10 tft lcd color monitor free sample
If you already know how to use these images.For viewing the images off-line (120 kB ZIP).All images, but with the color profiles stripped, in case you
Over time, the image quality on your computer monitor can start to look a little lackluster or even too bright. Before you consider upgrading your entire system or getting a new monitor, there might be a much simpler, quicker, and economical solution — calibrate your monitor.
You could take your monitor to a professional to have it done, but doing it yourself is relatively quick and hassle-free and will greatly improve image quality. Manufacturers keep pumping out displays with new technologies like 4K UHD resolution, high dynamic range (HDR), and curved monitors, providing a veritable feast for the eyes — but only if they are properly calibrated.
Step 3: Make sure you’re calibrating in a room with moderate ambient lighting. The room doesn’t need to be pitch black, but you don’t want the sharp glares and color casts resulting from direct light.
Step 4: Familiarize yourself with your monitor’s display controls. They may be located on the monitor itself, on the keyboard, or within the operating system control panel.
Both MacOS and Windows have built-in calibration tools to help guide you step-by-step through the process, which is particularly helpful if you are new to monitor calibration. These free tools should be the first stop if you’re merely a casual image junkie or working on a tight budget. Keep in mind that the adjustments will be limited by the display type and model, though.
The assorted terms — gamma, white point, etc. — may seem a bit daunting at first glance, but each utility provides a relatively simple explanation of what they all mean. Realistically, you don’t need to know the ins and outs of the jargon to calibrate your monitor.
In older versions of Windows, you can find the Color Calibration utility in the Display section of the Control Panel, which is listed under Appearance and Personalization.
Step 2: Now that you are in the calibration tool, follow the on-screen instructions to choose your display’s gamma, brightness, contrast, and color balance settings.
Step 3: Once the calibration wizard is complete, make sure to choose the Current calibration, or return to the previous calibration if you are unsatisfied with the results. The new calibration will be stored as an .ics file, or color calibration file, and will show up as a new International Color Consortium (ICC) Profile in the Color Management settings app.
Step 4: The easiest way to open this app is to type "color management" in the search box and choose the first result. Once it’s open, you can select your monitor from the device list and see which ICC Profiles are available.
Step 1: In MacOS, the Display Calibrator Assistant is located in the system preferences under the Displays tab, in the Color section. If you are having trouble finding it, try entering calibrate in Spotlight to scan through your computer’s various folders and files. The results should show an option to open the utility in the System Preferences panel.
Color adjustments: White point is a given, but Apple will try to detect your display and offer a number of other color calibrations at this point … or it may skip the rest of the adjustment options entirely. Native Apple displays may be more likely to have fewer color calibrations at this point (because Apple already calibrated them).
Step 3: This will create a new color profile for your display. If you couldn’t make the adjustments that you wanted to, then select this new profile and choose Open Profile. This will open a new window with all the tags associated with the color profile and their descriptions.
Step 4: You can choose each tag to see more information about them. Some tags will just be basic color data, but other tags can be altered to change specific color factors for the display.
Step 5: If you have a native display, look for the Apple display native information tag as a good place to start. As you can see, this can quickly become technical, so you will need to know your color data (phosphor values, response curves, etc.) to make accurate changes with this method.
There are a handful of web-based calibration tools that help you manually adjust your monitor settings. They can provide more precise, or more customized, calibration than the built-in utilities.
W4zt Screen Color Test: This simple webpage provides you with several color gradients and grayscale color boxes you can use for quick comparisons, along with an easy gamma test you can run. It’s nice to have so many tests on one page, making this solution great for fast and dirty calibration so you can move on.
The Lagom LCD Monitor Test Pages: Handy for both online and offline use, the Lagom LCD Monitor Test Pages not only allow you to adjust various things such as contrast and response time, but also allow you to download the images as a 120KB zip file, so you can check any monitor in-store that you are thinking about purchasing.
Calibrize 2.0: If you want a great tool that goes a little more in-depth than native calibration options, we suggest downloading Calibrize 2.0. It’s an excellent free wizard that carefully walks you through well-explained steps to help you calibrate color, grayscale, gamma, and similar settings on your computer.
While they’re better than a more temporary solution, built-in calibration utilities still have one major flaw: You. Since they rely on your specific color perception, what looks great to you might look thoroughly off to a friend.
The best way to avoid this problem and ensure that you calibrate your monitor correctly is by purchasing a calibrating device. You’ll need to spend a decent amount of money for the best control and precision. Still, there are affordable alternatives to help you achieve consistent color across all of your monitors.
If you’re looking for a calibration tool, we recommend either the X-Rite ColorMunki Smile ($99) or the Spyder5Elite ($200). Both devices boast a full-spectrum, seven-color sensor that can accurately display a range of standard and wide-gamut displays. If you have a bigger budget, you can look for upscale calibrators that have even more advanced options.
In this Arduino touch screen tutorial we will learn how to use TFT LCD Touch Screen with Arduino. You can watch the following video or read the written tutorial below.
The next example is controlling an RGB LED using these three RGB sliders. For example if we start to slide the blue slider, the LED will light up in blue and increase the light as we would go to the maximum value. So the sliders can move from 0 to 255 and with their combination we can set any color to the RGB LED, but just keep in mind that the LED cannot represent the colors that much accurate.
As an example I am using a 3.2” TFT Touch Screen in a combination with a TFT LCD Arduino Mega Shield. We need a shield because the TFT Touch screen works at 3.3V and the Arduino Mega outputs are 5 V. For the first example I have the HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor, then for the second example an RGB LED with three resistors and a push button for the game example. Also I had to make a custom made pin header like this, by soldering pin headers and bend on of them so I could insert them in between the Arduino Board and the TFT Shield.
