How to Calibrate a Monitor

If you are investing in a good, solid monitor, why would you want anything less than the best out of it?  By calibrating a monitor, you are setting it up to work at its peak performance level.  This takes a little bit of work but is worth every second of it.  Calibration helps set the tone, color levels and more.  It helps make the picture quality the highest it can be and can be changed depending on what you are watching or how you are using your monitor.

The first step to calibration is to choose the proper screen resolution. Usually, you choose the highest resolution available until it warps the text. Once the text begins to warp, you know your monitor cannot handle that high of a resolution. Next, check to make sure you monitor is operating at 24-bit color mode before calibrating the monitor. This gives the proper depth for the calibration process. You want to leave your monitor on for about half an hour and ensure your monitor is in a place where it will not be disrupted by any direct external lighting.

You want to use a photograph with bright colors as a test print. Print it out on high-quality photo printer ahead of time and save a copy of the photo on your hard drive. Open the photo on your hard drive and hold the print out next to it on your screen. From there, you can adjust the brightness, contrast and other settings to match the print out you made of the photo.

If your computer has built-in calibration features as many new LCD monitors come with, you can run this with the photo up on the screen to calibrate the monitor, too.  Calibrating your monitor should occur every two to three weeks for optimal performance.  You also want to calibrate it depending on what you are doing to ensure that it always works.  If you are watching a movie, if you are working on a Word document or perhaps even just chatting, each of these uses can require a different screen calibration.