QuickGamma
At first we thought we would prefer this method to the Ntest. It is designed for LCDs and not for CRTs. There are clear indications, we are guided step by step for brightness, contrast and color component adjustments. This sounded a little more serious.
However, nothing was too clear. You have to click on “help” to see recommendations that appear.
The first is to choose in the OSD a color temperature of 6500K (this is generally the case) and then push the contrast to the maximum. After this you don’t touch it in the proceeding steps. You adjust the brightness by changing the intensity in order for the B bar on the right be clearly visible. The A must only be visible until 2.2.
The last step explains the name of this software, gamma adjustment. This part isn´t simple. According to the software, you have to adjust the gamma by using the control buttons. This involves the playing with the area of the gamma pattern where the inside and outside vertical stripe seems to have the same gray level increases or decreases according to the real gamma. You have to change the gamma for the center of this area to be 2.2 on the gamma scale.
This is VERY delicate and not easy at all to adjust. However, it’s possible to choose another solution by selecting gamma adjustment per color and an individual adjustment per channel.
Still according to the software, the procedure is the same for adjust the gamma for one colour as the one previously described above. The only difference is that the area to obtain is the same as the corresponding colour that appear to be homogeneous. Visually adjusting the gamma for each color is more difficult than adjusting the gamma for gray levels.
We feel that it was much easier top adjust one channel after another than all grays at the same time. Maybe it was because of the initial imbalance per channels on this monitor?
In the end, just with our eyes we found the results somewhat convincing. Colors were too vivid and the monitor seemed too bright. Either way, we studiously followed the procedure. We started our measuring tool and it resulted in:
This is less good than in the beginning. The average deltaE used to be around 5 now it is at 6.6! This is the proof (if it was needed) that it’s possible to reduce display quality. It’s actually easier to do than the contrary.
The idea for this software was initially not so bad but it took a wrong turn. The advice to push the contrast to the maximum from the start didn´t seem a good choice. This would be meaningful if the consequences of contrast adjustments were the same for all manufacturers. We know for a fact that it isn´t the case. Brightness, contrast, gamma, and backlighting is often a surprise package and everything is adjusted when we only think the contrast is affected.
QuickGamma does deserve to be tried. It’s however best not to follow every procedure and also use a grey test pattern to have neutral and darker more correct grays.
