will represent things differently from a IPS LCD which will be different from a TFT. You can calibrate but that doesn’t mean it’ll represent the same look across all devices.

   Reply
   • Mark W
     May 28, 2018 at 7:53 am

     I would tend to agree with what I am hearing in your overall sentiment.

     Color management (CM) for most is a waste of time and money. Unless you are taking good full range images, processing them with wisdom and outputting them yourself, or have a trusted stable source, it is too much of a crap shoot.

     That said, if a person is involved in design or publishing work, then I think there is tremendous value in understanding CM and especially implementing CM to the degree that you can. As a practical matter, most printers won’t have profiles for their presses for the simple reason that there is so much media diversity, it’s not practical. And, also, just as practically, not all pressman run their press to the same standards. So, the best one can do is develop the experience to learn to provide images that give the other party the best chance to give you the results you hope for. Whether that is from your own inkjet printer, a commercial print provider, or publishing on a web or sheetfed press.

     In my experience, few places have the people, nor time, to educate their customers on this stuff. It’s just too much hassle, so they don’t. Customers are looking for good service, not education. That’s reality. Even if the education is intended so that the customer has the best chance of getting what they want.

     This all starts with a monitor that can be accurate to the files and a stable and consistent viewing environment. I’ve worked with very few places that had that. In the end, while it can make a big difference, in the real world, the real benefits are experienced the more closed and controlled the whole system is. Monitors are more stable than they used to be, but if you have a window in the room, then the background light angle, luminance, and color will change throughout the day, and therefore the perception of the display will vary throughout the day, too – no matter how well it was calibrated (if possible, many aren’t) – then profiled.

     Reply
     • Turtle Cat
       May 28, 2018 at 1:01 pm

       I totally agree with you and you understood what I was saying perfectly. There is benefit but it is only to the degree that everything else is controlled similarly. I think there is an assumption that all photographers need to do this or their pics will be bad. In the past, maybe, when monitors were terrible out of the box. While modern monitors may not be aligned perfectly out of the box and change over time, they do a far better job now than in the past.

       Reply
       • Mark W
         May 28, 2018 at 2:49 pm

         Well – I may have overstated my position.

         While I am no longer doing the design and publishing work I once did, I do find it valuable (personally) to have a display that is accurate as possible for evaluating my files. That is only possible with a display that is properly profiled (calibrated first, if possible, but in many instances not). This helps me know what I am submitting for prints and publication. I do neither regularly enough with sources to understand what is happening on the other side, so if it’s an important print, it may take a couple or three attempts to get it right, but that’s mostly an issue of few places providing output profiles that are accurate – AND – I am picky. I work hard to get great captures, so I’m picky about what I want to see in a print. A well profiled display and controlled viewing environment allows me to be confident about what I provide.

         Your preference and mileage may vary. ;-)

         Reply
         • Turtle Cat
           May 28, 2018 at 5:28 pm

           That’s mainly why I calibrate my own stuff. It’s for my own satisfaction. But as an enthusiast I feel I could spare myself the time and expense as may images are largely enjoyed online. I’m offering a counter-point view that has been out there for a long time saying, effectively, that if you aren’t color managed you’re not doing it right — no matter what kind of photographer you are.

           Reply
   • Nasim Mansurov
     May 28, 2018 at 3:18 pm

     Turtle Cat, Mark and others – that’s one bad assumption to make and that’s one of the reasons why most people end up not calibrating their screens! Some think it is only for professionals, which is very wrong.

     The main purpose of having a calibrated screen is not directly related to printing (although it can be) – it is primarily to be able to see more accurate colors. If you are looking at an image that was edited with a calibrated screen and your setup is not calibrated at all, you might have a different perception of an image – reds might appear too red, blues might appear more magenta and the blacks might look “dirty”, especially with a high boost of contrast values on a screen.

     Most people have no idea what it is like to have a consistent viewing experience. What does one do when buying a monitor? They adjust all the buttons and sliders to make the screen look more “natural” for them. There go contrast, brightness, saturation, color profile settings and all kinds of strange junk you will find, especially on consumer-grade monitors. This all ends up creating a bad-looking environment, which the end user has no clue about! Even without any adjustments, just brightness alone can completely ruin image-viewing experience. You know all this of course, but I wrote it for others to read…

     Here at PL, we are photographers. We are not just anyone with an uncalibrated setup. We look at each other’s works, which is more than sufficient to have a calibrated monitor. So it doesn’t matter what an average Joe out there uses. An average Joe shoots with a smartphone and he uses Instagram presets to make his photos better. That’s not us. We use a consistent, calibrated setup, because we know what we are doing. We edit images looking at more realistic colors today, because if we do end up selling our work or become pros one day, we don’t have to go back and redo anything. It doesn’t matter what technology we are using today – TFT / IPS, LCD / LED / OLED or anything else – calibration is necessary no matter what monitor we are using today. Sure things might look slightly different between different devices, but it is not because of you!

     Reply
     • ColorConsultant
       May 28, 2018 at 3:35 pm

       Nasim is right.

       Even cheap TN displays could benefit from the most basic calibration like the only one you can perform in a laptop or an iMac: grey neutrality and gamma.
       Of course there are displays that altough do not have D65 white, their gamma is more or less “sRGB” or 2.2 and their grey is neutral in color to its 255… so they are more or less usable “out of the box” because a “good enough” factory calibration *if they are just have sRGB-like gamut*. This is the way the have been used in consumer display market for a long time.

       For a widegamut display be it limited/crippled like P3 displays (like an iMac) or “true” photography widegamuts (9x% AdobeRGB, 9x% P3) an ICC/ICM profile (a display behaviour description) is a must. Some are generic profiles provided by manufacturer, but an accurate profile will be better by far.In OSX it is more important since its desktop is color managed and that carries some benefits and some drawbacks.
       OPINION: for *me* OSX color management has more drawbacks overcome benefits but just *my opinion* so I want to separate it from above statements

       Reply
       • Turtle Cat
         May 28, 2018 at 5:26 pm

         Of course cheap monitors benefit. All monitors benefit. I basically said that. The problem is that the vast majority of monitors cannot/will not be calibrated. So what is the benefit of calibration to me, as a devil’s advocate, if someone is viewing my images online on their uncalibrated screen and I’m not selling prints or selling images to a corporation using it as part of a bigger project? That’s the thrust of my argument, not whether monitors could benefit from it.

         Reply
         • Nasim Mansurov
           May 28, 2018 at 5:49 pm

           Turtle Cat, but you don’t worry about those who have bad screens or don’t care about calibration! It is you who should be doing it right, for the benefits I highlighted above. Even if you don’t care about any of that, don’t you want to look at accurate colors yourself? Forget about everything, just keep this one objective in mind :)

           Reply
         • ColorConsultant
           May 29, 2018 at 1:08 am

           “So what is the benefit of calibration to me, as a devil’s advocate, if someone is viewing my images online on their uncalibrated screen and I’m not selling prints or selling images to a corporation using it as part of a bigger project?”

