Display Calibration: iMac vs. Macbook Air

DavidTO

I recently upgraded to a new iMac and along with the new computer I got myself an X-Rite Color Display Pro. I'm really happy with the way my iMac display looks, but the MBA seems unnecessarily washed out. I know it can be less washed out from my old, uncalibrated profile. I suppose that they'll never look the same, but I'd love to get them a bit closer.

I read Andy Rodney's blogpost on contrast ratio, and used it to bump the contrast ratio on the MBA from 200:1, which seems to be the default, to 300:1. I didn't notice any particular improvement.

Thoughts?

DavidTO

NOTE: I didn't change the contrast ratio on the iMac, since it's fine as is. In fact I never left Basic mode (you have to go into Advanced to get to the contrast ratio bit).

Manfr3d

Hi David,

I didn't know one could change the contrast in Apple displays. To my
understanding only the backlight intensity can be changed. And that
everything else is done by software via profiles. There was an article
on Rob Galbraiths website one or two years ago that described in depth
how to calibrate a mac book pro display optimally.

As far as I can remember it involved nothing more than calibrating
to a color temp of 6000k (not 5500k nor 6500k). And setting your
display to 120cd. I do this and set the calibration to L* and get good
results on a mbp and imac. The mba should work the same. I'd give
it another shot using the same parameters as on your other macs,
and not adjust anything outside the calibration process except brightness.