HP ZR30W - which gamut to pick?

timk519 · October 9, 2010

I've got a HP ZR30W :clap and selected sRGB for the gamut size. The monitor's looking pretty cool, however the colors seem over-saturated. I'd read elsewhere that using a sRGB setting for editing and then viewing the results on a non-color-corrected screen would resulted in the person seeing 'over-saturated' colors, not the other way around.

Should I change the monitor's gamut to something else in order to get better results?

I'm running Windows 7 64bit.

Newsy · October 10, 2010

timk519 wrote: »

I've got a HP ZR30W and selected sRGB for the gamut size. The monitor's looking pretty cool, however the colors seem over-saturated. I'd read elsewhere that using a sRGB setting for editing and then viewing the results on a non-color-corrected screen would resulted in the person seeing 'over-saturated' colors, not the other way around.

Should I change the monitor's gamut to something else in order to get better results?

I'm running Windows 7 64bit.

Can you clarify that you mean by use a sRGB setting for editing? I assume this is a setting in your editing software, that you are saving your edited image in the sRGB space. I assume so because the ZR30w does not have any preset modes in a menu accessed from monitior hardware.

What I know it that the ZR30w is a wide gamut monitor offering color space coverage of about 100% of sRGB and 100% of AdobeRGB.

If you view your sRGB image using software that is not color managed then it is very likely you will see what appears to be over saturated colors.

Or if you are viewing using color managed software but have not assigned the correct ICC profile in the Windows Color Management utility, the same could occur.

So what are you viewing that is over saturated? the Windows Desktop?

And what software are you using for viewing?

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timk519 · October 10, 2010

I'd read another article where someone had processed their images in an sRGB workflow, and then wondered why the result looked oversaturated on a non-managed screen.

What I've got right now is a new monitor on a Windows 7 system, and looking at pictures using Chrome I'm seeing over saturation of the imagery.

What I'm guessing is happening is the W7 device profile the system's using is partly the cause of the setting that's been picked here:

Are these good defaults? Should I change this to get a better "Default" result outside of any color-managed programs I work with?

Newsy · October 10, 2010

I see two issues right away.

First, in Windows Color Management where it says "Device Profile" this should point to your monitors' ICC profile. There should be a default one that will look something like "HP ZR30w". You want to use the HP profile as it has data unique to the idiosyncrasies of your monitor where the "sRGB IEC61966-2.1" is a generic industry standard and has no information in it to compensate for your monitor's unique characteristics. In fact, it will skew the monitor to display colors inaccurately.

When you go to the Devices tab, go into the top field and ensure it lists your monitor there. Once that is done then below it will list all the ICC profiles "registered" for it. You may have to "Add" to see them all. In the list below it should show the "HP ZR30w" and you should make it your default profile for the monitor.

Once you get a hardware calibrator and let its' software do its' thing, all the new profiles it creates will show up here and the calibrator software will make the latest profile the default. Use a naming strategy like HP-ZR30W_2010-10-11_6500K_2-2G_120CDM2 to keep them unique and easy to find, and delete when no longer required.

The second issue I see is that you are using Chrome to view the images. Chrome will use what ever ICC profile you have identified in the Color Management utility so right away it is going to be off. Also, Chrome needs to have a switch enabled for it to be color managed. It is NOT "on" by default.

http://klyment.com/serendipity/archives/386-2010.05.17-Activating-Colour-Management-in-Google-Chrome.html

FireFox 3.6.xx has color management enabled by default. It may be easier for you to install it and try viewing a few images. v3.6.x.x. can only work with ICC v2 profiles. FireFox v3.6.x.x has a bug that prevents it from using ICC v4 profiles. Calibrator software can usually be configured to create an ICC profile as either v2 or v4.

FYI... IE v8 does not support color management except inadvertently. That feature may come in v9.

Here's some links to help you sort this out:

http://www.color.org/version4html.xalter

http://www.gballard.net/psd/go_live_page_profile/embeddedJPEGprofiles.html#

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timk519 · October 10, 2010

Thanks for the comments!

