For interest, I decided to compare the canned profile with the Spyder 2 colorimeter profile using the Chromix ColorThink software.

The 2D view of the profiles show the canned and measured profiles follow each other quite well, except in the area of blue to red transition. It also shows they are off-set slightly.

Investigating the 3D view (canned profile in solid, measured profile in wireframe), shows the reason for the offset is that the white point has a different placement in two profiles. Rotating the 3D view I  checked the black points and they located in the same place.

Conclusion:- The canned profile will probably do for the everyday computer user, but anyone serious about colour accuracy and management should be profiling their monitor.

Ideally I would have liked to purchase an Eizo screen, but they aren’t within my budget just yet, so I looked at various screens available around town.

Settled on a Samsung 2243BXW due to price, and the fact that Samsung is one of the four companies that make all of the LCD monitors in the world.

The thing that I like about the screen is the 300 cd/m2 brightness. This blows away my laptop, and interestingly this does not seem to be a specification typically listed with laptops.

The first thing I did on setup, was color calibrate the monitor using the Pantone Spyder2 to compare it with my HP laptop.  After some experimenting I discovered Windows does not support ICC profiles on multiple screens, unless separate video cards are used.

The other thing I noticed is that there is a very narrow viewing angle (around 5 degrees) for the correct colour viewing. Moving slightly to either side (or up and down) and a red hue begins to appear at the edges.

After calibrating the screen, I checked the ICC profile using Chromix ColorThink software. This software is brilliant for understanding color issues, allowing visual 2D and 3D rendering and comparison of color profiles.

Results of the calibration show the Samsung 2243BWX screen has a color profile that approximates sRGB. (The Eizo screens quote 95-98% of AdobeRGB1998).

The other result is that the laptop screen gamut is smaller than sRGB, and this explains why images viewed on a laptop in a non-color managed environment appear faded. (I have had a couple of friends confine this effect on different laptop brands.)

This raises an interesting question – If LCD monitors can produce sRGB, why do laptops have a smaller gamut, when they are effectively the same thing?

The conclusion – The Samsung 2243BWX will do me for now, but when I get the funds together, will be upgrading to an Eizo monitor.