Any way to edit Cintiq profile, so it better matches Eizo?

General Color & Graphics Monitor Calibration & Soft Proofing
1

Hi,

I have three monitors setup on a 3 LUT video card. There’s two Eizo CG210s and one Cintiq 21UX.

I’m using Colornavigator & i1 Pro to calibrate the Eizos. Colornavigator calibrates them with the following settings: 6500K, L gamma, 120 cd/m2.

I’m using i1 Pro, i1 Match 3.2 and a demo of the latest version of Coloreyes to calibrate the Cintiq. I use the following settings: 6500K, 2.2 gamma, 120 cd/m2. The profiles created by i1 Match and Coloreyes are identical. (Also, I don’t use L gamma in coloreyes, since it tends to make the mid value range a shade too light.)

  1. Is there a way to edit the Cintiq profile to more closely match the Eizo screen? The Cintiq color curve tends to go a tad lighter in the dark area. I have access to the ProfileMaker 5 suite, but have used it very little.

btw - I do a final comparison of the colors on all three screens by doing the following:

  1. Place raw, uncolormanaged, test chart on all three monitors in Photoshop CS5
  2. Screen capture all monitors, then paste the image into a raw document
  3. Place all charts on top of one another and see where the discrepancies lie
  4. I also place the initial raw color chart into the file with the screen captured charts, so that I can compare the screens with the initial chart and the raw RGB numbers
  5. When I place the charts on top of one another the two Eizos always look the same. The Cintiq color is just a bit lighter in the dark range. There’s some other very small discrepancies too, but I’m more concerned with the value range.

I use this workflow to check, since it most directly relates to my everyday practice of painting on screen in Photoshop

Thanks for your help!
Phil

2

Hi Phil,

First off, I am wondering if your Cintiq can actually get as dark as your Eizo’s? It takes some pretty advanced circuitry to do a thorough job of blocking light in a display that is constantly backlit like these LCD’s. Your Eizo’s would probably do a much better job of giving you blacks than your Cintiq. I’d be interested in hearing what you find out with that. (Compare the “black level” results at the end of your profiling processes.) Your Eizo’s might measure around .25 cd/m2 or so I’m guessing.

If it’s true that the Eizo’s have a blacker blackpoint, then that means all of your Eizo images are being scaled in relation to that broader range, and the images on your Cintiq are being scaled to a narrower range of colors - with a lighter black. So I think this would explain what you are seeing.

There is not a way to edit your Cintiq profile to make it give you more black than it is capable of, but it is possible to tell ColorNavigator to hit a specific black point that is lighter than it is capable of. In other words, you could have CN emulate the Cintiq, and they would match that way. Probably not what you’re looking for, I can imagine.