Monitor Calibration - What about laptop screen ?

Hi everybody,

I've noticed a big difference in darkness between my pictures on the screen and the same ones once printed.

I know that a computer monitor should be color calibrated but so should a liquid crystals laptop screen (I'm indeed working at the moment on a laptop) ?

In other words, are the existing calibration tools designed for laptop screens ?

If not, maybe plugging my laptop on the TV screen would be solution ?

Is anyone any wiser than me on that topic ?

Many thanks and enjoy your diving !!!

You can calibrate your laptop screen with the HW discussed in other recent threads.

Calibrated monitor vs. Print done on a calibrated printer.

Main problems:

-the monitor is projecting light at you

-the print is _reflecting_ light at you (the question becomes what light source is illuminating your print? full spectrum 5000K is probably what's expected for correct viewing)

-also, screen gamut (range of color) and printer gamut overlap; but, it's not a 100% overlap. You're generally lucky if you get 85% (and pay lots of $$$ if you want higher color gamut for either monitor or screen)

Although you cannot expect the same precision from a laptop monitor as you can from a good desktop monitor, it is still absolutely critical that you calibrate your laptop, otherwise you have very little chance of getting consistent print results. Color management can be a very complicated and frustrating topic. I strongly recommend you pick up a text like Color Management in Digital Photography by Brad Hinkel, if you are really serious about getting consistent results.

Hi everybody,

 

I've noticed a big difference in darkness between my pictures on the screen and the same ones once printed.

 

I know that a computer monitor should be color calibrated but so should a liquid crystals laptop screen (I'm indeed working at the moment on a laptop) ?

 

In other words, are the existing calibration tools designed for laptop screens ?

 

If not, maybe plugging my laptop on the TV screen would be solution ?

 

Is anyone any wiser than me on that topic ?

 

Many thanks and enjoy your diving !!!

I calibrate all our monitors (two pc's, three laptops) with the spyder calibration unit and it does make a difference. Some tools will also calibrate the printer as well.

Second the recommendation about using Spyder to calibrate both lap top and notebook monitors. Easy to use, and the before and after differences are pretty dramatic.

Second the recommendation about using Spyder to calibrate both lap top and notebook monitors. Easy to use, and the before and after differences are pretty dramatic.

Cheers for that !

I'm already onto Google to find that.

Isabelle