Once your monitor is calibrated, the profiling utility lets you save a color profile. When you calibrate your monitor, you are adjusting it so it conforms to a known specification. White point The color and intensity of the brightest white the monitor can reproduce. Different phosphors have different color characteristics. Phosphors The substances that CRT monitors use to emit light. Gamma defines the value of that curve halfway between black and white. 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. Gamma The brightness of the midtone values. A monitor calibration utility helps you set an optimum brightness and contrast range for calibration. These parameters work just as they do on a television. Brightness and contrast The overall level and range, respectively, of display intensity. Characterizing your monitor simply creates a profile that describes how the monitor is currently reproducing color.
Profiling software can both calibrate and characterize your monitor. When working with untagged documents, Adobe applications use the current working space profile to display and edit colors. Documents without assigned profiles are known as untagged and contain only raw color numbers. When color management is on, Adobe applications automatically assign new documents a profile based on Working Space options in the Color Settings dialog box. But when tagged with the Adobe RGB color space, these numbers specify an actual color or wavelength of light-in this case, a specific color of purple. By assigning, or tagging, a document with a profile, the application provides a definition of actual color appearances in the document. For example, glossy paper is capable of displaying a different range of colors than matte paper. The output profile should also take into consideration specific printing conditions, such as the type of paper and ink.
Output device profiles Describe the color space of output devices like desktop printers or a printing press.
For scanner profiles, some photographers create separate profiles for each type or brand of film scanned on a scanner. Advanced users may also consider using different profiles for different light sources.
Otherwise, use sRGB which is the default for most cameras. Input device profiles Describe what colors an input device is capable of capturing or scanning. If what you see on your monitor is not representative of the actual colors in your document, you will not be able to maintain color consistency. This is the first profile you should create because viewing color accurately on your monitor allows for critical color decisions in the design process. Digestive system questions and answers for grade 7 Monitor profiles Describe how the monitor is currently reproducing color. For example, without an accurate scanner profile, a perfectly scanned image may appear incorrect in another program, simply due to any difference between the scanner and the program displaying the image. Precise, consistent color management requires accurate ICC-compliant profiles of all of your color devices.