Here’s the circuit schematic. We will use the GND pin, the digital pins from 8 to 13, as well as the pin number 14. As the 5V pins are already used by the TFT Screen I will use the pin number 13 as VCC, by setting it right away high in the setup section of code.
I will use the UTFT and URTouch libraries made by Henning Karlsen. Here I would like to say thanks to him for the incredible work he has done. The libraries enable really easy use of the TFT Screens, and they work with many different TFT screens sizes, shields and controllers. You can download these libraries from his website, RinkyDinkElectronics.com and also find a lot of demo examples and detailed documentation of how to use them.
After we include the libraries we need to create UTFT and URTouch objects. The parameters of these objects depends on the model of the TFT Screen and Shield and these details can be also found in the documentation of the libraries.
So now I will explain how we can make the home screen of the program. With the setBackColor() function we need to set the background color of the text, black one in our case. Then we need to set the color to white, set the big font and using the print() function, we will print the string “Arduino TFT Tutorial” at the center of the screen and 10 pixels down the Y – Axis of the screen. Next we will set the color to red and draw the red line below the text. After that we need to set the color back to white, and print the two other strings, “by HowToMechatronics.com” using the small font and “Select Example” using the big font.
Next is the distance sensor button. First we need to set the color and then using the fillRoundRect() function we will draw the rounded rectangle. Then we will set the color back to white and using the drawRoundRect() function we will draw another rounded rectangle on top of the previous one, but this one will be without a fill so the overall appearance of the button looks like it has a frame. On top of the button we will print the text using the big font and the same background color as the fill of the button. The same procedure goes for the two other buttons.
Here’s that function which uses the ultrasonic sensor to calculate the distance and print the values with SevenSegNum font in green color, either in centimeters or inches. If you need more details how the ultrasonic sensor works you can check my particular tutorialfor that. Back in the loop section we can see what happens when we press the select unit buttons as well as the back button.
Ok next is the RGB LED Control example. If we press the second button, the drawLedControl() custom function will be called only once for drawing the graphic of that example and the setLedColor() custom function will be repeatedly called. In this function we use the touch screen to set the values of the 3 sliders from 0 to 255. With the if statements we confine the area of each slider and get the X value of the slider. So the values of the X coordinate of each slider are from 38 to 310 pixels and we need to map these values into values from 0 to 255 which will be used as a PWM signal for lighting up the LED. If you need more details how the RGB LED works you can check my particular tutorialfor that. The rest of the code in this custom function is for drawing the sliders. Back in the loop section we only have the back button which also turns off the LED when pressed.
If you"re a graphic designer, video editor, or someone who watches videos on your computer, your computer monitor must be crisp and clear. Over time, a monitor can start to look dull, fuzzy, or too bright. Often, adjusting the monitor"s settings will help you get a better picture and improve your viewing experience.
Information in this article applies broadly to different types of PC monitors. Consult your device"s manual or the manufacturer"s website for further guidance.
Capabilities vary according to monitor type. For example, the maximum screen quality differs for CRT and LCD displays. There"s also a noticeable quality difference between IPS LCD and TFT LCD monitors.
Most monitors have manual adjustment settings. If you want a simple tweak, adjust the screen"s color and brightness settings using the monitor"s physical buttons. Some displays also have a menu button that presents more options on the screen. Laptops often have buttons on the keyboard for controlling brightness and contrast.
Macs and Windows PCs have built-in, free monitor-calibration tools that are a great first step to testing a monitor"s settings. For more advanced help, online monitor-calibration tools provide in-depth analysis and setting guidance.
The macOS built-in Display Calibrator Assistantadjusts a monitor so that the display images closely match the original versions. This is particularly important for graphic designers and anyone who works with images. Here"s how it works:
The number of adjustments in the calibration process varies depending on the type of display. Some displays have additional built-in color accuracy and calibration features. See your display"s documentation.
The Windows 10 Display Color Calibration utility adjusts different aspects of the display, including color, brightness, and saturation. Here"s how to use it:
If you use your monitor for professional purposes, you may want to take some extra measures to ensure perfect video and image quality. Free online monitor-testing tools such as Lagom and Eizo Monitor Test can help you tweak the settings using objective source material such as color diagrams and test patterns.
If you"re looking for more in-depth monitor calibration, there are paid professional monitor-testing programs, many of which offer a free trial version.
The Passmark MonitorTest software gives a full-screen view of various tests. It generates 35 test patterns and covers touchscreens and HDR while offering support for all available resolutions and color depths. MonitorTest works with all resolutions as well as multiple monitor setups. It also supports looped testing.
DisplayMate is another professional monitor-calibration tool that aims to improve the image and picture quality of mobile displays, computer and video monitors, projectors, and TVs.
The color range of a computer is defined by the term color depth, which is the number of colors that the equipment can display, given its hardware. The most common normal color depths you"ll see are 8-bit (256 colors), 16-bit (65,536 colors), and 24-bit (16.7 million colors) modes. True color (or 24-bit color) is the most frequently used mode as computers have attained sufficient levels to work efficiently at this color depth.
Some professional designers and photographers use a 32-bit color depth, but mainly to pad the color to get more defined tones when the project renders down to the 24-bit level.
LCD monitors struggle with color and speed. Color on an LCD has three layers of colored dots that make up the final pixel. To display a color, a current is applied to each color layer to generate the desired intensity that results in the final color. The problem is that to get the colors, the current must move the crystals on and off to the desired intensity levels. This transition from the on-to-off state is called the response time. For most screens, it rates around 8 to 12 milliseconds.
