Concretely: grey rendering
Unless you are an expert in monitors (and even then) it is difficult to imagine what these differences can represent. What is the most bothersome, however, is when we can see color dominances on the screen. These can affect all colors and are particularly noticeable in grays where the eye can quickly see when the image is stronger in blues or reds.
Here are the screen’s grays and reproduced as measured by our sensor. For comparison on the bottom line are the ideal grays.
TN 3 ms : Iiyama Prolite B2403WS
PVA 6 ms : Samsung SyncMaster 245T
PVA 6 ms : Acer AL2416W
PVA 6 ms : Dell 2407WFP rev.4
MVA 8 ms : LG L245WP-BN
TN 5 ms : Samsung SyncMaster 245B
MVA 8 ms : ViewSonic VX2435wmIf the screen you are currently using is calibrated or not, you should be able to see the differences between the two lines.
To answer a reoccurring question: to calibrate a screen, is it always necessary to use a
calibration probe. Modifying parameters in the OSD is a simple adjustment and often not enough, because differences vary from one color to the next. If we have too much blue in lighter shades, we can have too much red in darker ones, or vice versa. So, when we decrease the amount of red this affects all colors, whether they have too much or not. We are only changing color balances and putting dominances somewhere else. On the other hand, hardware calibration rewrites the entire color table that is used by the graphic card. It’s better but is more expensive. A good probe will cost 300 Euros and for this reason, we largely prefer when screens are factory pre-calibrated.
Gamut : all in sRGB, except the 245T
The 245T undeniably goes further than others and for this reason parts of its rendering surprised us at first. The graph gives us an idea of this result, but doesn’t really tell us the specific characteristics. In particular, it doesn’t show us the differences in the reds and minimizes the improvement in blues. In short, it’s a good reference but not ideal.
Note that the gamut doesn’t change after calibration. The sensor makes corrections but without reducing the color space, an appreciable point. Still, if your colorimeter is a little old, request an update from the manufacturer. Older software suites don’t necessarily manage the wide gamut, which could mean a reduction in the color space to sRGB after calibration.
