MacbookPro Display Calibration

[W00DY]

Ok, my head is spinning and I need HELP :wow

I had a few photos printed out today (from here (http://thefollans.smugmug.com/gallery/2681819))

They ones of my son turned out REALLY bad, they had a very green tinge to it. So I finally hooked up my Colorvision Spyder and calibrated my monitor. The images in Aperture now look like the prints (pretty awful), problem is the rest of OSX (like tool bars, icons etc...) look pretty bad also.

My main problem / question is how do I KNOW when my monitor is correct? What I mean is I can have a badly calibrated monitor but change my images to look good, but this is not good when it comes to printing as the images will print badly.

So how do I know that my monitor is correctly calibrated?
Other MBP users, what color profile are you using? How does your OSX environment look? (mine looks quite "Dull")

Not sure how to really ask the question I need to ask but I would appreciate any help anyone could provide.

Cheers,
W00DY

[rutt]

Ok, my head is spinning and I need HELP :wow


Oh, man. Monitor calibration is only the tip of the iceberg of this particular topic. Please can you post a few of the images which looked good to you and didn't print well? Instead of descending into theory, I think we can help better if you put something concrete in front of us.

[DavidTO]

Rutt's on the right track. I'll just add this: your eyes are easily fooled. My monitor is calibrated by my Huey, and I believe it is correct, yet when I first started using this correction, everything seemed wrong. I was so used to my monitor being too blue and bright that it took me some time to get used to viewing it correctly. It's worse on my MBP than my ACD, since the Cinema display is sooooo much better than the display on my MBP, which no matter what will never be as vibrant and true as the ACD. So, when you say everything looks bad, I wonder....what does bad really mean? Not what you're used to?

[pathfinder]

A properly calibrated monitor can seem rather flat and bland sometimes and even pink or pale blue or yellow if you are not used to it.

I recommend not using any images for the screen background also - I use a neutral gray tone for my screen color - that is easier to compare to an 18% gray card.

The other thing is that colors are evlauated by the numbers - whites, grays, blacks should all be equal value in R,G and B.

[W00DY]

Rutt's on the right track. I'll just add this: your eyes are easily fooled. My monitor is calibrated by my Huey, and I believe it is correct, yet when I first started using this correction, everything seemed wrong. I was so used to my monitor being too blue and bright that it took me some time to get used to viewing it correctly. It's worse on my MBP than my ACD, since the Cinema display is sooooo much better than the display on my MBP, which no matter what will never be as vibrant and true as the ACD. So, when you say everything looks bad, I wonder....what does bad really mean? Not what you're used to?

Sorry for the late reply, I forgot I posted this :rofl

David has answered this exactly, I think I was used to seeing my monitor as it was it was a real shock to see it calibrated... I have to say, while the OS environment may look dull images on the web look MUCH better :D

Thanks for the help, I think I have it sorted.