The problem with response time becomes apparent when LCD monitors display motion or video. With a high response time for transitions from off-to-on states, pixels that should have transitioned to the new color levels trail the signal and result in an effect called motion blurring. This phenomenon isn"t an issue if the monitor displays applications such as productivity software. However, with high-speed video and certain video games, it can be jarring.
Because consumers demanded faster screens, many manufacturers reduced the number of levels each color-pixel renders. This reduction in intensity levels allows the response times to drop and has the drawback of reducing the overall range of colors that the screens support.
Color depth was previously referred to by the total number of colors that the screen can render. When referring to LCD panels, the number of levels that each color can render is used instead.
High-speed LCD monitors typically reduce the number of bits for each color to 6 instead of the standard 8. This 6-bit color generates fewer colors than 8-bit, as we see when we do the math:
This reduction is noticeable to the human eye. To get around this problem, device manufacturers employ a technique called dithering, where nearby pixels use slightly varying shades of color that trick the human eye into perceiving the desired color even though it isn"t truly that color. A color newspaper photo is a good way to see this effect in practice. In print, the effect is called halftones. Using this technique, the manufacturers claim to achieve a color depth close to that of the true color displays.
Why multiply groups of three? For computer displays, the RGB colorspace dominates. Which means that, for 8-bit color, the final image you see on the screen is a composite of one of 256 shades each of red, blue, and green.
There is another level of display that is used by professionals called a 10-bit display. In theory, it displays more than a billion colors, more than the human eye discerns.
The amount of data required for such high color requires a very-high-bandwidth data connector. Typically, these monitors and video cards use a DisplayPort connector.
Even though the graphics card renders upwards of a billion colors, the display"s color gamut—or range of colors it can display—is considerably less. Even the ultra-wide color gamut displays that support 10-bit color cannot render all the colors.
Professional displays often tout 10-bit color support. Once again, you have to look at the real color gamut of these displays. Most consumer displays don"t say how many they use. Instead, they tend to list the number of colors they support.
The amount of color matters to those that do professional work on graphics. For these people, the amount of color that displays on the screen is significant. The average consumer won"t need this level of color representation by their monitor. As a result, it probably doesn"t matter. People using their displays for video games or watching videos will likely not care about the number of colors rendered by the LCD but by the speed at which it can be displayed. As a result, it is best to determine your needs and base your purchase on those criteria.
In this guide we’re going to show you how you can use the 1.8 TFT display with the Arduino. You’ll learn how to wire the display, write text, draw shapes and display images on the screen.
The 1.8 TFT is a colorful display with 128 x 160 color pixels. The display can load images from an SD card – it has an SD card slot at the back. The following figure shows the screen front and back view.
This module uses SPI communication – see the wiring below . To control the display we’ll use the TFT library, which is already included with Arduino IDE 1.0.5 and later.
The TFT display communicates with the Arduino via SPI communication, so you need to include the SPI library on your code. We also use the TFT library to write and draw on the display.
The 1.8 TFT display can load images from the SD card. To read from the SD card you use the SD library, already included in the Arduino IDE software. Follow the next steps to display an image on the display:
In this guide we’ve shown you how to use the 1.8 TFT display with the Arduino: display text, draw shapes and display images. You can easily add a nice visual interface to your projects using this display.
Calibration is a subject which comes up frequently wherever there is discussion of monitors. As you will hopefully realise from our reviews, there are two important things to consider when purchasing a new screen, and when you might be concerned about it’s ability to render colours accurately: 1) How does the screen perform at default colour settings?, and 2) how can it perform with correct calibration? There are several methods to calibrating your screen which we will discuss below in this article. However, it should be understood first of all that to get truly calibrated settings, and good colour accuracy, you are likely going to need to invest in a hardware calibration solution. This is why we discuss a monitors performance at default settings in our reviews and how the screen is preset in the factory before being shipped. Most users will not have access to hardware colorimeter/spectrophotometer devices, and they are generally not cheap. It’s important therefore to understand what kind of performance you can expect from your screen with basic software configuration.
Colour Depth – For the best colour reproduction you probably need a panel capable of a full 8-bit colour depth, or perhaps a modern 10-bit panel. An 8-bit module offers a true 16.7 million colour palette without the need for FRC technologies used in 6-bit panels. IPS and VA panels typically offer this, whereas TN Film panels do not. Modern 10-bit panels are becoming more widely used, and most use FRC to increase the colour depth from 8-bit (8-bit +FRC) giving rise to a colour depth of 1.07 billion colours. There are very few ‘true’ 10-bit modules available but there are some out there, usually at a very high cost. Some models offer further enhancements such as a extended internal Look Up Tables (LUT’s) where an even wider colour palette is available to choose from. These can help improve gradients and colour rendering capabilities and are often used in higher end professional grade monitors.
Colour Gamut. This describes the range of colours which the monitor can produce compared with that which the human eye can detect. You can read more about gamut here, but typically the more expensive screens feature enhanced gamut backlighting. As such, it is normally the models featuring IPS and VA panels which feature the wider gamuts. Modern LED backlighting is being more widely used as well, read more about that in this article.
Gamma– This describes the non-linear relationship between the pixel levels in your computer and the luminance of your monitor. Gamma affects middle tones; it has no effect on black or white. If gamma is set too high, middle tones appear too dark. Conversely, if it’s set too low, middle tones appear too light. We aim for a gamma level of 2.2 which is the default for computer monitors and is the standard for the Windows operating system and the Internet-standard sRGB color space. The farther you drag the video system from this optimal level, the more calibration artefacts such as shadow banding and posterization appear. Therefore, a gamma of 2.2 allows for the maximum range of colors your system can display.
