About monitor calibration settings

Monitor calibration involves adjusting video settings, which may be unfamiliar to you. A monitor profile uses these settings to precisely describe how your monitor reproduces color.

Brightness and contrast

The overall level and range, respectively, of display intensity. These parameters work just as they do on a television set.

Gamma

The brightness of the midtone values. The values produced by a monitor from black to white are nonlinear--if you graph the values, they form a curve, not a straight line. The gamma value defines the slope of that curve halfway between black and white. Gamma adjustment compensates for the nonlinear tonal reproduction of output devices such as monitor tubes.

Phosphors

The substance that monitors use to emit light. Different phosphors have different color characteristics.

White point

The coordinates (measured in the CIE XYZ color space) at which red, green, and blue phosphors at full intensity create white.