Monitor calibration is the process of bringing your monitor into alignment, or calibration, with a known state. Simply adjusting your monitor so that it displays contrast and color in a fashion pleasing to you is not true calibration, as calibration involves linking the output of your display with the output of a device.
The calibration process is critical to maintaining a managed color workflow. In the case of a photographer editing and printing photos, for example, calibration is required to ensure that the color captured by the digital camera, the color displayed via the monitor to the editing photographer, and the color printed out (be that on a photo printer or for a magazine cover) matches. Monitor calibration is most often achieved using existing color profiles established by the International Color Consortium and a device that attaches to the monitor surface to read and adjust the color output.
For more information about using a monitor calibration tool, please see the following How-To Geek article:
- By Jason Fitzpatrick on 02/18/13