Luminance – We aim for a luminance (often referred to as brightness as well) of 120 cd/m2, which is the recommended luminance for LCD displays in normal lighting conditions.
Colour Gamut – Represented by the CIE diagram (on the left of the report), this can’t be calibrated as such, it more gives an indication of how much of the human eye’s colour space the screen can cover in its reproducible shades. The larger the monitors gamut (represented by the triangle), the better really.
Black Depth – is the monitor luminance or print reflectance for value = pixel level = 0; i.e. it is the deepest black in the monitor. The lower the value recorded, the better. We aim for 0.0 cd/m2 (truly black), but in practice it doesn’t reach this low on modern LCD screens.
DeltaE / Colour Accuracy – We aim for the best colour accuracy possible, where the colour displayed by the monitor is as close as possible to the colour requested by the graphics card. On our DeltaE graphs (as shown above), the lower the bars are down the graph’s Y-axis, the better in terms of colour accuracy. For reference, LaCie describe the DeltaE readings as:
These are the settings we aim for when calibrating a monitor in our tests, and is what your calibration process should work towards, regardless of whether you are using software or hardware methods.
Commonly LCD monitors come set with a default 100% brightness which means that luminance is way above the desired 120 cd/m2 we aim for. This is frequently the main issue with LCD monitors, and is something which can be corrected to a comfortable level at least using software methods. Contrast can also be improved to a degree, and colour levels can be evened and at least appear to be at a nice setting. All these methods rely on the human eye, and so the individual preferences and ambient lighting conditions come into consideration here.
The first calibration utility is a simple gray scale consisting of 17 steps between white (255) and black (0). Adjust your monitor’s brightness and contrast controls so that the full range of the scale is visible. The darkest step visible (Step 16) should be just barely visible against the black background surrounding the scale.
The second calibration utility gives a bit more control. You should be able to adjust the monitor controls and, if possible, the system gamma from your GFX card settings, to be able to detect the small squares within all of the larger squares of the array.
Adjust your monitor’s colour levels. If your monitor is properly calibrated you will see distinct steps between all 21 steps of each color strip and the steps will be uniform in appearance.
Adjust your monitor’s colour levels again. If your monitor is properly calibrated you will see distinct steps between most of the 21 steps of each color strip and the steps will be uniform in appearance. Most monitors do not display the lightest end of the scale accurately so the last 2-3 lightest steps may look the same.
There is a very useful website here (http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/) which gives you various tests and methods for calibrating your screen. Well worth a look for some free “by eye” calibration.
There are many different software tools available, and in fact many manufacturers like to package their own software with the screen to allow calibration. For instance, Samsung package some of their screens with Natural Color Pro software which allows the user to calibrate their screen quickly and easily. Further software tools are available which might be worth taking a look at as listed below. There are also various test images available which can be handy for you to test, with the human eye, the colour levels you have arrived at.
Proper calibration of a monitor really requires you to use a hardware calibration device. These come in two varieties, with the more mainstream (and affordable) devices being colorimeters. You can also buy higher end spectrophotometers (such as the X-rite i1 Pro) which read the light differently, but the cost is probably prohibitive for most normal users. There are many different devices to choose from which vary greatly in price, performance and accompanying software packages. These devices are connected to your PC typically via USB, and feature a hardware module which you place over the screen. By running the software suite which comes with the device, the tool sits over a background which displays many different colours. These are then recorded by the device and used to establish how accurate the colours shown on the screen are compared with what is being requested by the graphics card. Once this difference is established, the device can be used to correct the difference as best as possible from the screen, and results in a calibrated profile being produced.
Hardware devices will typically run through the calibration process automatically once you have defined your target settings and been guided through some basic hardware adjustments using the OSD menu (brightness, contrast, RGB values). Apart from these changes, the majority of changes are implemented at a graphics card LUT (Look Up Table) level after that through the creation of the profile. Some higher end screens offer hardware level adjustments to the monitors LUT which can offer an even better level of accuracy. This is normally reserved for high end professional grade monitors.
The accuracy of these calibration devices obviously varies somewhat, and quite often you get what you pay for. Obviously the features and options of the software package come into play as well, and so cheaper devices typically offer limited calibration options and reporting functions, whereas high end devices are far more versatile. For professional grade calibration it is recommended to spend what is a considerable amount of money on a device which is well regarded. Manufacturers like Gretag and LaCie make a series of devices which are widely used on monitor review sites, and their higher end models feature extensive software options and provide detailed analysis and reporting of colour rendering.
If you want high end results, you are probably looking at spending in excess of £150 on a colorimeter, or >£800 if you want a spectrophotometer. The cost will vary depending on the software options taken with the device and anything else which might come in the package. There are of course cheaper options available which have proved popular. These are often more than adequate for most average users, and unless you’re really concerned with top notch accuracy for photo / graphics work, you probably don’t need much more. For example, the Spyder3 or Pantone Huey do a decent enough job of levelling colours and settings for most average users, and retails for around £60 in the UK. See our various reviews for more information about colorimeters, spectrophotometers and calibration software.