           -That you did the work on your side as a producer
           -That you can consume content as it was intened

           Reply
     • Mark W
       May 28, 2018 at 5:08 pm

       With respect, in my experience, the “professionals” are just as likely to have little to no understanding of color management as hobbyists, whether the context is design and print publishing, or photography. I get the benefits of CM. But it, like pixel management, requires understanding and clear education. The later is lacking. Most displays cannot be calibrated, relative to what that term meant in the early days, where the top displays did provide hardware controls for adjusting the display to match a known standard. All displays can be tweaked in software, but it’s not the same as hardware controls. However you get there, the critical element is the profiling – measuring what the device is actually putting out, relative to what was sent. All displays can be evaluated for this. The final piece is correct use of that display profile. Some software, when set up correctly used them correctly, some are more work. The second reality I have witnessed: You can invest in a top tier display, calibrate, then profile it, and use that profile correctly. Without controlling the environmental light, the perceived color is off, especially if it changes due to nearby windows. The rationales for not controlling the light come as quickly as not seeing a need to profile the display. That is the world I have seen, coast to coast, in the US.

       Again, in my experience, most photogs don’t use CM simply because there is little benefit to them (from their perspective). Their friends aren’t using CM on their computers, phones, or tablets, so you can have your images perfect on your system and they are not a match on those other systems. That’s real world. Does it mean I’m down on CM. Absolutely not, but I’ve been around long enough and been hired by enough people over the years, both by those making a living with design and photography, and hobbyists, and few see a need, or benefit, to the cost and investment of time. Is that idealistically as it should be – certainly not. But many “pros” shoot JPEG, too, not RAW. At the end of the day, each person uses tools in the way that SERVES THEIR INTERESTS – regardless of what is “best”.

       And, FWIW, I have used many different colorimeter and software combos over the years. A number of people have expressed negative experiences with the DataColor products. I have used at least three of their elite packages, including the current Spyder5Elite and not had any issues with them. I have used at least three different generations of X-Rite colorimeters and one of their top tier spectrometer at one point. They make good products, too, but sometimes the software is the weak point, in my experience. Your preferences and mileage may vary.

       Reply
       • Nasim Mansurov
         May 28, 2018 at 5:55 pm

         Mark, I can understand that many professionals don’t understand CM to put it to good use. There is definitely lack of education, which is something we are trying to fill here at PL. However, it does not mean that if someone doesn’t do it right, everyone should follow. I don’t color profile my screens for someone else – I do it first and foremost for myself, so that I can see colors that are more accurate and work on my images. When looking at someone else’s work, I want to see what they saw when making their final image. Those two should be enough to motivate everyone to calibrate!

         Lastly, I will let ColorConsultant fill in when it comes to Datacolor vs X-Rite. I believe he has already written about it his previous article, if you want to look into it.

         Reply
         • Mark W
           May 28, 2018 at 7:31 pm

           I think we are on the same page on most of this stuff, though I am touchy about terminology. Most displays cannot be calibrated, so to use “calibrated” and “profiled” as equal, or synonymous is inaccurate. In the early days, and some of the current software instructions make the distinction that was made a couple decades back, with displays one would calibrate (the few monitors that allowed this), then characterize (or profile) the resulting output. I don’t think tweaking internal curves is the same as adjusting hardware controls, but I’m willing to acknowledge I don’t have the understanding of the more current displays and the controls they offer compared to the very few displays that could actually be calibrated. In truth, even then, over time, all displays deteriorate in their output, so that even if a display was beyond physical calibration, in essence making it like most displays at that point, it could still be plenty useable, benefiting from an accurate characterization (profile) of it’s capabilities.

           I have nothing to urge on one brand of hardware/software over the other – just expressing that I’ve used a bunch and while some are weaker on the software/updates, as long as the person using them understands what’s going on, useable results are possible from whatever solution. And I say that as a person who has been using two displays for nearly three decades, mostly in the Mac environment.

           Reply
         • Betty
           May 29, 2018 at 5:19 am

           Nasim and ColorConsultant

           I am so glad you said that.
           Some people either cannot understand or refuse to understand, that having correct colour either for your own use or as a ‘stable starting point’for display elsewhere, has overwhelming benefits.

           Being happy looking at incorrect colours is an odd stance to take, to say the least.
           Publishing these incorrect colours so that they look even more incorrect on the web or in print is unfathomable.

           A really well written and easily understandable article by the way.

           Reply
       • ColorConsultant
         May 30, 2018 at 1:58 am

         “And, FWIW, I have used many different colorimeter and software combos over the years. A number of people have expressed negative experiences with the DataColor products. I have used at least three of their elite packages, including the current Spyder5Elite and not had any issues with them. I have used at least three different generations of X-Rite colorimeters and one of their top tier spectrometer at one point. They make good products, too, but sometimes the software is the weak point, in my experience. Your preferences and mileage may vary.”

         a) Datacolor devices are just a waste of money. They ARE NOT accurate at all. You’re buying an expensive paperweight.
         “Czornyj” user in LuLa posted a comparison between i1d3 and several Spyders (4 y 5) with a widegamut NEC and i1Pro (or i1Pro2, I do not remember) and a high end JETI specboss spectrophotometer.
         i1d3 with proper spectral correction were very acuurate, i1Pro was slighty less accurate (typical drift withing daylight locus to warmer whitepoint because 10nm and xy computations form CIE XYZ)…and Spyders were in the forest.
         The ONLY way to make these Spyder bricks to measure properly is a matrix correction, and you’ll need a spectrophotometer which is not cheap and THAT correction will be valid only for THAT spyder and THAT display because Spyders have very poor inter instrument agrrement (Czornyj & others).
         Even if you overcome those difficulties, i1DisplayPro will be faster and accurate in the very dark range.
         By design (dichroic filters + lens) i1d3 wins hands down, there is no battle. This is not good to consumers (one company rulling all)… but it is FAR worse for consumers to buy the looser device because consumers want their work to be done: one device can do it very accurate, the other cannot even compare results.

         b) “Elite” versions of Spyder the least intelligent buy anyone could make. It’s the same hardware, same speed… just software that it’s not even comparale to DisplayCAL features. Your paying more for nothing.

         c) i1Profiler is not as configurable as it should, you are right here… but who cares?
         i1d3 is a HID device, so OSX, Windows or Linux recognize it just by pluging it in… no drivers are needed. You do not need to put i1DisplayPro or Munki Display CD in your computer… nor download drivers.
         Just use DisplayCAL(+ArgyllCMS) which is:
         -Free software with public source code.
         -Future proof with an i1d3 because of CCSS spectral corrections
         -Highly configurable
         -Upgradable by (reasonable) user’s request to its programmer.

