Display Settings

[jamescover]

Hi:

I'd appreciate it if everyone would take a moment to chime in on this subject:

Hopefully, this will be useful to those of you who have created a design on your own system--a graphic, or perhaps an entire web site--only to find that it looks quite different on a friend's or client's system (e.g., dark blues appear as light blues, light blues appear as pale blues, or visa versa, etc.

Not only do brightness and contrast monitor settings affect your system's display, but so does your display adaptor settings, especially your gamma settings. I read an article on the subject some time ago, which claimed that most people's gamma is set between 1.8 and 2.2. However, the factory default for my system is only 1.0. Of course, once you start playing around with your system's gamma settings, you will have to alter the brightness and contrast settings accordingly...

In the interest of discovering what a cross-section of you see when viewing the same graphics on different machines, so that I can calibrate my own system's settings, I would appreciate it if everyone would view the page displayed in the link below, then post the Row number (4 rows), and graphic number (12 per row) that you can actually see with your current system settings. For example, with my current settings, gamma of 1.0, I can see the following shades of gray:

Row/Graphic #

1 - 11
2 - 6
3 - 0
4 - 0

So, currently, I can't see any shade of gray past row #2, graphic #6. The remainder of graphics, as well as row #1, graphic #12 are indistinguishable from the white page background on my system. Yes, I could change the settings to see all of the graphics, but that causes a few new problems with the way that other colors are displayed. What is more, considering that most people aren't graphic artists/web designers, they have probably never changed their gamma settings from the system's default. At most, they may have changed their monitor brightness and contrast settings to suite.

shade chart


Thanks for any input!

[aversion]

1 - 12
2 - 11
3 - 11
4 - 11

I'm using a CRT monitor and I suspect that, given your own results, you're using an LCD. CRT monitors while seen as old hat have a much better range than LCDs. LCDs are generally better for reading text because they work off whole pixels, but for everything else I think a good CRT beats anything but the most expensive desktop LCDs every time.

btw, there only seem to be 11 shades on the last three columns, if you highlight the page it doesn't show anything beyond the 11th ones...

[RUSHVision]

I can see every single one of them...all 12 in all four rows. I'm using Adobe Gamma with the gamma set to 2.00.

[Black_phoenix]

Hi I can see all the 12's as well, just using default settings on the machine, I am running a top range 3d graphics card with latest ATI drivers, dont know if that makes any difference

I cant believe you cant see past 6 onwards

bp

[jamescover]

Hi, fellas!

Thanks for responding!

I actually do have a CRT monitor: EV-700, 17", 90 degree deflection, 0.28mm dot pitch pitch, 1280 x 1024 resolution, Unlimited color display.

Unfortunately, everything on my system has always appeared much darker than on everyone elses', especially, if I adjust brightness, contrast, and gamma so that I can see all 12 shades in all 4 rows.


HOWEVER, after 3 years of wrestling with this, I think I just found the answer...ha ha.

It's true that my Display Adapter gamma default is only 1.0--way too low--but my monitors color settings were off too. There are three options in the monitor color manager: 1). 9300k, 2). 6550k, and 3). User defined. Instead of the presets, I cranked up the RGB all the way, then set my gamma to 2.2. Now, everything is bright as can be, yet I am able to see all 12 shades in every row of the chart.

Thanks for your input...the answer had escaped me for a long time. Now, I have to go back and edit some sites. It especially makes a big difference when using drop shadows as borders, etc., which with my new settings look pretty stupid now.

Thanks, again!


-james

[nayades]

i see all of them too. ****ty monitor, on ****ty graphics card.

[wouter999]

1-12
2-12
3-12
4-10

on a 19" LCD monitor with Adobe Gamma set to 2.0.