Profiles are commonly produced when calibrating a screen. They are preset saved settings for your particular graphics card / monitor combination and can be used to match different devices (e.g a monitor, printer, scanner, camera etc). These help ensure the settings remain consistent across all the devices, so that you don’t see different results on each one. Profiles are simply look-up tables that describe the properties of a color space. They define the most saturated colors available in a color space; i.e. the bluest blue or deepest black your monitor can produce. If you don’t have a profile, the trio of Red, Green, and Blue values (or CMYK) that make up a color have no particular meaning – you can say something is blue, but not exactly which shade of blue. Accurate profiles are the key to a color managed workflow. With accurate monitor and printer profiles, your prints will closely match what you see on your monitor. Without profiles, you need to rely on trial and error combined with guessing.
It should be noted that an ICC profile is produced based on your individual hardware components and set up. As such, it’s not possible to share ICC profiles with other users of the same monitor to achieve the exact same results. However, ICC profiles which are shared can often at least help improve settings and colour accuracy to a certain degree, and so are an easy method of attempting calibration without the need for a colorimeter. It certainly won’t hurt to try them if you can find an ICC profile has produced with a colorimeter and then has been shared by the user for your particular screen.
TFT Central has its own database of ICC profiles and monitor settings, which are taken from our own reviews and from reader submissions. You can view the entire ICC database here
Your display adaptor software should be set to 24 or 32 bit color (True Color). To see the setting, right-click on the Windows wallpaper (the background outside any open windows), then click on Properties > Settings.
If you’re looking for a less expensive 24-inch monitor, we recommend the Asus VA24DCP, typically priced around $170. It also has a USB-C connection that can charge most laptops, but it lacks features like a fully adjustable stand, and it doesn’t have a USB hub or the ProArt’s great color accuracy.
The USB-C port on the Asus ProArt PA247CV makes it a fantastic 24-inch 1080p IPS display to use alongside a notebook PC. The 65 watts of charging over USB-C means it will charge most laptops, and the sturdy, adjustable stand means you can use the monitor in a variety of configurations. It’s fairly color accurate out of the box, with great contrast and especially nice reproduction of white and grays, so you shouldn’t notice weird tinges of color when staring deeply into your blank Google Doc page. It also has a USB hub that can add four USB ports to your laptop.
For less than $175, the Asus VA24DCP is a capable 24-inch 1080p IPS display that has full USB-C charging at 65 watts. It’s a great basic monitor for those who want something to hook up to their laptop or PC to browse the internet and get some office work done, as its colors look good for day-to-day use, and it has better contrast than many higher-cost monitors. For $100 less than our top pick, you’re giving up a better, more adjustable stand, a USB hub, and some color accuracy, but if those aren’t important to you, this is a nice monitor for a great price.
The Dell UltraSharp U2421E is a 24-inch monitor with a 1920×1200-pixel resolution, rather than the typical 1920×1080. These extra 120 vertical pixels mean a little less scrolling in large documents or spreadsheets, and more room for your apps and games without taking up more space on a desk. The U2421E comes with a higher price than our 1080p picks, but it has incredibly accurate colors, a USB-C port with 90W of charging for high-powered ultrabooks and the MacBooks Pro, and a USB hub that includes an additional USB-C port.
Calibrating your monitor manually is very straightforward. And almost all of us will need to do this at one point or another. For the majority of us a manual calibration will do just fine. This approach uses your computer’s pre-built calibration software to enhance and adjust your monitor’s color balance.
The first step involves some basic prep. Look out for the signs that your monitor needs calibration and, if in doubt, do it anyway! Calibration is especially important for high-resolution monitors if you want to benefit fully from the full breadth of color on offer.
It’s important that your monitor is out of direct sunlight during the calibration process Aim for neutral lighting away from any artificial or direct natural light.
Connect your monitor to a laptop or computer using either a display port or HDMI cable. Then leave your monitor to warm up for approximately 30 minutes, ensuring that it doesn’t go into hibernation mode – you may need to stay nearby to jiggle the mouse around and prevent the screen from turning off.
Before commencing calibration, turn your monitor’s resolution back to its default settings. To do this on Windows PC simply navigate to Settings > System > Display > Resolution > Recommended. To do this on Mac navigate to System preferences > Displays > Display tab > default for display.
Finally, it’s calibration time. The process varies depending on whether your monitor is connected to a PC or Mac computer. But don’t worry, we’re going to run you through both options separately.
Out of the box the majority of monitors are far from perfect when it comes to color, brightness, and motion blur calibration. With a few simple tweaks you can fix all that, however, and finally see games as developers intended. One thing to acknowledge though: calibration is a subjective process because our eyes and brains can perceive color incorrectly (see: white-gold, blue-black dress ), and because of color blindness and other issues. So even when a professional monitor calibrator is telling you that settings are correct, you may feel differently.
With the above in mind, try giving recommended and calibrated settings a few days to settle in. If you still feel uncomfortable or unhappy with the results, modify them in small increments until you’re content. And remember, your results will be limited by the quality of your monitor and the panel technology it’s using: IPS typically has superior viewing angles and colors, and TN is more responsive and less prone to motion blur.
You’ve potentially used incorrect settings for several years, and to you they look AOK. The changes we’re making could be drastic, and you may dislike them greatly. As such, go through your monitor’s menus, Windows’ options, and the NVIDIA Control Panel, jotting down old settings and any changes you’ve made in the past. That way, you can revert the changes we’re about to make and return to the incorrect settings you’ve grown to love.
Before you start your calibration efforts, install the latest NVIDIA display drivers from GeForce.com , set your screen resolution to its native resolution, for example 1920x1080 on a 1920x1080 monitor, and let your monitor warm up for 20-30 minutes (some may take longer, others less so) to ensure it"s operating to its full capabilities. If you"re unfamiliar with changing resolutions, right click the desktop, select "NVIDIA Control Panel", navigate to the "Change Resolution" tab, and select the resolution in the list that says "(native)".