         That’s why Nasim used DisplayCAL for his article

         Reply
     • Turtle Cat
       May 28, 2018 at 5:24 pm

       I certainly understand where you’re coming from. And you did note that I do calibrate my own equipment? However, I have to add that it really depends upon the end usage of the images. For example, I would make the argument that the majority of ILC camera usage ends up either unseen or seen only on the likes of Instagram, Flickr, or Facebook (as an example). So what objective advantage is there to color management when the consumers will have unmanaged devices? Will it be suddenly “closer to correct” or just “another difference in color”?

       Of course if someone is wanting to control everything and controls the output then color management is absolutely needed. But I would argue that for the majority of enthusiasts and certainly some number of professionals (granted they may not be that good as professionals) their only output is screen based. So would calibration afford them something?

       I’m mostly challenging the old accepted notions. It’s great to say all photographers should invest in a color managed environment but when more professional images are consumed on screen than print does it really matter as much unless you’re part of a bigger pipeline or controlling the output?

       Reply
       • Mark W
         May 28, 2018 at 5:44 pm

         I think we are piggy backing on each others comments.

         The main benefit, in my experience, in having a CM strategy that includes routinely profiling my display, is so I can see my images as accurately as my displays are capable. That said, I generally output web images to a smaller, but more common SRGB colorspace, simply because though it limits the gamut of my images, relative to what I would see on my own display, it yields an image that is more likely to be “more correctly” seen on displays outside of my control, whether it’s a computer, tablet, or cell phone screen.

         I agree with Nasim and CC that all displays CAN benefit from decent profiling, but for most, that is a theoretical benefit for the user. You and I have “correctly” seen the light, so we understand the benefits, but that is not the experience of most. And some businesses I worked with aimed to implement CM in their process, but it is one of those things that if all don’t buy in, then it falls apart pretty quickly. And, as others have repeated: ambient light has a direct impact on color perception.

         Reply
8. Thorsten
   May 28, 2018 at 7:42 am

   I too once used the Spyder 4 Elite and had trouble profiling a 27” 5K iMac. Sold the Spyder and got the ColorMunki and now all is fine again. Profiling couldn’t be easier, even got the troublesome Dell U2713H to match my iMac. But just in case anyone still has an issue, X-Rite posted this workaround for their ColorMunki profiling software on Macs. Link here: www.xrite.com/servi…lay_on_mac

   Reply
   • Nasim Mansurov
     May 28, 2018 at 3:20 pm

     Thanks for sharing your experience Thorsten, looks like there are many of us who were not satisfied with Datacolor’s products!

     Reply
9. Sandor Richard
   May 28, 2018 at 8:55 am

   Nasim: would you use the same product on a 15″ MacBook Pro or would you use a different product? Thanks.

   Reply
   • ColorConsultant
     May 28, 2018 at 3:19 pm

     MacBook with near sRGB gamut = i1DisplayPro + DisplayCAL + WLED spectral correction (bundled in Xrite software)
     MacBook with near P3 gamut = same as Nasim’s iMac = i1DisplayPro + DisplayCAL + RGphoshor (bundled in Xrite software) correction (or custom CCSS from another sources)

     If you wish you could use Xrite’s i1Profiler… but DisplayCAL is better by far.
     If you don’t use Xrite software you don’t need to install drivers in OSX, Windows or Linux. Just open your colorimeter box, plug it to a free USB and let OS recognize it, then start DisplayCAL.

     Reply
     • Nasim Mansurov
       May 28, 2018 at 3:22 pm

       Sandor, what ColorConsultant is basically saying, is that the latest generation MacBook Pros calibrate almost exactly like the iMacs, so the process will be more or less the same.

       Reply
       • Alex
         February 16, 2019 at 6:43 am

         Thanks for this really helpful article Nasim and ColorConsultant. I just wanted to double check something. I’m using a mid-2009 MacBook Pro and have just picked up an i1DisplayPro. At the start of the process with DisplayCAL you recommend downloading the color correction profile for iMac and iMac Pro. Would you also recommend that for my old MacBook Pro? I assume not, given the difference in hardware and age, but I just wanted to check that first. Currently the default for me is Auto (None).

         Reply
         • ColorConsultant
           February 19, 2019 at 1:12 am

           -try to find if there is a 2009 CCSS in displaycal colorimeter correction database
           -if not available: try to find if it is CCFL or LED. 2009 should be LED. sRGB CCFL, use CCFL correction, sRGB LED, try to use white led correction (“White LED IPS etc”) like in a normal current office sRGB display

           As a general rule, knowing technology type (LED/CCFL) + measuring RGB primaries coordinates (tools, “uncalibrated screen report” without colorimeter correction) could be use to make an educated guess (or at least reduce the number of candidates) about which specific backlight is used in a display.

           Reply
10. R Thomas Smith
    May 28, 2018 at 11:22 am

    Thanks, Nasim! This is the first walk-through of color management that I’ve been able to actually follow and more importantly, understand why I was selecting the options in the process! I have had the X-rite iDisplay pro and X-rite software for a few years now, but I never seemed to obtain correct profile results two times in a row while using it. Now, I’ve downloaded DisplayCAL and followed the steps in your article, and violà! I’m very happy with the calibration results and now I can better manage my post-processing. Thanks, again!

    Reply
    • Nasim Mansurov
      May 28, 2018 at 3:22 pm

      Thomas, glad you’ve found the howto useful – happy to hear that you now have a calibrated setup.

      Reply
11. Bernard Doughty
    May 28, 2018 at 2:05 pm

    Hi Nasim,
    Could you tell me what an ideal room setup should be in order to get the most out of using a calibrated monitor please? Should it have a window or room lights and if so, what kind are best so as not to contaminate the screen viewing experience?

    Many thanks

    Reply
    • Nasim Mansurov
      May 28, 2018 at 3:25 pm

      Bernard, you can have a calibrated setup in any environment. The most important thing to look out for is sunlight coming through the window and reaching the monitor – you do not want that. Other than that, it is possible to calibrate screens in dim or bright environments – you just want to edit images in as consistent of an environment as possible. For example, if you calibrate your monitor for daylight when it is bright in the room, you should always ideally edit images in similar conditions. If you end up turning off the lights at night and try to work with the same setup, it won’t work, because the screen will be too bright and will require recalibration.

      Hope this makes sense.

      Reply
    • Richard S
      May 28, 2018 at 10:41 pm

      [Disclaimer: I’m not a professional.] Sometimes I edit after dark in a room with only a low wattage tungsten bulb in a lamp on my desk. The room is on the north corner of the house, doesn’t get any sun at all, and the daylight coming in the window is very modest. Invariably, when I check the image the next day during daylight, I decide that I need to increase overall brightness a bit, and less often there is a minor color issue. Then I recheck again in the evening, and usually decide that that daytime brightness adjustment was just fine, and now I have something that works more universally. There’s no scientific methodology to this, but I have noticed that, in general, in putting an image down and returning to it repeatedly to re-edit, in different ambient light situations or different mental moods, etc., I get the image to converge to what I feel is an ideal.

