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Craig T. Harding wrote: >Susan Pinochet wrote: >> > >> are seeing. Or perhaps they don't know. Do PC users have any mechanism >> similar to the above for seeing what Mac users see? >> >> -- Susan Pinochet <pinochet(at)polaris.net> >> http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/5876/ > >I using a reletively inexpensive video board and a 17" Viewsonic >monitor. I can adjust gamma at the board level and through the monitor, >temperature and voltage of video level. With pantone cards, I believe >that I can match most anything. For my own use I use 9300 kelvin for >color temp and lower the brightness a little, then run the pantone card >through the scanner and adjust to monitor and printer. Am I doing it >right? Can Mac monitors adjust temperature? > I'd have to ask a friend in the pre-press biz about the Pantone procedure... (She uses Macs at a pre-press service bureau for the ad biz in Boston.) You're referring to those $$ glossy-cardboard color sample books you can buy from Pantone, right? For the *average* PC user to see what a Mac user sees, well, I'd guess they'd really have to put the two side-by-side and tweak the PC's card software 'til it matches the standard Mac - assuming the PC user *had* a card that included gamma correction features. Even so, they still might not be able to achieve an equivalence, since the issue of Colorsync(tm) color correction matters, too: Apple licensed (from Linotype-Hell AG) and incorporated this technology years ago, but Microsoft only got around to licensing it this past year. It's doubtful whether the average PC has it yet. This is why so many colors look horribly off when originated on a PC and then viewed on a Mac (or printed out), and why print publishers have vastly favored the Mac for achieving accurate color reproduction. My IXMicro Twin Turbo card in my Mac clone has more temp and gamma settings than one might ever need - so if it's on the card/in the card's software driver, no matter what the platform, anyone should be able to try different gammas. Color matching might still be in doubt, though. The ability to adjust temperature seems to only be included on mid-to-higher-end video cards, as far as I can tell. (Maybe soon all cards will have it.) How "inexpensive" was your card? A few years ago, for most higher-end Macs Apple started running primary* monitors off cards rather than off a built-in video port as had usually been the case before. Perhaps this was to keep the size of the motherboard down, as well as to offer modular choice. The cloners followed this practice. (*I won't mention the long-standing ability to drive up to six monitors (assuming enough NuBus or PCI slots) - not mirrors of each other but unique desktop space that's easily arranged in the monitors control panel...;-) Macs have had built-in gamma correction (if usually only at one temperature setting, apparently) and also Colorsync for about as long as they've had color (87-90?). And 24-bit and even 32-bit color (on my old Quadra 700, built in '92, for instance) has been standard in all Macs except Powerbooks since the early 90's. I haven't done it myself, but the hallowed practice of plugging (cheaper) PC monitors into one's Mac's video port via a VGA-to-Mac adapter (c. $40?) would take advantage of the gamma & color correction in the Mac's own video circuitry/software, I'd think. The ones I've seen hooked up that way look as good as any Apple monitor. Any PC monitor-using Macophiles care to comment? Kai Matthews, Composer/Writer kaimuse(at)apocalypse.org http://www.objarts.com/kaimuse/ Member, HTML Writers Guild http://www.hwg.org/ pop!site Design Consultant http://www.pragmaticainc.com/ "The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know." - Bucky Fuller "in this net it's not just the strings that count but also the air that escapes through the meshes." - Pablo Neruda
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