Posted by Brent Murphy on September 14, 2006 at 12:58 PM
I was going to bring a laptop to a meeting with a potential client, so I decided to calibrate the monitor last night. (This is normally just my computer at my day job, so I've never bothered to calibrate it before). Anyway, the laptop has a docking station at my office, where it connects to a standard 19" LCD.
Now, it seems that there is some confusion about what is being calibrated. Because the laptop docks, I don't think this is a normal dual-monitor setup. When I look at the display properties, it looks like the computer just has the "default monitor", which applies to both the laptop monitor and the docking station monitor, depending on whether the laptop is docked or not.
Because it seems like it's just a single monitor setting, that switches between two different monitors, I don't know how to manage monitor profiles in this situation. Granted, the laptop profile isn't that important since the viewing angle is pretty limited anyway, but I'd like it to be close, if possible. Especially when I have to use it to show some images to a potential client.
Has anyone else had to deal with calibrating a laptop for docked and un-docked situations?
Posted by Becky Wolfe on September 14, 2006 at 1:33 PM
Hey Brent,
I use my laptop for my photos a lot & I have never bothered to calibrate it. It seems the slightest tilt difference or difference in height of the viewers changes the colors or saturation levels appearance anyways. Curious to see if anyone else calibrates though.
Posted by Mike Maples on September 14, 2006 at 1:51 PM
We calibrate our but one really has to pay attention to their viewing angle to make it worthwhile. Still, I like knowing it's as close as possible to "correct".
Posted by Walter Rowe on September 14, 2006 at 3:47 PM
If you have a separate monitor you use when your laptop is docked, you will have to profile your built-in and docked displays separately and select the correct profile based on which display you are using at the time. Give each profile a different name.
Right click the mouse on the screen background. From there, do the following:
Properties > Settings > Advanced > Color Management
Select the correct profile from the list and click "Set As Default", then log out and log in. The first time through, you may have to use the "Add" button under Color Management to have your profiles show up in the list.
Posted by David Bostedo on September 15, 2006 at 4:35 PM
Well I don't dock my laptop, so I don't have anything to add there. I will say, however, that I calibrated my laptop monitor, which is a year-old 15" widescreen Dell model. The viewing angle on it is fairly good, and it's my only monitor, so I figured I'd calibrate it. As it turns out, the difference between calibrated and un-calibrated is huge. So even though I definitely see problems based on viewing angle, even at strange angles the calibrated settings come much closer to "real" colors or prints than the uncalibrated settings at the perfect angle.
I'm not sure if anyone else's monitor is so far off to begin with, but it's worth checking.
Discussion
4 repliesNow, it seems that there is some confusion about what is being calibrated. Because the laptop docks, I don't think this is a normal dual-monitor setup. When I look at the display properties, it looks like the computer just has the "default monitor", which applies to both the laptop monitor and the docking station monitor, depending on whether the laptop is docked or not.
Because it seems like it's just a single monitor setting, that switches between two different monitors, I don't know how to manage monitor profiles in this situation. Granted, the laptop profile isn't that important since the viewing angle is pretty limited anyway, but I'd like it to be close, if possible. Especially when I have to use it to show some images to a potential client.
Has anyone else had to deal with calibrating a laptop for docked and un-docked situations?
I use my laptop for my photos a lot & I have never bothered to calibrate it. It seems the slightest tilt difference or difference in height of the viewers changes the colors or saturation levels appearance anyways.
Right click the mouse on the screen background. From there, do the following:
Properties > Settings > Advanced > Color Management
Select the correct profile from the list and click "Set As Default", then log out and log in. The first time through, you may have to use the "Add" button under Color Management to have your profiles show up in the list.
I'm not sure if anyone else's monitor is so far off to begin with, but it's worth checking.