      Also, I learned the hard way that I’m less frequently initially fooled by brightness levels on the screen if I use a grey background to the images rather than a black one, even though I prefer black aesthetically.

      By the way, I bought an X-rite iDisplay pro based on many comments here in Photography Life, and have been very happy ever since.

      Reply
12. Jay G.
    May 28, 2018 at 10:02 pm

    Nasim, can you update your windows calibration article from a couple of years ago. I still use my Dells with the internal LUT controls. What I don’t understand is how DisplayCal and ArgillCMS will come into play on a windows OS and the hardware LUT controls?

    Reply
    • ColorConsultant
      May 29, 2018 at 1:13 am

      DisplayCAL cannot modify internal Dell LUTs… it just load calibration in a 1D-LUT at graphics card in the same way you do with an iMac (like in Nasim article).

      If you wish to modify a monitors internal calibration, you need:
      -Manufacturer software, like the one from Dell (DUCCS), Benq, NEC, Eizo…
      or
      -an SDK for some hardware (NEC, EIzo, Dell, …) and good programming skills and very good knowledge of color management and calibration.

      Since the last one is not accesible for most of you, you are struck with manufacturer software.

      Reply
13. Richard F
    May 29, 2018 at 9:32 am

    Is there a profile for Apple Thunderbolt display? or suggestions on calibration?
    I am using a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013).

    Reply
    • ColorConsultant
      May 30, 2018 at 2:56 am

      Take a look on comment “9.1) ColorConsultant May 28, 2018 at 3:19 pm”

      -sRGB like “Apple Thunderbolt display”, use Xrite’s WLED correction for i1DisplayPro/Munki Display with DisplayCAL
      -P3 like displays, use of of the corrections discussed in that comment.

      Reply
14. Ross Peebles
    May 29, 2018 at 12:39 pm

    I have hit every download button on the DisplayCAL website and nothing downloads on my Apple. Am I missing something?
    On Argyll Color, there are too numerous to mention different things to download. Which one do you suggest?

    Reply
    • ColorConsultant
      May 30, 2018 at 2:10 am

      Choose DisplayCAL DMG (OSX deliverable)
      sourceforge.net/proje…e/3.5.3.0/
      ArgyllCMS 64bit for OSX if you want to decompress it manually in a folder of your choose.
      argyllcms.com/Argyl…64_bin.tgz

      If you choose to decompress ArgyllCMS in a custom folder, when DisplayCAL start it will ask for ArgylCMS’ “bin” folder, I mean it is asking for ArgylLCMS CMS folder and “bin” folder inside it.

      Reply
15. agcphoto canada
    May 29, 2018 at 2:22 pm

    This has been informative. I use Spyder, but only on my iMac and my MacBook Pro. I don’t have dual monitors (yet), so this has been helpful. I do have to say that the colour shifts on my macs is minimal, which is one reason I purchased the macs in the first place. They have shifted some over the years, as they are both over 5 years old, but I have had many compliments on my colour, so I guess I’m getting pretty close. When I need to upgrade my calibration software and hardware, I will definitely take a look at teh x-rite environment.

    Reply
    • ColorConsultant
      May 30, 2018 at 2:51 am

      “I do have to say that the colour shifts on my macs is minimal, which is one reason I purchased the macs in the first place. ”

      This could be true or not, let me explain:

      -It is true if you aim towards “near” D65 white with 2.2 gamma. Typical web publishing (sRGB) or video editing configuration.

      -It is NOT true if you aim to a screen to paper match lit by D50 normalized light or similar variants (Solux 5000K, Yuji LED, Yuji D50…). Typical softproof scenario
      And this last one is the very reason to do not buy an Apple screen. They lack of configuration for custom whitepoint. Every correction should be done in graphics card (that’s DisplayCAL calibration, or the calibration you get from Datacolor/Xrite software) and that correction will be done limiting one or more channels, loosing unique grey levels and that could lead to calibration banding (an other issues) on some hardware (explained on other articles here in PL).

      I’m glad that you’re are happy with your Apple enviroment, but it is important to know its limitations to avoid surprises when you get that displays out of their zone of comfort (D65, 2.2 gamma), so you know which problems will arise and how to test how severe they are for you.

      Reply
16. WGA
    May 29, 2018 at 2:59 pm

    I have an NEC PA272W that is connected to my 28″ iMac 25K. Thanks for the instructions to calibrate the iMac display. I use the i1 Display Pro.
    I continue to use my NEC/Spectraview calibration solution with the NEC display (it was originally used with a Mac Pro).
    Can I assume the NEC calibrations are independent and the NEC LUT does not interfere with the iMac display calibration using your method?
    Thanks.

    Reply
    • Maris
      May 29, 2018 at 8:27 pm

      Apologies for the double post! My original post did not appear until I sent the second one.

      Reply
17. Maris
    May 29, 2018 at 8:25 pm

    I currently use an iMac 5k along with an NEC PA272W.
    I have been using NEC’s SpectraView II software with an i1Display Pro to calibrate the wide gamut NEC monitor ever since I had a Mac Pro. Today my NEC looks great attached to the iMac, however the 5K display is not well calibrated (tried using i1Display Pro’s software with some success).
    SpectraView does not work with Apple monitors so I’d like to know if using DisplayCAL only for the iMac 5K display will have any adverse effect on the PA272. I would rather keep using SpectraView with the NEC monitor and DisplayCAL with the iMac display.
    Any issues with this dual approach?

    Reply
    • ColorConsultant
      May 30, 2018 at 2:35 am

      Just make sure that each display have associated their profile: iMac screen get DisplayCAL’s and NEC get its own made with SV2.
      Adobe suite supports multimonitor with indpendent profiles. I’m not sure about GIMP.

      It s important to know how is working:
      -NEC SV2’s profiles, as any other profiler made for HW calibratable monitors DO actually contain GPU calibration in VCGT tags of ICC/ICM profile. What are the contents of those calibration? Just a linear LUT with input equels output. I mean, just a “no calibration” or translation for RGB levels coming in from Operative System (OS) and RGB values coming out to display
      -DisplayCAL’s profiles carry the same VCGT tag.
      If you choose “calibrate and profile” DisplayCAL will measure and compute three 1D-LUT to make that display behave in whitepoint, gamma and grey neutrality as you want. Because of that these LUT content won’t be a “input=output”, they store an actual calibration.
      If you choose “profile only” (calibration target set to “native”/”as measured”, that means “do not modify display behaviour”) DisplayCAL will make (it will ask you) a profile with “no calibration” (input=output) in VCGT… just like NEC SV2 profile… but it won’t modify monitor internal calibration (and SV2 will do it)

      When OS or third party app (like DisplayCAL LUT loader for Windows) find profiles associated to a display, they will inspect profile content. If they find a VCGT tag (Video card gamma table) they will read it and load it into graphics card hardware. They will load “calibration” (white, grey and gamma only) to graphics card.
      Any modern (>2000s) graphics card should have one different LUT per display ouput.
      So iMac display calibration (VCGT) will be loaded into graphics card LUT feeding “internal display” and NEC VCGT calibration (which does not modify colors) will be loaded into graphics card LUT feeding Displayport or thunderbolt output where you plugged in your NEC.

