Win XP - AppleCinemaDisplay 20 Alu - How do I get current value of monitor backlight

[bongobongo]

Hi

Using:
- Win XP Pro SP3
- Monitor: Apple Cinema Display 20" Aluminium

I'm about to start printing large format prints.

So I have calibrated my monitor.

.... The thing is that I need to calibrate my monitor with the backlight set to less than 100% in order to make color on screen to match the prints.

What I'm talking about is the value that I set the backlight to, when using the plus and minus buttons on the right side/edge of the monitor.

Does anyone know how I can read the current setting of the backlight value for the monitor in Windows environment?

The reason I want to know this value is that when I do other work than printing and image editing I might want to adjust backlight to another value.
But when editing images and/or printing then I want to use the same backlight value as when I calibrated the monitor.


Regards
__________________

[Pat Herold]

Generally when people are wanting to do a quality calibration of their display, they will use software with a measurement instrument.  Having a measurement instrument (i1, Spyder, Optix) is the only practical way to get a usable brightness value.

[bongobongo]

Hi pherold

I have calibrated my Monitor using "Spyder 3 Pro".

My problem is that when using the Apple Cinema Display 20" aluminium on Windows I do not see the value of the backlight
when using the Plus and Minus buttons on the right side of the monitor.
I do not find any place in my computer to see the current value either.

Therefore... on my first calibration I pushed it up to 100%

Now I read in the User manual from ImagePrint 8 (RIP) that they recommend not to set it to 100%.

This is because LCD monitors are quite bright.... and it will be hard to match what I see on my monitor to the final print.

If I adjust the backlight downwards... using Plus and Minus buttons then I would like to know the current value prior to
calibrating my monitor, in order to set it back to this value prior to editing or printing images.
When I do other stuff I might want to push the backlight value up (or at least change it).

[Pat Herold]

I see what you mean.  Spyder 3 Pro does not give you the ability to specify a certain luminance. The Elite version of the software does that.  I'm afraid I don't know how you can solve this problem without getting different software or just by "estimating".