In your room, eliminate any glare from windows or artificial lights, but keep the lighting bright enough that you can see the keyboard and your surroundings. If your screen is typically engulfed in glare, look for ways to reduce that on a permanent basis to improve results and reduce eye-strain, and if that"s impossible boost the monitor"s brightness post-calibration to compensate.
All monitors have a listed Viewing Angle in which the picture is supposedly clear and usable. In reality though the quality of some monitors can drop drastically the second you move off-center. Therefore, to ensure you have the best possible picture, and can calibrate your monitor correctly, switch your position permanently to one in line with your monitor, with the entirety of the screen in your field of view.
TFTCentral , Display Lag , and Prad produce some of the most detailed monitor reviews on the Internet, and in those reviews their knowledgeable editors often provide recommended monitor settings and ICC color management profiles .
Step 1) Locate settings and profiles. Check TFT Central’s Database first, and if no luck Display Lag and Prad ’s reviews second. If you’re still unable to find your monitor look on the manufacturer’s support page for ICC profiles, and try a generic Google search using
Step 2) Install the ICC profile. Copy the downloaded file to C:Windowssystem32spooldriverscolor, then run colorcpl.exe to open the Color Management window (alternatively, navigate to Color Management in the Control Panel).
Step 10) Finally, modify each monitor’s settings using their On-Screen Displays (OSD). Some can be unintuitive, so it is recommended to keep the manual on standby. If the panel’s particularly advanced you may be able to create multiple profiles or presets, and tweak power user settings that give you greater control over the picture. If you’re unsure what a setting does, consult the manual or ask online.
The quality and properties of monitors can vary from one unit to the next in production runs, so you may find the recommended settings above are ‘off’, or perhaps you simply wish to tweak to your personal liking. The easiest way to do this is to utilize a variety of online tests, and the “Calibrate display” tool in the “Advanced” tab of the Color Management application we were using above.
Online, the go-to location for any monitor tweaking is Lagom’s suite of test images . There, you can calibrate Contrast, Sharpness, black levels, and many other aspects of your monitor’s display. But what you won’t find is a good motion test, which is particularly important for gamers using modern monitors equipped with motion blur, input delay, input lag, zero lag, and other similarly named modules that reduce blurring on fast-moving objects.
The only way to get 100% technically-perfect results for your monitor is to buy, rent, or borrow a professional color calibration tool, such as Datacolor’s Spyder4 , Pantone’s ColorMunki , or x-Rite’s i1Display Pro . They’re not cheap (prices start at $99), but if you’ve already invested in a G-SYNC Surround setup or 4K monitor the extra cost will ensure you get the absolute best results. Just remember, the technology may say that the calibration is perfect, but your eyes may not believe it, or you may simply prefer a different look.
Please note that some games and applications will override calibrations and Control Panel tweaks. To workaround this problem, you can try CPKeeper and Color Sustainer .
By this point your monitor’s picture should be looking better than ever before. You may initially feel the look is bad or wrong, but give it a few days and you’ll probably change your tune once your eyes adapt. If all else fails, you can always go back to your original setup. If you stick with it though you’ll see games as developers intended, and get more accurate color reproduction in videos, movies, TV shows, and pictures.
If calibration can’t fix your complaints, however, consider a brand new monitor with superior color reproduction, reduced input lag, wider viewing angles, and zero motion blur. At the time of writing, TFT Central rates the Acer Predator XB270HU 2560x1440 G-SYNC IPS-panel monitor as the “new king of gaming monitors”, and on Display Lag the BenQ XL2430T , BenQ XL2420G G-SYNC , and ASUS ROG Swift PG278Q G-SYNC TN-panel monitors are tied in the all-important Picture Quality, Input Lag, and Response Time categories. If you don’t need anything quite as fancy though there are plenty of other great monitors out there that should provide a superior experience, reducing eye strain and making your games and multimedia look better than before.
For more guides that help you get the most out of your PC, and help you build a brand new system, check out the GeForce Garage homepage . And next week we"ll show you how to set up a Surround multi-monitor gaming system in the final episode of our Cross Desk modding series .
TFT LCD image retention we also call it "Burn-in". In CRT displays, this caused the phosphorus to be worn and the patterns to be burnt in to the display. But the term "burn in" is a bit misleading in LCD screen. There is no actual burning or heat involved. When you meet TFT LCD burn in problem, how do you solve it?
Burn in is a noticeable discoloration of ghosting of a previous image on a display. It is caused by the continuons drive of certain pixels more than other pixels. Do you know how does burn in happen?
When driving the TFT LCD display pixels Continously, the slightly unbalanced AC will attract free ions to the pixels internal surface. Those ions act like an addition DC with the AC driving voltage.
Those burn-in fixers, screen fixer software may help. Once the Image Retention happened on a TFT, it may easy to appear again. So we need to take preventive actions to avoid burn in reappearing.
For normal white TFT LCD, white area presenting minimal drive, black area presenting maximum drive. Free ions inside the TFT may are attracted towards the black area (maximum drive area)
When the display content changed to full screen of 128(50%) gray color, all the area are driving at the same level. Those ions are free again after a short time;
While online shopping has made it easier for us to purchase anything we want worldwide, sometimes it can also be tricky. Say the shipping, if we bought it locally – usually will only take a few days but if we bought it from the international shop – then likely we have to wait for more than weeks, which I believe we don’t have an issue with that especially if we’re informed for the estimated delivery date. But it’s a matter of what if they ship it to the wrong address or there would be a longer wait than expected. Another thing that we’re also particular with especially buying international items would be the shipping fee – most of us don’t mind buying more to get free shipping. And there are just some of the online shops’ techniques to encourage customers to buy more and think that we’re saving money for the shipping fee. Lastly not to forget to have the tracking number of monitoring the progress of the delivery of your item.
