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Preston Lee

Founder, CEO, OpenRain.com

About

During the day I run OpenRain in Phoenix: a Ruby on Rails development shop. During the night... well... I still have to run OpenRain, but when I find time to breath, I exhale here. If you'd like to get in touch professionally, don't hesitate to contact me via the OpenRain website.

Peace,

Preston

Color Profiles

About

Using a color profile customized for your display allows the operating system to account for idiosyncrasies in your particular monitor, thereby producing far more accurate colors than most “stock” display profiles. Note several things before installing these profiles..

  1. Displays with RGB and other controls require manual adjustments as noted. These are manually calculated by empirical colorimeter testing and necessary for maximum color performance.
  2. My displays are not 100% identical to yours. These look fabulous on my equipment, but there is no way to account for variations in the manufacturing processes of identical models without physically testing your equipment. IOW, it’s entirely possible that these will look worse that the profile you’re currently using. YMMV!!!

I will update this page with the color profiles OpenRain uses for internal web development as we recalibrate our equipment.

Technical Notes

These .icc files were created on Mac OS X using a Spyder2PRO hardware colorimeter and ColorVision software. Factory default monitor settings should be used unless explicitly noted by the profile. Target parameters are as follows..

  • 2.2 gamma. Also know as “Mac” gamma since Apple products render by default at this setting. Some monitors have a setting for “PC or “Mac” gamma which you should leave at the factory default. For example, the Dell 2407WFPHC should be left at the “PC” setting even though you’re using a Mac!
  • 6500K white point.
  • Fluorescent lighting. These are the common overhead tube lights used by most indoor offices. All incandescent lights were turned off during the calibration process and as little natural light was let in as plausible. The profiles are recommended for indoor office use.

OS X

All my previous Mac laptop LCD profiles have come with a very strong blue cast. Trying to “eyeball” your way through color calibration using the built-in wizard isn’t great, either. (No offense to Apple on this though, as they’re trying to provide a tool which really needs a hardware component you don’t have.) Put the corresponding file for your hardware into your /Library/ColorSync/Profiles folder and then select it for the appropriate display in System Preferences, like so..

Download

Right-click and “Save As..” the appropriate file(s)..

 

Stupid Legal Crap

I can’t fathom how using these might damage your gear, but nevertheless, these files come “as-is” and without any guarantee or warrantee. In other words, if you lose that big client due to color profile issues, it’s your own damn fault!

 

 

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Reader's Comments

  1. Cheryl | June 29th, 2008 at 9:02 am

    Saw your link via the RefocusPhoenix email list. Apple itself recommends going with a 2.2 gamma and D65 white point if you design web graphics (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2026?viewlocale=en_US). Trying that removed the blue color cast but made my grays look a bit muddy/brown. I tried your MacBook Pro 2.4GHz LCD profile and for my machine it does remove the blue cast but preserves black & gray, so I think I’ll roll with it for awhile. Thanks!

  2. preston.lee | June 29th, 2008 at 2:34 pm

    @Cheryl

    You bring up a good point which I will update on this page. All these profiles target a 2.2 gamma and D65 white under florescent lighting.

  3. Steven Haddox | June 29th, 2008 at 4:25 pm

    I have been going on a calibration rage myself lately but haven’t busted out the cash to get some hardware for it. This definitely modified my eyeball approach on my MacBook Pro and it’s probably more accurate (I have a _horrible_ I for colors). Thanks for the color profile, I think it’s helped quite a bit.

  4. Chuck Reynolds | June 29th, 2008 at 7:32 pm

    eh… blog errored on initial comment so this one will be short. Thanks for the color profile - I think my macbook looks way better now!

  5. preston.lee | June 29th, 2008 at 7:38 pm

    @Chuck Reynolds

    No problem :)

  6. Sherwin Techico | July 9th, 2008 at 10:42 am

    Trying out “MacBook Pro 2GHz (Spyder2Pro).icc”. Thanks. Might want to also note the LCD make (CCFL vs LED). I’m pressuming the one I took is for CCFL =)

  7. preston.lee | July 9th, 2008 at 10:54 am

    No clue.. Do let me know though :)

  8. Sherwin Techico | July 9th, 2008 at 11:15 am

    Oh it should be if its “old”. The 2.4GHz ones are LED I’m presuming since I have a 2.33GHz MBPro which was supposedly 2nd-gen/v2, before the LED-based ones. HTH

  9. superreggie | July 17th, 2008 at 3:22 pm

    I have the dreaded Dell E248WFP, and I used your icc file, and, well, it still looked like crap, until I was in the menu (the monitor interface) where you adjust the rgb, and I notices an “srgb” setting. I clicked that and presto! Looks much, much better. Maybe I’m supposed to know that or something, but when you do a factory reset it doesn’t turn this on. Wierd.



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