Calibration of a LCD monitor is especially important to web designers, digital photographers and graphic professionals who do not want to spend hours choosing a perfect subtle colour only to see a miss-matched mess on someone else’s monitor. The picture on one’s monitor should me similar to the same picture after a print out and should also be the same when viewed on another monitor. This requires proper calibration on both monitors. Calibration optimizes the picture quality of the display according to the system hardware configuration.

Here’s how to calibrate LCD monitor with optimum performance.Read the monitor’s user manual beforehand to understand the capabilities of the LCD monitor and the maximum performance capabilities of the monitor . The picture quality cannot be improved beyond the limits of the monitor capabilities.

Access the “Display Settings “tab by right clicking on desktop and choosing “Personalize”. Choose the highest resolution available to flood the monitor with maximum pixels for good definition unless the text becomes too small. The higher the resolution, the higher is the number of pixels which add to the clarity and depth of the image.

Right click on desktop and optimize the color scheme to “High Color” or “24 bit mode” under Graphic Properties and change the refresh rate to the maximum possible limit (65 Hz,72 Hz, 75 Hz or higher). Make sure that sunlight or other sources of light does not reach the screen until calibration is over so that the external light does not cause any interference with human eye in observing the natural colour from the Liquid Crystal Display screen.

Print a test photo on a high quality printer using highest quality settings and allow it to dry for few hours to allow the print out to revert to its natural colour.

Adjust the monitor contrast and brightness which can usually be found on the front panel of monitor or in screen menu till satisfactory appearance of the image.

Compare the printed photo with the same original image on the screen to notice or observe any deviations. Most probably, the printed photo and the original image on the screen are bound to be different in appearance.

To calibrate the monitor , adjust the brightness, contrast and colour levels(red ,blue and green levels) on the monitor until the image on screen resembles the printed photo as close as possible.

Basic softwares like Adobe Gamma, Quick Gamma, Apple ColorSync can be used for calibrating the monitor. A professional can calibrate the monitor if one does not achieve the desired result on calibrating oneself.

Auto-calibrate button can be used if it is programmed into the monitor to calibrate the monitor by itself to the best recommended settings.The most important fact to remember is that the calibration is bound to change or drift over a period of 3 weeks irrespective of the monitor manufacturer . So the monitor has to be calibrated every 2 to 4 weeks if visual accuracy is to be maintained.