The compact design of Mac Studio puts an extensive array of essential connectivity within easy reach. On the back, Mac Studio includes four Thunderbolt 4 ports to connect displays and high-performance devices, a 10Gb Ethernet port, two USB-A ports, an HDMI port, and a pro audio jack for high-impedance headphones or external amplified speakers. Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 are built in as well.
And because users frequently connect and disconnect devices, like portable storage, Mac Studio includes ports on the front for more convenient access. There are two USB-C ports, which on M1 Max supports 10Gb/s USB 3, and on M1 Ultra supports 40Gb/s Thunderbolt 4. There is also an SD card slot on the front to easily import photos and video. And Mac Studio provides extensive display support — up to four Pro Display XDRs, plus a 4K TV — driving nearly 90 million pixels.
Studio Display features a 27-inch 5K Retina screen with over 14.7 million pixels. With 600 nits of brightness, P3 wide color, and support for over one billion colors, images come to life with spectacular detail. True Tone technology automatically adjusts the display’s color temperature as the environment changes for a more natural viewing experience. An industry-leading anti-reflective coating enables incredibly low reflectivity for better comfort and readability. And for workspaces with bright light sources, including sunlight, Studio Display offers an innovative nano-texture glass option. Nano-texture glass, first introduced on Pro Display XDR, scatters light to further minimize glare while delivering outstanding image quality.
Studio Display has three USB-C ports that deliver speeds up to 10Gb/s to connect high-speed peripherals, storage, and networking right into the display. A Thunderbolt port enables users to connect Studio Display and any connected peripherals to their Mac with a single cable. The same cable also delivers 96W of power to a Mac notebook, allowing Studio Display to even fast-charge a 14-inch MacBook Pro. And up to three Studio Displays can be connected to MacBook Pro, creating a powerful edit bay or animation workspace.
To complement the design of Studio Display, there’s a new silver-and-black color option for Magic Keyboard with Touch ID, Magic Trackpad, and Magic Mouse that customers can purchase separately.
Videographers can edit multi-camera projects and more streams of 8K video than ever before, add more color corrections to projects while maintaining fluid playback, and encode video for final delivery faster than ever.
Mac Studio and Studio Display were designed to minimize their environmental impact. Mac Studio uses far less energy than competitors to deliver its extraordinary performance. For example, over the course of a year, Mac Studio will use up to 1,000 kilowatt-hours less energy than a high-end PC desktop.6Both Mac Studio and Studio Display use 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in all magnets and recycled tin in the solder of the main logic board — as well as recycled aluminum and plastic in various components. Both products also meet Apple’s high standards for energy efficiency, are free of numerous harmful substances, and use wood fiber in the packaging that comes from recycled sources or responsibly managed forests.
Today, Apple is carbon neutral for global corporate operations, and by 2030, plans to have net-zero climate impact across the entire business, which includes manufacturing supply chains and all product life cycles. This means that every Apple device sold, from component manufacturing, assembly, transport, customer use, charging, all the way through recycling and material recovery, will be 100 percent carbon neutral.
Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Numeric Keypad ($199 US), Magic Trackpad ($149 US), and Magic Mouse ($99 US) in the new silver-and-black color option are available at apple.com/store.
Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV. Apple’s five software platforms — iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, and iCloud. Apple’s more than 100,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.
Testing was conducted by Apple in February 2022 using preproduction Mac Studio systems with Apple M1 Ultra, 20-core CPU and 64-core GPU, and 128GB of RAM, and configured with 8TB SSD. Prerelease Final Cut Pro 10.6.2 was tested using a one-minute picture-in-picture project with 18 streams of Apple ProRes 422 video at 8192x4320 resolution and 30 frames per second, as well as a one-minute picture-in-picture project with nine streams of Apple ProRes 422 video at 8192x4320 resolution and 30 frames per second. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Studio.
Results are compared to 3.6GHz 10-core Intel Core i9-based 27-inch iMac systems with Radeon Pro 5700 XT graphics with 16GB of GDDR6, 128GB of RAM, and 8TB SSD; and 3.2GHz 16-core Intel Xeon W-based Mac Pro systems with 192GB of RAM, AMD Radeon Pro W5700X graphics with 16GB of GDDR6, configured with Afterburner and 4TB SSD.
Results are compared to 3.6GHz 10-core Intel Core i9-based 27-inch iMac systems with Radeon Pro 5700 XT graphics with 16GB of GDDR6, 128GB of RAM, and 8TB SSD; 3.2GHz 16-core Intel Xeon W-based Mac Pro systems with 192GB of RAM, AMD Radeon Pro W5700X graphics with 16GB of GDDR6, configured with Afterburner and 4TB SSD; and 2.5GHz 28-core Intel Xeon W-based Mac Pro systems with 384GB of RAM and AMD Radeon Pro W6900X graphics with 32GB of GDDR6, configured with Afterburner and 4TB SSD.5.
Testing was conducted by Apple in February 2022 using preproduction Mac Studio systems with Apple M1 Max, 10-core CPU, 64GB of RAM, and 8TB SSD. The test was conducted with FIO 3.27, 1024KB request size, 150GB test file, and IO depth=8. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Studio.
