Calibrating and creating a profile of your monitor

A monitor profile is the first profile you should create. It is absolutely essential for managing color. If what you see on your monitor is not representative of the actual colors in your document, you will not be able to maintain color consistency.

When you calibrate your monitor, you are adjusting it so it conforms to a known specification. Once your monitor is calibrated, a profile is created. The profile describes the color behavior of the monitor--what colors can or cannot be displayed on the monitor and how the numeric color values in an image must be converted so that colors are displayed accurately.

Most profiles only describe the behavior of a device. In addition to describing the monitor's behavior, a monitor profile also contains calibration information, which changes the behavior of the monitor.

To calibrate and profile your monitor, you can use visual calibrators like Adobe Gamma (Windows), Monitor Calibrator (Mac OS), or use third-party software and measuring devices. In general, using a measuring device such as a spectrophotometer along with software can create more accurate profiles. An instrument can measure the colors displayed on a monitor far more accurately than the human eye.