DIY: How To Calibrate Your New Monitor
Channel: Andrea Box
Date: 2021-10-17

PC monitor at https://amzn.to/3lNsQoA ColorChecker at https://amzn.to/2YTzh0n

To make a quick check of the goodness of the panel I use the online test developed by Eizo, where I check, contrast, brightness, sharpness, range, color rendering, response times and any pixels and subpixel burned; from the test everything seems to be normal.

Of course, the monitor was not manually calibrated by a factory worker, which probably would have cost more than the entire production process; so I proceeded with the following imaginative do-it-yourself procedure at no cost.

The trick I used was to create color samples of which I knew the identification code. Taking a look around I found an old bright gray can with code RAL 7035 and an old sky blue spray paint with code RAL 5015, with which I painted two pieces of plywood that I used as a reference to balance the colors.

I combine the two color samples that I have also created with colored crayons on a white sheet of paper, which after having photographed and checked the correspondence of the RAL codes through the Color Picker App for color verification, I will use as a reference to calibrate the monitors , with the aim of making the colors as similar as possible to the real ones, to adjust brightness and contrast for a good range of blacks and whites and to standardize everything even on the old monitor, now downgraded to secondary service.

Before proceeding with the adjustments, it is necessary to create an ideal lighting of the environment avoiding direct sunlight and artificial light, for example by turning a spotlight with a white light bulb towards a white ceiling or wall. Once this is done, by opening an image with about thirty shades of gray, from black to white, for example the one available on the aforementioned Eizo test, on all the monitors that you intend to calibrate, you act on the brightness of the monitor through the adjustments in such a way as to obtain a deeper black that is still distinguishable from the next band, then we act on the contrast in such a way as to obtain the best white still distinguishable from the previous band, if necessary we cyclically retouch both the black and the white, in such a way as to obtain the better balance between all monitors.

By opening the images with the photo of the color samples on all the monitors, we proceed to the visual calibration by acting on the customized color settings, where it will be necessary to balance the RGB, red, green, blue combination, which when mixed generate all the other colors, placing the samples side by side. to the respective images and repeat the operation cyclically, if necessary, to achieve the optimal balance between all monitors. During this operation, the white of the background sheet must also remain neutral as much as possible, avoiding unwanted color casts, perhaps also acting on the temperature of the light if available as settings on the monitor.

After a check of overall visual comparison of the colors on the screen with those of the real samples, I also proceed to check the color codes detected on the screen with the real ones.

To do this, I use the aforementioned free app, available on Google Play, Color Picker, which, after selecting the RAL code table, using the smartphone camera aimed at color samples, allows the detection of the color code. Repeating the operation on all the color samples, I was also able to verify the correspondence of the RAL color codes, even if some are only close to the real ones, but on the whole satisfactory.

The main technical specifications of the HP V24 FHD monitor are: 250 nit brightness, 1000: 1 contrast level, 72% NTSC color gamut, 8 bit color depth, full hd 16: 9, 170 degree horizontal viewing angle, 160 vertical viewing angle degrees, pixels per inch 91 ppi, anti-glare, 60.96 cm diagonal, hdmi and vga ports, tilt from -5 degrees to +20 degrees, maximum consumption 26 watts, class D.

So, basically, even a low-priced monitor if scrupulously and patiently adjusted can be a good starting point for those on a limited budget.

1) 0:00 Unpacking
2) 2:10 Eizo test
3) 2:42 Spectroscope
4) 4:26 Calibration
5) 7:10 Video games

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