Typical LCDs are edge-lit by a strip of white LEDs. The 2D backlighting system in Pro Display XDR is unlike any other. It uses a superbright array of 576 blue LEDs that allows for unmatched light control compared with white LEDs. Twelve controllers rapidly modulate each LED so that areas of the screen can be incredibly bright while other areas are incredibly dark. All of this produces an extraordinary contrast that’s the foundation for XDR.
Converting blue light to white is a difficult process that requires extremely precise color conversion. It’s why most display makers use white LEDs. Pro Display XDR accomplishes this conversion with an expertly designed color transformation sheet made of hundreds of layers that control the light spectrum passing through them.
Pro Display XDR extends exceptional image quality to the very edge. To ensure that LEDs along the sides of the display mix well with adjacent ones, a micro-lens array boosts light along the edges. This creates uniform color and brightness across the entire screen.
With a massive amount of processing power, the timing controller (TCON) chip utilizes an algorithm specifically created to analyze and reproduce images. It controls LEDs at over 10 times the refresh rate of the LCD itself, reducing latency and blooming. It’s capable of multiple refresh rates for amazingly smooth playback. Managing both the LED array and LCD pixels, the TCON precisely directs light and color to bring your work to life with stunning accuracy.
Windows recently released the free Windows 10 ‘Creators Update’ (version number 1703). With this update come a few new and changed features. Read on to find out about some of the changes relating to monitor settings and how to use them.
The Display settings menu is the home-base for most monitor related settings. To access this, right click on the desktop and choose ‘Display settings.’ Alternatively, from the start menu click on the gear symbol to open the general Settings menu, and then choose System which will automatically open to the Display settings menu (If not, be sure the Display tab is selected on the left panel).
This area allows you to control individual settings of each monitor and change the position of the monitors to match reality. So for example if you have two monitors on top of each other you can drag the 2nd monitor box on top of the 1st monitor box. If you have the monitors side by side, you can place them next to each other. You can also adjust the settings for each monitor by selecting the monitor box and changing one of the settings on the same page.
If you change the resolution of each monitor, it will visually be reflected in this menu by changing the size of the monitor’s box. Note that pixel density (DPI) is not represented, so for example even if two monitors are 27-inches, if one is 4K and the other is 2560 x 1440, the second monitor will appear smaller than the 4K monitor. Previously this function was available through ‘advanced settings’ but is now part of the main ‘Display’ menu.
Previously this monitor layout menu was always visible, even if you only had one monitor plugged in. In the Creators Update, this menu disappears when only one monitor is plugged in. If you have two monitors plugged in and the menu isn’t visible, it means that one of the monitors isn’t being detected. Use the ‘Multiple displays’ function to try to detect it.
In the Windows 10 Creators Update, the monitor box is not displayed if only one monitor is connected. If your computer can’t detect a second monitor, use the ‘Multiple displays’ function to try detecting it.
This area contains the ‘Night light’ switch – a new feature in the Creators Update. The Night light is a function that controls the color temperature of your monitor – i.e. whether your monitor is ‘warmer’ or ‘cooler.’ Physiologically ‘cooler’ light is more stimulating to your eyes, and ‘warmer’ light is less stimulating. Therefore continuously viewing cool light can cause eye fatigue and interrupt your internal body clock. To prevent this, some people prefer to use warm light toward the end of the day; mimicking the way the sun sets.
To access the settings for the Night light click on ‘Night light settings.’ In the Night light settings, you can control the color temperature and set a schedule. Control the desired color temperature using the ‘Color temperature at night’ bar. Pulling it to the left will create warm, reddish light, and to the right natural, blue light. You can set the Night light to turn on automatically at sunset and off at sunrise using the ‘Sunset to sunrise’ option, or set a specific time for it to turn on and off. Alternatively you can turn it on and off manually from the Display menu. Note that changing the color temperature will affect color management. Be sure to turn this feature off when color management is required.
This function is similar to EIZO’s ‘Paper Mode’ function – which changes the monitor to a warmer, easy to read lighting. It is also similar to the circadian dimming function found in the Screen InStyle and Screen Manager Pro Software – which allows you to make the color temperature change gradually throughout the day, unlike the Night light which only has the option to change the temperature once per day.
If using this with an EIZO monitor that has the ‘Paper Mode’ function, please note that the color temperature may become very red if Night Light is used in conjunction with Paper Mode (see below). Similarly, if using an EIZO monitor with Screen InStyle or Screen Manager Pro – where the circadian dimming function is in use – the feature may clash. We recommend using either only EIZO’s software or only Windows’s Night light, not both.
This setting allows you to change the size of text, apps, icons, etc. on each monitor. For example, if you have a monitor with a high pixel density (like a 27-inch 4K monitor), viewing text at 100% will create very small text which can be hard to read. Windows 10 will automatically recommend the best viewing setting for your monitor’s PPI, but if you feel the need to change it, this is the place.
In the example above a 27-inch 4K monitor with 163 PPI is being used. It has a recommended text size of 150% to compensate for the large pixel density.
Previously in Windows 10, the ‘Change the size of text’ setting was a drag bar. In the Creators Update it is a pull-down menu with several percentage options. Choose the option that best suits your eyes. Remember this setting is different for each connected monitor. If you have a second monitor, select the monitor by clicking on its numbered box at the top, and then adjust the text size settings.
The Resolution settings allow you to choose the resolution that you wish to display. Windows 10 automatically detects and recommends the native resolution of your monitor, but you can still change the displayed resolution if you choose.
Previously in Windows 10 this setting was accessible through advanced settings. In the Creators Update it is available straight from the Display menu.