      I hope that you understand now how it works.
      In the same way you can use this knowledge to detect problems. DisplayCAL folders contains some intentionally wrong calibrations with strong color cast to “force load” to each display and see if that display changes in order to test if LUT loading to graphics card is working. Read DisplayCAL documentation for further info.

      Reply
18. G. Rey
    May 30, 2018 at 9:28 am

    Given that Apple will be moving to only allowing 64 bit applications, I am wondering if 1Display Pro colorimeter software, or DisplayCAL / ArgyllCMS is currently 64 bit.

    Reply
    • ColorConsultant
      May 31, 2018 at 8:49 am

      ArgyllCMS: 32 & 64bit
      DisplayCAL: 64bit

      Reply
19. Dick S
    June 1, 2018 at 9:36 am

    I am having difficulties getting Argyll installed. I have downloaded it and can see it in Finder on my iMac. When I open DisplayCAL it says that Argyll needs to be installed. What is the correct process to install so that when I open DisplayCAL is able to see the installation?
    I apologize for this basic question but am stuck.

    Reply
    • ColorConsultant
      June 2, 2018 at 4:09 am

      I assume that you have ArgyllCMS unzipped in some folder of your Mac. DisplayCAL is asking for “bin” folder inside ArgyllCMS folder. ArgyllCMS executables are located there.

      Reply
      • Dick S
        June 7, 2018 at 4:03 pm

        Got it now! One last and probably obvious question. Once I go through this process, doing the i1Profiler process alone is not needed, am I correct? The process as you describe is a more thorough, complete calibration method? Yes?

        Reply
        • Dick S
          June 7, 2018 at 4:04 pm

          How often do you suggest you complete this process?

          Reply
        • ColorConsultant
          June 8, 2018 at 12:31 am

          If you calibrate and profile with DisplayCAL you don’t need i1Profiler.

          Since you can validate your results… validate them from time to time, when they are not as good as they should be, recalibrate.
          LED monitors are stable, usually there is a small drift in whitepoint, try to validate in a month, if it is OK, validate next month.

          Reply
20. Rene
    June 7, 2018 at 6:38 am

    Hi Nasim, great article. Thanks a lot. Unfortunately, the correction file doesn’t work and the message “The Selected Colorimeter is not suitable for the selected instrument”. Do you by chance have any idea for the reason? Many thanks in advance, Rene

    Reply
21. Kent Rebman
    June 12, 2018 at 3:07 pm

    Aha! I thought something wasn’t right! I have an edited shot from March that a couple of days ago I thought I’d turn into an iPad wallpaper and when I put it on the iPad, the colors were wonky. Pardon me why I pull my Spyder5 Pro out of the closet!

    Reply
    • ColorConsultant
      June 13, 2018 at 1:33 am

      Although Spyders are not accurate, there are other sources of trouble in your situation. For example iPad screen calibration, the display you used for editing your shots or iPad’s “targeted color management”.

      I know that you may have done it, bust just as a general advice to those who read you comment and think that they are in similar situation: first of all you need a reference display with a color managed editor (+tested with DisplayCAL). Once you have this reference display you can appraise how good other “systems” behave but you have to give that other displays some “tolerance” about whitepoint. I say “system” intead of “display” because that system (or app running on that system) color management engine (or the lack of) may influence the way its display shows your image.

      For tablet/mobile devices you can use DisplayCAL’s remote measurement, to check how it performs. It’s similar to calman mobileforge but IMHO much more powerful for profilling BUT (a big handicap) it relies on internet browser app used in tablet. Color management (or the lack of) in tablet’s internet browser app will play a huge role here.

      Reply
22. Philip Norton
    July 18, 2018 at 8:00 pm

    Nasim,
    Frstly thanks for a splendid tutorial. I have a 2012 27″ iMac which I am profiling with a Colormunki Photo for the first time (I have just started some serious printing). Having done a profile with i1Studio I found your article and DisplayCAL which I have run in a couple of modes. The differences between the various profiles are subtle but are there especially from the OSX software profile :-)
    I am running DisplayCal v3.6 which does not have a drop-down in the first screen on your tutorial for loading the correction file. I have looked through the menu options and can only find an option to load a colorimeter correction which I don’t think is what you are talking about. What has changed in v3.6 that this option has been removed?

    Reply
    • ColorConsultant
      July 24, 2018 at 4:52 am

      Colormunki Photo / i1Studio are spectrophotometers (without UV light source, beware using papers with strong OBA content). They do not use spectral corrections. They measure spectral power distributions.
      Unfortunately with 10nm optical resolution you may (will) miss 1st spike in red channel. That may give you a result for white point that can have some color cast. YMMV.

      If you are really serious about this buy an i1DisplayPro (or even a ColorMunki Display if you are not going to buy advanced monitors with HW calibration). Then use Colormunki Photo / i1Studio (3.3nm ArgyllCMS driver if you can use it) with DisplayCAL to build spectral corrections for i1DisplayPro/ColorMunkiDisplay *for each display* you want to measure. Then use i1DisplayPro/ColorMunkiDisplay for display calibration, profiling & validation using those corrections. That way your results will be more accurate.

      Reply
      • ColorConsultant
        July 24, 2018 at 4:58 am

        Sorry, my fault. I missed that you have an old iMac. I was talking about newer P3 gamut displays from Apple.
        I do not remember that iMac 2012 screen capabilities, if it is an sRGB LED 10nm would be enough (although blue max value may be a little wrong). If it is one of these old CCFL widegamuts like U2711 or PA271W spikes in spectral power distribution will look broader and less spiky that they are, so YMMV regarding color cast in white after calibration.

        Reply
23. Nezar
    July 27, 2018 at 3:16 pm

    Thank you for the article.

    I am using a Mac book pro recently purchased and for some reason i am getting an ‘unable to instal’ Notification when I try to install the calibrated profile. I am using i1 Display Pro and Display Cal software.

    Any ideas as to why this is?

    Many thanks.
    Nezar

    Reply
24. werner van steen
    July 28, 2018 at 4:40 am

    Dear Nasim,
    I am following your information and I came to the point where I can download the “Apple iMac and iMac Pro (i1 Pro) File Download.
    I followed your link and the is a file that my iMac cannot open : “iMac-iMacPro.ccss”
    What can I do to open this please ?
    Thanks !

