Background: Just started a new job as a software developer for an amazing company. I have at my workstation two beautiful 22” LCD monitors. It just happens, however, that the laptop port replicators we use have one DVI and one VGA connector each; so one monitor is connected via DVI and the other via VGA.
It appears that having these two identical monitors connected over different interfaces screws with the color/brightness/contrast/whatever enough to make a noticeable difference, even after I have reset both back to their default settings. I have tried manually adjusting away the difference, but just can’t seem to reconcile the difference easily (“okay now the whites are the same, but the colors are off…okay now the desktop colors match, but the whites are off…). An exhaustive experimentation would entail something like 256^3 (for the RGB) multiplied by 100^2 (for each of the brightness and contrast). And that is a lot of monitor button clicking.
Without resorting to some expensive monitor calibrator, does anyone have a strategy they use to calibrate two monitors to look the same (e.g., “match the reds first, then the contrast…”)?
Answer
It's likely not the interfaces--just like high-end microphones, the same assembly line turns out monitors with different temperatures, highs, and lows. And like those trinitron lines, if you're sensitive enough to notice the difference it's going to bug the heck out of you no matter what you do.
One option: You can use one monitor for visual tasks and one for more monotony--or have your tools on one screen and your main work area on the other. Then you don't have to have them matched.
Otherwise:
Get a test card up on both screens.
- Keep the brightness and contrast near the middle when you start calibrating. It's a little muddier, but you'll be able to get it equally muddy at least.
- Start by calibrating the temperature, if your monitors have that setting.
- Then it's 100^2 X 256^3.
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