(Not so) Juicy colors

Question

Comparing to my Cinema Display plugged to G5, colors on MacBook Pro are not that vivid as I would like them to be. I know that there is no way to create identical color profiles on both machines but is there any sufficent method to adjust my colors on MacBook Pro? I tried to make an optimal LCD profile but I'm not satisfied. Should I try other applications? Cheers!

Answer 1

I thought the color gamut situation with MacBooks and MacBook Pros was common knowledge by now.
The Apple Cinema Display can show all the colors to which the human eye is sensitive. This is called 24 bit color (8 bits each for red, green and blue) or 'millions of colors'.
However, this is NOT the case with any of Apple's laptops. Despite what you have read, they are incapable of showing millions of colors. Instead they use 6 bits per color or 18 bit color. This is approximately 260,000 colors. The operating system then uses dithering to fake the missing colors. The results is, as you have noticed, no way as good as true 24 bit color on a Cinema Display.
Doing color calibration and color matching with LCD displays in general *****, but considering the above limitation of all Mac laptops it is essentially impossible. The best you are going to get is a guestimation.
I wrote a brief dissertation about color calibration for another inquiry. Forgive me folks for posting this thing over and over and over again, but apparently this is a subject that plagues a lot of people. The original inquiry involved using the sRGB color space, so skip over that section if you like. Hopefully my notes will give you some assistance:
Brief intro before I pontificate: I have a degree in imaging and used to be one of the guys you
talked to at Eastman Kodak about monitor color calibration (before Kodak drove me crazy).
A few points:
First, sRGB is a needlessly small gamut color space invented by Microsoft. In the professional
imaging field it is looked at with great disdain because it is imposing a needless crushing of your
monitor's color profile. I've talked to one of the color experts at Adobe and he completely agrees. I
don't know who at Adobe is recommending sRGB, but they are W R O N G. I personally call sRGB
'StupidRGB' in order to remind myself exactly what it is worth.
Second, the field of color calibration, color matching and color correction is complicated and
requires considerable understanding to perform correctly. There are entire books on the subject,
well worth reading. You can even take classes on the subject, such as at Rochester Institute of
Technology (plugging my Alma matter). If you have shopped around for color calibration devices
you will find they are incredibly expensive, and there is a reason for that.
Third, LCD screens generally SUCK for color matching. Here are a few reasons why:
(A) The viewing angle of most LCD screens is so small that if you tilt your head up, down, right or
left you end up with a shift in color balance and contrast. Result: no way can you accurately color
match. This is most certainly the case with ALL MacBooks, MacBook Pros and iMacs. The Cinema
displays are vastly better. You can check this out yourself at your local Apple Store.
(B) In case you had not heard, none of the MacBook or MacBook Pro laptops are capable of showing
all colors to which the human eye is sensitive. They don't do 'millions of colors' despite advertising
you have read. They do about 260,000 colors and dither the rest. Dithering does NOT create colors
that are not there. It just fakes them. The result again is that it is impossible to use these LCDs for
accurate color matching. I have no knowledge about whether this color problem is the case with
iMacs, but refer to the paragraph above regarding their viewing angle problem.
(C) The color gamut on even the very best LCD display is at the mercy of the fluorescent light
bulbs inside the displays. The massive problem with fluorescent lights is that they do not have a
continuous color spectrum. What you get are specific wavelength peaks with complete dropouts of
other colors. Ye old CRTs with electron guns and glowing phosphors were/are not perfect either,
but they were/are MUCH better at representing the full spectrum of light. Their gamut is much larger and more accurate than any LCD display. CRTs remain THE professional display for color calibration and color matching, even today.
I could rant on, but I think you get the message: Color matching on LCDs is a lousy idea, and on
MacBooks and MacBook Pros it is essentially an impossible idea. The colors you need are not there
on the screen. What you see is not what you get in terms of color. Give up.
That having been said, you can optimize your results for guestimation purposes. The very first
thing I do with ANY display, including on Mac laptops, is go into the 'Displays' preference pane, hit
the 'Color' tab and 'Calibrate...' the display. You MUST use 'Expert Mode'. Don't bother with mickey
mouse mode. Fiddling with the settings will drive you nuts at first. But practice makes perfect. As
long as you are not color blind you WILL get the hang of it, even if you don't understand what it is
doing. Don't get psyched out. It works rather well.
When you get to 'Gamma' (you can look these terms up on Wikipedia) you want to use the same
Gamma number as the other monitor you will be using for viewing. 1.8 is fine for Macs. Beats me
why the 'PC' standard is 2.2. It is essentially a harsher contrast, but try it and use it if you like it, on
BOTH monitors. Do NOT use 'native gamma' as it is rare that two displays have identical native
gammas.
Next up is your 'white point'. Again, you want both your displays to have the same white point. D50
is the standard for viewing images in daylight. D65 is a bluer 'white point'. 9300 is the bluest of all.
These numbers represent 'color temperature' as it is called. The sun has a color temperature
hovering around 5000o Kelvin, thus D50 where D = Display. D65 = 6500o Kelvin, etc. Again, there
is lots to read about in this field. Do NOT use 'native white point' on your displays if you are color
matching because again, they won't be the same on each display.
When you get to the point of naming your color calibration profile you MUST include in the name
the gamma number you used and the white point number you used. You will want to know, believe
me. Here is why: You are going to want to make further color calibration profiles for different
situations either now or in the future. Here's one example:
Lighting environment: Are you working on your MacBook Pro in the dark? Are the walls in the room
a neutral color? Or are the walls colored? What kind of light is being used in the room?
Fluorescent? Incandescent? Daylight? Details in the lighting environment in which you are working
will affect how you perceive color on your display! You may want a morning color profile, an
afternoon sun profile, and a night profile. If you have windows near you, these different times of
day will affect the light in your work area and how you perceive color on your display. Again, go
find a good book if you really want to understand this stuff.
A good basic calibration for plain old every day work, useless for color matching but nice to look
at: I go through the calibration process for my lighting environment then use a gamma of 1.8 and I
check off 'Use native white point'. Why? LCDs look their best at their native white point. You get
good contrast with optimum color. Try it, you'll like it.
:-Derek