    Reply
    • werner van steen
      July 28, 2018 at 4:51 am

      OK… Got it. I don’t have to click on it

      Reply
25. Ellis Vener
    August 16, 2018 at 5:43 am

    Great article and tutorial!
    I have a calibration and profiling software question: Have you also tried BasICColor 5 Display software and if so how does it compare to your ArgyllCMS + DisplayCAL combination?

    Reply
    • ColorConsultant
      August 18, 2018 at 5:19 am

      Basiccolor will perform a GPU LUT calibration as i1Profiler or DisplayCAL, but it will take LESS grey ramp measurements so if your display (Apple, or whatever manufacturer you choose) has som kind of grey neutrality issues (pink or blue or green tints in gray scale gradient without calibration & color management)… then Basiccolor is not likely to be able to solve this.
      “Slow” or “medium” speed calibration in DisplayCAL would do the job (96 measurements & correction for 256 step grayscale) as long as your graphics card has more than 8bit/entry LUTs and dithered outputs

      Reply
26. Antonio
    August 17, 2018 at 4:00 am

    Hi, I have a late 2014 iMac 27 5K and I would like to know if I can use the file ccss that you have kindly provided…thanks!

    Reply
    • ColorConsultant
      August 18, 2018 at 5:22 am

      P3 display = yes
      sRGB display = no, use WLED from Xrite

      “IDNK if my display is P3 or sRGB. What can I do?” Take R+G raw measurements without spectral correction… or just take a look at native red & green (which is not easy to do because of Apple desktop color management). VERY saturated reds compared to sRGBred => p3 display

      Reply
27. ColorConsultant
    August 18, 2018 at 5:25 am

    P3 display = use that CCSS (or even new Panasonic VVX17P051J00 EDR in i1Profiler 1.8)
    sRGB display = use WLED from i1Profiler

    Reply
28. john
    September 12, 2018 at 9:53 am

    During the Calibration part, with the RBG bars and brightness, you tell how to adjust brightness to match the center indicator for brightness, but you fail to mention how to adjust the monitor on a IMAC to get the RGB bars to align.

    Also the manual says the 3 RGB bars have to align.

    Reply
    • ColorConsultant
      September 13, 2018 at 1:15 am

      You can’t change them… and the iMac is the culprit. It’s like a (big) laptop with the same limitations when you try to calibrate it. Whitepoint correction must be done loosing unique grey levels, lowering one or two chanels maximum output in graphics card LUT.
      This is one of the most obvious reasons to do not use Apple screens for serious work, specially if you want paper white whitepoint (glossyness is another one).

      Note: DisplayCAL does not support DDC/CI so even if Apple make public some kind of SDK to access “factory” LUT asociated with iMac display panel (not graphics card LUT, I mean display LUT like in a external HW calibratable screen) you won’t be able to use it with DisplayCAL.

      Reply
29. Christine Boschen
    September 20, 2018 at 3:07 pm

    Hi Nasim,

    This article is the difference between me being able to do what I need to do, and being totally lost! Thank you, very much. I’m in the final editing stages of an online communication coaching training (series of videos) called “Fight to Better”. It’s for families and couples, and it teaches how to use conflicts as doorways to greater peace and understanding in family relationships. It will be ready in a couple months or so. (I’m well-versed in helping people talk to each other, and new to creating video content.) If you send me an email, I will send you a free access code as my way of saying thank you.

    Is there anything I should know, that is different from your advice above, in regard to calibrating my monitor for video editing in Final Cut Pro X 10?

    Best, Christine B.

    Reply
30. Dick S
    September 22, 2018 at 3:33 pm

    What do you do if when doing the uniformity check, you come up with areas in red? I have 3 in upper right and 2 in lower left. Is there any way to “improve” this measurement?

    Reply
    • ColorConsultant
      September 23, 2018 at 3:47 am

      Nothing. You cannot improve it.

      The only way to improve it is to use the “uniformity compensation” functionality present in some mid-high end monitors.
      In mid tier models (Dell, Benq, Asus, LG…) uniformity compensation may destroy contrast (<700:1), may lock RGB gain controls (render it almost useless for printing, like iMacs or laptops are useless for this task), maybe you cannot use it at the same tome as HW calibration.. or uniformity compensation maybe limited to brightness compensation keeping pink-green color tints as they were.
      In high end like NEC or Eizo these limitations do not happen with the possible exception of low contrast.

      So if you are actually worried about uniformity don't buy a Mac (or a dell or a Benq or a ….etc) and get a 27" QHD high end model for 1000 euro/us dollar.

      Reply
      • Richard Salmon
        September 23, 2018 at 10:04 am

        Thanks very much for response!

        Reply
31. Aboulfad
    October 23, 2018 at 4:10 am

    Awesome tutorial, thank you!
    I have a question regarding ambient lighting (through a window) or lights and the impact on calibrating. Should one have two different profiles, one for daylight and another using overhead lights?

    Reply
    • ColorConsultant
      October 23, 2018 at 7:03 am

      Unless you know what you are doing… do NOT use ambient light compensation since it does NOT work as most pople think it works (and this is even more troublesome in half baked color management enviroments like OSX).
      You’ll find more datailed information in DisplayCAL documentation, a fast explanation: if yourely on ambien light compensation to “deform” target gamma to another one that looks closer to that gama for your eyes under your ambien light… at the end this calibration will be profilled and stored in profile’s TRC. That means that color managed apps will “undo” ambient light compensation.. you you are going to loose unique grey levels without practical pupose,

      Instead of relying in ambient light compensation:
      -use a more stable ambient ligt enviroment
      -do not use direct light against screen
      -do not use glossy screens (do not use Macs at all)

      Reply
      • Aboulfad
        October 23, 2018 at 7:42 am

        Thank you, yes I do use an iMac 27″ (2013), I will try to re-phrase my question.

        Example, I calibrated in the morning with daylight shining through office window. So now I have a calibrated monitor.
        Let’s say then I am editing photos at night, does those changing ambient lighting factors (daylight vs office light) affect anything ? calibration, color perception,…

        PS: The correction profile for Macs depend on the year, please see www.xrite.com/servi…ology_type
        Before 2009 – CCFL
        2009 – Mid 2015 – White LED
        Retina 4K, 21.5″ and 5K, 27″ iMacs (Late 2015 and after) – GB-LED (RG Phosphor)

        Reply
        • ColorConsultant
          October 24, 2018 at 1:10 am

          As I said before, ambient light correction does not work as you may think. You can play with WP & white luminnace vlaues, but all the changes you do to (all the corrections applied to) target gamma will be undone with color managed apps… unless you lie to them. I mean unless you build a fake profile which stores what display should be/behave instead of what display behaves once calibrated with ambient light correction.
          Ambient light correction is more useful in non color managed enviroments like video, or in color managed enviroments (video) where you can modify with a LUT3D such things.

