Spectraview II and Multiprofiler PA271w

[FMueller]

Hi everyone,
I've just purchased a NEC PA271W with the bundled calibrator. Running it off a MacBook Pro.

This is my first really good monitor and it is stunning how superior it is to my 24" iMac. I have calibrated it using Spectraview II and the supplied puck, so far so good (well first I had to give my user account write permissions to the Profiles folder....) I've also installed the Multiprofiler software available from the NEC website.

I'm trying to bring myself up to speed by reading this forum but I'm stiil trying to understand a few things.

I've run calibrations through the Spectraview software in both the "Photo editing" and "sRGB emulation" I realize I may have to tweak luminance levels to get print matching right in photo editing. The default sRGB emulation calibration comes at max brightness, I figure I'll have to knock that down quite a bit just to preserve the health of my monitor (and to prevent sunburn...just kidding)

I've also installed Multiprofiler which also offers options for some manual customization (i.e. "Full" and "High Bright" picture mode which would be nice for plain vanilla web browsing), but what is the purpose of Multiprofiler offering sRGB and Adobe RGB picture modes when Spectraview offers the same, presumably of higher quality. Is multiprofiler just a substitute for proper profiling?

Am I missing the big picture on how these two pieces of software should be used to complement each other?

Thanks,

Fred

[Mark D Segal]

You don't need Multiprofiler if you are using Spectraview.

[Mark D Segal]

Multiprofiler is useful even with Spectraview. It's helpful as a better GUI to some menu settings. Spectraview is for profiling, Multiprofiler helps control tons of other features.

What tons of other features?

Once you set the profiling parameters and create a profile, you destroy the usefulness of the profile by tinkering with any adjustments which change the parameters.

The reason why I told the OP you use one or the other is because that same advice came to me directly from NEC - and it makes sense.

But my mind is open - I'd like to hear about these tons of other features which are really helpful and won't interfere with the operational proficiency of the profile.

[Enchanter]

Fred, I think the MultiProfiler picture modes outside of SpectraView II are the factory calibrated ones. For web viewing I just use a SpectraView II, calibrated sRGB Emulation profile, with a luminance of 120, saved as sRGB Emulation1.

There is a lack of information from NEC on the correlation (limited or otherwise) between SpectraView II and MultiProfiler in the SV and MP user manuals.

[Mark D Segal]

There is a lack of information from NEC on the correlation (limited or otherwise) between SpectraView II and MultiProfiler in the SV and MP user manuals.

That's why I asked them.

[Czornyj]

I love the full gamut for photo work but it's goofy looking for web image viewing. Switching back and forth from full gamut to sRGB seems silly but I guess just the way it is using these wide gamut monitors.

Firefox has CMM, so switching is not necessary. You just have to enable color management for untagged content - about:config, gfx.color_management.mode = "1"

[FMueller]

John, Mark, and Enchanter,

Thanks very much for your responses. I did use Spectraview II to calibrate an sRGB emulation at a luminance of 140 for web browsing. Works well.

I'm not sure that there is a well defined division of purpose between Multiprofiler and Spectraview II except that Spectraview II is what one uses for color critical work, and color critical work and print matching is why I parted with my dollars. I'm just getting going with this beautiful and controllable monitor. I've profiled my laptops and iMac for years but have never been able to do reliable print matching. I believe this is simply the shortcomings of the monitors that I've been hoping would produce the desired results.

I'm pretty excited to finally have the tools to do this right. I'm rereading digitaldogs color management book and hopefully I can get my workflow dialed in for reliable print matching.

Fred