Guidelines for creating an ICC monitor profile

The following guidelines can help you create an accurate monitor profile.

You may find it helpful to have your monitor's user guide handy while creating an ICC monitor profile.

• You don't need to calibrate your monitor if you've already done so using an ICC-compliant calibration tool and haven't changed your video card or monitor settings.
• Make sure that you are using a standard desktop (CRT) monitor.
• If you have the Monitor Setup utility (included with PageMaker® 6.0) for Windows or the Knoll Gamma control panel (included with Adobe Photoshop 4.0 and earlier) for Mac OS, remove it; it is obsolete.
• Make sure your monitor has been turned on for at least a half hour. This gives it sufficient time to warm up for a more accurate color reading.
• Make sure your monitor is displaying thousands (16 bits) of colors or more.
• Remove colorful background patterns on your monitor desktop. Busy or bright patterns surrounding a document interfere with accurate color perception. Set your desktop to display neutral grays only, using RGB values of 128. For more information, see the documentation for your operating system.
• If your monitor has digital controls for choosing the white point of your monitor from a range of preset values, set those controls before starting the profiling utility. 6500 K is a good white point for most uses; 5000 K is the common standard for U.S. prepress providers.
• Monitor performance changes and declines over time; recharacterize your monitor every month or so. If you find it difficult or impossible to calibrate your monitor to a standard, it may be too old and faded.