          Read DisplayCAL documentation if you need further explanation.
          Get a more stable ambient light enviroment rather than use ambient light compensation.

          PS. There is a new correction for multimedia P3 displays in i1Profiler. It’s a LED PFS phosphor backlight spectral sample suitable for those 9x% P3 gaming displays out there, iMac displays and all those new LED backlights close to them with high P3 coverage but very limited AdobeRGB coverage. It’s called Panasonic VXX[numbers…]. All of them are more or less the same, with the almost the same spectral signature.
          Community users have also uploaded 3nm sampes for P3 Mac. They are located in DisplayCAL colorimeter correction database.
          Plot them ( SPD value vs nanometer wavelength) and you’ll see.

          Reply
32. Mike Goldwater
    November 21, 2018 at 3:03 pm

    Hi Nasim, this looks like a really good and thorough tutorial. However, I’ve just bought an iMac Pro and when I downloaded the iMac-iMacPro.ccssfile to add this correction to DisplayCAL I got the error message “The selected colorimeter correction is not suitable for the selected instrument.” Any suggestions? I did proceed with the calibration without this correction and now have a display profile for the iMacPro which I’m now using, which is slightly different to the factory iMac profile. In my setup with this iMac Pro I also have an Eizo CG222W connected as a second display. (This Eizo, which is a few years old, was my primary screen with my old Mac Pro 4.1). Today I also calibrated the CG222W using Colour navigator 6. After doing both calibrations the colour on the iMac Pro and the Eizo screen are significantly different. After matching screen brightness of the iMac Pro screen to that of the Eizo what I have is an iMac pro that appears to have a red tint and an Eizo that appears to have a green tint. I was hoping to achieve a pair of closely matched colour calibrated screens. Do you have any suggestions? I’m a photographer and film-maker so I’m keen to get this right.

    Reply
    • ColorConsultant
      November 22, 2018 at 2:33 am

      -Report CCSS issue to DisplayCAL. Florian may ask you for log files or some other information to reproduce the issue.
      Also keep in mind that you need a colorimeter suitable for CCSS corrections… they won’t for a Spyder3 or i1Display2
      -While you get this fixed and if you trust CG222W calibration as “reference”, you can use DisplayCAL’s visual whitepoint editor and try to get a visual match for white & brightness. Read this feature in DisplayCAL documentation

      Reply
      • mike Goldwater
        November 22, 2018 at 5:49 am

        Hi Nasim, Thanks for your swift response. I’ll report the issue and try the whitepoint editor.

        Reply
        • ColorConsultant
          November 22, 2018 at 11:03 am

          I’m not Nasim XD

          Reply
33. john santerineross
    January 9, 2019 at 9:19 am

    hi
    i enjoyed reading your article on color monitor calibration for imac, my question to you is that i have a i mac 27 inch late 2012 running Mohave 10.14.1.
    can i follow your directions step by step with this late 2012 imac. my concern is that i have read i should use “white led” according to xrite not rg phosfor for a non retina display , can you shed some light on this for me , thank you so much
    John

    Reply
34. Steve
    January 10, 2019 at 2:12 pm

    Hello, not sure if anyone is still replying to this thread but I have a question if you are. I have a mid 2017 27″ iMac and I’m using an Xrite Colormunki Display for calibration. First off should I delete the Xrite software from the computer. Will the i1pro correction file download that you have provided in this article work for the Colormunki Display as well. I have tried your profile plus one on the DisplayCal website where they had a profile for the 2017 27″ iMac and colormunki display (which I’m guessing was a user defined profile that was uploaded to the site). There seems to be a slight difference between the look of the 2 different profiles. I also seen that it is possible to use Xrite’s correction profiles for that device that came with the software but I’m not sure where to find it. Any help would be appreciated.
    Thanks in advance

    Reply
    • ColorConsultant
      January 14, 2019 at 1:37 am

      -CCSS are valid for all i1d3: i1displaypro, munki display, HP one, NEC one, Wacom…
      -There are some user made samples of P3 backlights in Displaycal correction database, pick one, but I would avoid 10nm ones for P3 displays
      -xrite bundled in latest i1Profiler a correction for near full P3 displays. It’s called Panasonic VX, you can read comments above yours.

      Reply
      • Steve L
        January 14, 2019 at 12:31 pm

        Hello Consultant, and thank you so very much for the reply. So it sounds like the profile that was made for download is a ccss profile and will work with ColorMunki Display?

        Reply
35. Sandra
    January 22, 2019 at 6:19 pm

    I am a newbie to Mac as well as calibration. I see an actual calibrator that goes on the front screen which has not been mentioned. Is that something separate from this tutorial? Or do I purchase that to use with this process?

    Reply
    • Nasim Mansurov
      January 23, 2019 at 11:22 am

      Sandra, of course, you need an actual device to do calibration. You cannot calibrate your screen without it – any software calibration is going to be very inaccurate and it might make things drastically worse than they already are. Please see the Colorimeter section of this article.

      Reply
36. Rick
    January 27, 2019 at 10:05 am

    HI Nasim,

    I am new to monitor calibration and I bought the X-Rite i1 Display Pro and followed your instructions exactly as you have written here (although the software is now at version 3.5.7 and looks a little different in some screen views. I do have a question though:

    I see that you set the white point at 120 and do not check the option to measure ambient light. Can you tell me why this is so? I tried the first time to check the option and measure ambient and the calibration was a disaster upon verification and I went back and did it without and it came out fine.

    Can you set me straight on this feature and whether I should be using it and if so, how to properly do it?

    Thanks!

    Reply
37. Eric Gordon
    January 28, 2019 at 9:44 am

    Hi Nasim
    Thank you for this!
    I have new iMac-Pro and using XRite iDisplay, I downloaded DisplayCal 3.7.1.4 and ARG 2.0.1 and the GUI seems to have some different settings and menus than the ones in your article.
    Any chance for some updated screen grabs?
    Best

    Eric Gordon

    Reply
38. Eric Gordon
    January 28, 2019 at 10:59 am

    Also, I find 120cd/m to be quite dim, (even compared to EIZO CG for press proofing). Any reason I shouldn’t calibrate my iMac Pro to 200cd/m which appears a better match?

    e

    Reply
    • ColorConsultant
      January 29, 2019 at 3:40 am

      Set the brightness level that is suitable for your ambient light. 120 is just a common value for a dim room.
      If you need more, use it. For example ISO conditions for practical appraisal (P2) is D50 white and 160cd/m2, under typical ambient light conditions described by this norm.

