Equipment you need

Calibration is usually carried out using an external device called a Spectrophotometer, or ‘Spectro’ for short. We recommend using the X-rite i1Pro 2 or X-rite i1Pro 3. They are designed to calibrate and profile all monitor types, including laptop displays.

It can also calibrate printers and is able to measure spot colours into colour files.

You will need the following for monitor calibration, all located in the kit case:

The spectrophotometer

The calibration tile

The USB cable

The weighted display mount

How to achieve the best possible monitor calibration

Ambient lighting

The ambient lighting plays a big part in the results of your monitor calibration. We recommend that your office is fitted with D65 light bulbs. D65 is daylight temperature, and it is the default lighting condition of the AVA software.

Launch the AVA CMS Controller application from either your dock or Applications / AVA 5.nn / AVA Utilities. Click the Viewing Conditions tab and select the appropriate illuminant from the list at the bottom of the window. If you are not sure what the temperature of your bulbs is,  just use D65 at 2˚. The 2˚ and 10˚ options are referring mainly to the angle at which the colour match would be most accurate. For example in a light box on a shelf. For many, lighting is not confined and is overhead so the 2˚ works well.

Apple®and iMac® displays are generically set at D65 and setting the illuminant in the AVA CMS Controller is all you need to do. Other monitors from manufacturers such as Lacie or EIZO will require the illuminant or temperature to be changed via the inbuilt menus. Please refer to your manufacturer user manual to access these functions.

Some monitors, such as EIZOs come with inbuilt spectro instruments which are controlled by manufacturer software and hold other benefits such as automatic, scheduled calibration.

Click here to learn about using third party profiles in the AVA CMS Controller.

Calibrating the monitor

1. Launch the AVA MonitorCal application from either your dock or Applications / AVA 5.nn / AVA Utilities / Profiling / MonitorCal. You will notice the ‘MonitorCal’ name display beside the  Menu in the top left of the screen.
2. Upon launching the application, the following window will open. If you have a dual monitor setup, these will be displayed numbered on screen. Individual monitors can also be selected, should you wish to only calibrate one monitor. The default settings for this window show the options Use CMS Controller and Auto Luminance as ticked.
   
   

3. Adjust the screen brightness of your monitor. Should you have an Apple®screen, these settings can be found in Settings > Displays. As a guideline for new Apple®displays, the brightness slider should be positioned above the ‘ll’ of the word Automatically. This will give you a good starting point for your brightness level.Ensure Automatically adjust brightness is unticked.
   
   
   Often the brightness adjustment options for non-Apple®monitors can be found in the form of a button panel on the screen itself.
4. In Monitor Cal, click on the Calibrate option. The following window will open, allowing you to run the calibration:
   
5. Calibrate the i1Pro. Place the instrument on the white calibration chip. In the window on screen, click Calibrate Now. The following message will appear:
   Ensuring the i1Pro2 is on its white chip, click Calibrate. Should the calibration run successfully, the below message will be displayed:
   
6. Click OK
   
   If calibration fails, ensure that the white tile is showing, the tile is clean, the lens is present and hasn’t dropped off and the i1Pro 2 is sat correctly on the platform itself. Further errors in calibration may point towards a technical issue with the instrument itself. Please contact the manufacturers for further assistance.

The Calibration

1. Attach the weighted mount to the i1Pro 2 then hang over the back of the monitor, with the i1 lens directly over the white spot which has appeared on screen.
   
   Tilting the screen back slightly helps to maintain good contact from instrument to monitor.
2. Click ‘Start Measuring’ in the top left of the screen.
   
   

   The i1Pro 2 will go through a series of readings. A time bar is shown in the top right.
   

3. Once the time bar has ended, you will be prompted to remove the i1 from the monitor.

4. Remove it and click ‘Ok’.

5. Upon completion of the calibration process, a new luminance value will be displayed and the profile in your AVA CMS Controller automatically replaced with the newly created one. There is no need to manually save the profile.
   

6. If the result of the luminance value is not as desired, adjust the screen brightness, return the device to the monitor and re-calibrate. As before, the profile will automatically be named and set in the AVA CMS Controller.

   Generally speaking, the target range for luminance lies between 80 and 100 Cd/m² for appropriate studio lighting conditions. However, this can vary for unusually bright or dark lighting setups.

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   Note: Should the screen brightness be too high, you can manually decrease the figure by unticking Auto Luminance and typing in a new value. However, this should only be done if the decrease is small. It is not possible to manually increase this value; in that case a new calibration is necessary

   If you are unsure about your lighting conditions or have any questions about calibrating, contact our Technical Support Team at any time for further advice.
   
   

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   Note: Select the option Check Profile to assess whether a new calibration is necessary. Should the test throw up large dE errors (above 3 dE), it is indicative of a need to calibrate.