Monitors

[agiledogs]

I notice with some monitors have a 98% adobe range of color while other do not have this stated...typically those that have this there is a premium in price. I was wondering if anyone has used one of these type of monitors which are supposed to have a higher degree of color accuracy with printing and if they are worth the investment.

[RABaker]

"I was wondering if anyone has used one of these type of monitors..."

Yes. I used to have a Samsung 19" LCD monitor that was recommended for graphics professionals. It was a good monitor for photo editing and was fairly costly when I bought it several years ago. About a year ago I upgraded to a 24" monitor from NEC (model LCD2490W2 - without their SpectraView system since I already had a capable calibration system). This new NEC monitor is supposed to have 97.5% coverage of the Adobe RGB color space. I can't verify the exact numbers, but I can say that this new monitor is significantly better than my previous one. Once I had it calibrated and adjusted to ~90 cd/m^2 to approximate paper white, I got outstanding correlation between the screen and prints.

"...and if they are worth the investment."

For me, it was worth the investment. I feel it is actually more pleasant to edit photos now (although this is very subjective) and I know that when I am done I will be able to get a print that looks like I expect. There is more to a color managed workflow than having a good (calibrated and profiled) monitor, but it is a key part of the process.

Good luck,
Richard Baker

[agiledogs]

Well I opted for the more "afforadble model" also another ASUS monitor and man what a difference.....even moreso once calibration was completed. 23.6" is a nice size for editing.