      Also keep in mind that due to the lack of functionality of iMac or laptop screens white point is corrected at GPU level droping resulting brightness.
      If you start with a typical cold bluish white ~7000K or higher and you whish to use “5800K daylight” as calibrated white overall brightness after calibration will drop, contrast will drop (not usually a problem for softproof purposes) and available unique grey levels will drop (but since newer iMac have AMD Radeon GPUs high bitdepth LUTs and dithering should mitigate the impact of this issue).
      Anyway… imacs or macbooks or other laptops (unless they have some kind of HW cal) are not very suitable for this task due to these limitations and glossy screens.

      ———–

      Make a guess about how much will drop (under 10% for D65 white maybe, more for softproof warm whites).
      Then set YOUR desired white level + drop estimation as starting brightness.
      You can try to tweak iMac brightness level after calibration untill it matches your Eizo. Then run a profile verification on iMac in order to test if white point did not drift because that change. It should nit vary too much, but since you can measure there is no excuse.

      Reply
39. Clint Mitchell
    February 13, 2019 at 2:20 am

    Hi, thank you for this article.

    When I follow the instructions above I get a much more limited number of options available to me in the “Display & Instrument” and “Calibration” tabs than are visible in your screenshots above.

    I have a 27 inch iMac Retina Display (late 2014) and an x-rite Colormunki Display.

    Do you know of a reason why my options are limited?

    Thanks!

    Reply
    • Clint Mitchell
      February 13, 2019 at 2:47 am

      Ah, I didn’t have the advanced settings option checked. :)

      Reply
40. Eric Gordon
    April 9, 2019 at 10:50 am

    Hi
    OK, so this is becoming a serious issue as we have upgraded many computers in our shop to iMacPro’s with EIZO CG277’s next to them as reference monitors.
    I need to know a way to let the EIZO calibrate itself using its built-in colorimeter and Color Navigator software, and then use the i1-DisplayPro to “fingerprint” the EIZO and use it as a target to profile the iMacs.
    The iMacs when calibrated using the system this article describes are much better than uncalibrated, for sure, but are still way off the mark from the reference standard EIZO’s (they seem to be too bright, too contrasty and too warm. We have tried turning down their brightness significantly and that helps, but still wondering there must be a way to take a reading off “Monitor-A” then build a profile for “Monitor-B” to match it closer? Is there not?

    Any help here will be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

    Eric

    Reply
41. Eve Madeley-Wyatt
    April 14, 2019 at 7:29 am

    Hi, thanks so much for the instructions, I think I did it right! My report results are below – are they OK or is there anything further I need to do?

    Criteria Nominal Recommended # Actual Result
    Measured vs. assumed target whitepoint ΔE*00 <= 2 <= 1 0.1 OK ✔✔
    Measured vs. display profile whitepoint ΔE*00 <= 1 1.09
    Average ΔE*00 <= 1.5 <= 1 0.53 OK ✔✔
    Maximum ΔE*00 <= 4 <= 3 075 1.27 OK ✔✔

    Reply
42. Florian Höch
    April 29, 2019 at 2:54 am

    Warning: The CCSS file “iMac-iMacPro.ccss” in its current form (2019-04-29) is faulty and cannot be used. Whoever created it must have edited it manually, it contains invalid characters (“typography” quotes). Use “LCD PFS Phosphor WLED IPS, 99% P3 (MacBook Pro Retina 2016)” (MacBookProRetina2016.ccss) instead, which is automatically installed with DisplayCAL 3.8 or can be imported in DisplayCAL via menu “Tools” -> “Correction” -> “Import from other software” -> tick i1Profiler -> click “Auto”.

    Reply
    • ColorConsultant
      May 1, 2019 at 5:24 am

      Florian is right:
      Line 5, 1st one
      Line 13, both

      BTW, new CCSS package for DisplayCAL looks great. Now DisplayCAL has full suport out of the box for AdobeRGB WLED PFS screens and P3 Macbooks and WOLEDs.
      Congratulations for this work

      Reply
43. Ian Scicluna
    May 4, 2019 at 5:30 pm

    Hi Florian, I have just calibrated my late 2015 iMac 5K, but as you said, the recommended CCSS file “iMac-iMacPro” is broken and crashed
    the program. Instead I used “LCD White LED IPS (Apple Retina iMac 5K (i1Pro HighRes)) ” as this seemed to be the correct one for my iMac. Can you confirm that I did the right thing please? Should we wait for the recommended file to be re-published, or is there a better one I could have used. Thanks in advance! Ian

    Reply
    • Maris Avots
      June 9, 2019 at 2:01 pm

      Ian-where can one find that “LCD White LED IPS (Apple Retina iMac 5K (i1Pro HighRes)) ” file??? Thanks, Maris

      Reply
44. Maris Avots
    June 8, 2019 at 9:34 pm

    I was wondering why DisplayCAL was crashing on me. I used it successfully in February but no luck now. (Using i1Display puck)
    First it just plain froze. I think that was caused by the iMac-Imacpro.ccss file being broken. (when will this be fixed btw?)
    Then I tried with the suggested MacbookProretina2016.ccss file. DisplayCAL seemed to work-at least the screen went to black but then the white box was just not changing after at least 5 or more minutes. What’s up with that??
    Also, Ian mentioned another .ccss file i1ProHigh Res, but that does not show up in the corrections options pull down. Where can we get that .ccss file??

    This all worked great a few months ago but now not so much. DisplayCAL updated itself and I had to download and install the Argyll files as the updated DisplayCAL did not see them.

    Thanks for any help. Very confused! Maris

    Reply
45. Maris Avots
    June 8, 2019 at 10:46 pm

    Also, I followed these steps for brightness with no luck:

    “Go ahead and click the “Start measurement” button, then wait until the software starts beeping – this means that the colorimeter is actively measuring the brightness of the screen. While it is beeping, go ahead and open up System Preferences -> Displays, then after you uncheck “Automatically adjust brightness” option, start moving the “Brightness” slider: ”

    First, there was no beeping once I started the measurement, I checked the volume output to the internal speakers. Then I tried to press the start measurement box with in the Interactive Display Adjustment but it was kind of greyed out and pushing the button did nothing.
    Second, I pushed the brightness slider in Display prefs back and forth and there was never a green check mark. I only had about 2-3 seconds to do this before the box closed. In fact, doing this part four or five times, I never even saw any of the RGB or whiteness bars at all. They were all empty. I think this wall all due to being unable to press the start measurement box.

    Giving up for now. Would appreciate some help. Like I said in the last post, this all worked perfectly with the previous version of DisplayCAL back in February.

    Thanks, Maris

    Reply
    • ColorConsultant
      June 10, 2019 at 1:04 am

      a ) Test if ArgyllCMS is working properly. Command line work. You can see command line orders in DisplayCAL log window. Try a uncalibrated/calibrated display report (under Tools menu)

      b ) Go back to a previous working version (for your system):
      sourceforge.net/proje…s/release/
      BTW, new version, 3.8.2

      Reply