Photoshop on dual monitors - which profiles?

[Serge Cashman]

How can I determine if Photoshop uses correct monitor profiles on a multiple-monitor system?

I know how to see ONE monitor profile it uses (Edit/Color Settings/RGB - see the name under Monitor RGB).

I came across this post on Colorvision's board but I can't make sense of it (look at the last paragraph):
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/colorvision_group/message/384

[digitaldog]

At least on the Mac OS, Photoshop has been able to handle multiple displays with an associated profile for years.

The Color Settings only show a single profile (Monitor RGB:XXX) that's the main display.

Open a file in say ProPhoto RGB and place a copy on both. IF the 2nd display isn't recognizing the profile, it will look pretty butt ugly.

[Serge Cashman]

Well... It looks the same. The monitors look the same to begin with (I know - for practical purposes it's good enough, but not everybody else is in the same situation). I figured there has to be a way to visually test, like assign visibly different profiles or somehow edit  a monitor profile or use some profiles with some tags but without other tags like on Bruce Lindbloom's site.

http://www.brucelindbloom.com/index.html?Vcgt.html

Essentially I would need one profile  that doesn't tell Photoshop to adjust anything or tells it to make some exagerrated adjustments, but still has the tag for the required LUT adjustments....

[paulbk]

re.. two monitors w/one dual head card, Windows XP

First, the monitor calibration profile shown in PSCS2, EDIT>COLOR SETTING>RGB
is NOT necessarily the profile being used for that monitor. It's the Windows default profile. Which may not be the monitor Photoshop is running on.

Yes, you can calibrate each monitor separately and create a unique ICC file for each monitor. And yes, via Desktop properties you can assign the ICC profiles to their respective monitor. HOWever, Windows XP will only load one profile each time you reboot. One monitor will have the correct profile, one will not. BUT you can load the correct profile manually after you boot using a free utility from gretagmacbeth called: “Displayprofile.exe” Download it free here (2 up from bottom of page):
DisplayProfile?

Simply run 'Displayprofile', drag it into a monitor screen and select the profile you want to load.. very cool. This also allows you to quickly switch between multiple calibration files for any monitor without rebooting (say 5000° and 6500°).

Gretagmacbeth says:
DisplayProfile freeware for Windows
DisplayProfile allows you to store multiple monitor profiles for your PC and have a way to easily switch between them.
(Dec 02, 2005: 202 KB)

[paulbk]

You can also use WinColor.exe as an auto load shortcut in your startup directory.
I do.

See this page for more:
Dual Monitor WinColor.exe

[Serge Cashman]

You can also use WinColor.exe as an auto load shortcut in your startup directory.
I do.

That page is partially based on my correspondance with Keith Cooper. I'm glad he published it - people seem to find it useful. I'd make some corrections to it but i don't want to bug him every time I learn more details.

No - everything works fine for  me. I just want to make sure that Photoshop only uses one profile. From what I read it should be true but I need to see what people base that conclusion on.

It's also a cross-platform question, since I've read an Xrite (if I'm not mistaken) manual claiming that this is always the case.

On a PC the monitor profile that appears in that Photoshop menu is not necessarily the primary monitor's. My guess is that it's the last to be calibrated... I have to work on that.