I've changed chrome to include the flag on the site you cited, and changed the default profile to ZR30W's profile. I'm not seeing a discernable difference on the display, even when I'm running with FF.

I should mention I have two monitors here - does the device profile on the "advanced" tab set the profile used by _both_ monitors?

On HW calibration - I"ve got a Spyder2 Pro unit, however it doesn't seem to like my W7 installation, so I'm thinking it's time to upgrade to a Spyder3 unit. Until then I'm kind of stuck with W7's current color management system.

Newsy · October 10, 2010

timk519 wrote: »

Thanks for the comments!

I've changed chrome to include the flag on the site you cited, and changed the default profile to ZR30W's profile. I'm not seeing a discernable difference on the display, even when I'm running with FF.

I should mention I have two monitors here - does the device profile on the "advanced" tab set the profile used by _both_ monitors?

Depends on if each monitor has their own unique LUT (Look Up Table) to work with on your video card. What card are you using?

With both monitors connected to the video card you should be able to go into the Display tab and for the Device field see both monitors in their. Each monitor should use their own unique ICC profile, hence one of the reasons I'm careful to include the monitor in the profile name that a calibrator generates.

On HW calibration - I"ve got a Spyder2 Pro unit, however it doesn't seem to like my W7 installation, so I'm thinking it's time to upgrade to a Spyder3 unit. Until then I'm kind of stuck with W7's current color management system.

You will have to change regardless. The Spyder2 puck is OK for sRGB monitors but is not optimal, and may be problematic, for wide gamut monitors. B&H has had the best price on them most of the time I've gone and looked. I'd get the ELITE model as its' software has a set of screens it walks you through to set the white luminance value of the monitor. This is how you set brightness. With two monitors side-by-side you ill want to ensure one does not appear brighter than the other.

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timk519 · October 10, 2010

Newsy wrote: »

Depends on if each monitor has their own unique LUT (Look Up Table) to work with on your video card. What card are you using?

NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800

With both monitors connected to the video card you should be able to go into the Display tab and for the Device field see both monitors in their. Each monitor should use their own unique ICC profile, hence one of the reasons I'm careful to include the monitor in the profile name that a calibrator generates.

Ok - the display tab has both monitors, however if I change the monitor on the "devices" tab and then go to the "advanced" tab, there's a listing for the different device profiles, however, I'm not sure which profile is being mapped to the respective monitor. (I've got an HP2210m as the second monitor). I've set it to the ZR30w under the assumption that I'd rather have that correct compared to the 2210.

You will have to change regardless.

- ok.

The Spyder2 puck is OK for sRGB monitors but is not optimal, and may be problematic, for wide gamut monitors. B&H has had the best price on them most of the time I've gone and looked. I'd get the ELITE model as its' software has a set of screens it walks you through to set the white luminance value of the monitor. This is how you set brightness. With two monitors side-by-side you ill want to ensure one does not appear brighter than the other..

Ok, I'll source one of those.

Thanks for the help!

Newsy · October 11, 2010

timk519 wrote: »

Ok - the display tab has both monitors, however if I change the monitor on the "devices" tab and then go to the "advanced" tab, there's a listing for the different device profiles, however, I'm not sure which profile is being mapped to the respective monitor. (I've got an HP2210m as the second monitor). I've set it to the ZR30w under the assumption that I'd rather have that correct compared to the 2210.

You got me there. I tried dragging the Color Management Window from one monitor to the other while looking at the Advanced tab and it doesn't change the information on my monitor. I'm using an ATi 5770 which I'm about 99.9% supports 3 unique LUT's on the card.

When I bring up my i1D2 calibrator utility (DisplayPRofile) that allows me to refresh on the fly the ICC profile for each monitor , it automatically senses each monitor as I drag it from one screen to the next. I had expected the Windows Color Management utility to do the same.

Looks like I may need to do my web surfing on my main monitor.

hmmmm...........

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HP ZR30W - which gamut to pick?

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