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February 17th, 2012 22:00

Best practices for calibrating the U3011 and setup with Photoshop

I recently purchased the Dell U3011 monitor and haven't been able to get a picture I'm with happy with that translates well across multiple devices and need some help.   I have a feeling that beyond needing calibrating with a professional tool, the problems are related to improper Photoshop settings. I called Adobe and spent a good hour or two on the phone with someone in India who was no help at all.  Can someone help out with some best practice settings (I've listed my settings below)? I realize these are prob vague questions and depend on a lot of other variables, but I simply can't create a file on the Dell that looks right or close to right on my Mac. Depending on my settings I get radically different results. 

1 - Is sRGB the best all around color profile to use for compatibility  on a wide range of systems for graphic design (digital, no print) and web design? 

2 - Would it be better to use a custom profile and calibrate using a hardware tool?

3 - Should I set the Gamma to PC, even though I'm on a Mac? It looks super wrong when set to Mac (hyper saturated neon reds etc.), but white are kind of 'blue' when set to PC.

4 - When Calibrating using the Apple calibration tool, should I set my Gamma to 1.8 or 2.2. Does that matter if my Dell is set to PC or MAC? What about white point?

4 - What should my Photoshop default settings be for new files?

Should my Color Profile for new documents be set to sRGB or Dell U3011? Or should I leave Color Management off for new documents?

Should my Color Settings in Photoshop have RGB set to sRGB or Dell3011?

Should I use North America Internet 2 or customize the color settings?

Should Proof view be on? If so, set to what? I'm finding that all these settings drastically change the resulting color of the files

On my Macbook Air, should I set things up in a particular way so that I can pass the files back and forth easily?

My Monitor settings:

sRGB 

Input Color Format: RGB

Gamma - PC (though I'm on a Mac)

My Mac Settings:

Default Dell Monitor Calibration 

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54.8K Posts

February 20th, 2012 14:00

That is out of our depth. You should check with Adobe users on their Forum.

3 Posts

February 20th, 2012 14:00

Ok, thanks but what about at least the monitor settings? Should I have it set to Mac gamma if I'm using a Mac? When I do the colors look off (way to bright and contrasty). What about sRGB? Is that a good default setting to use for web design and non-print graphic design?  Thanks in advance.

3 Posts

February 20th, 2012 16:00

Ok, thanks. Good article. As far as the physical monitor settings on the Dell goes though, do you recommend using the PC gamma as well? Also on the physical monitor, do you recommend Standard or sRGB preset if in the end I'm going to be using sRGB output from Photoshop? Thx

5 Posts

February 20th, 2012 16:00

Since most viewers won't be using macs set the gamma to PC (2.2) rather than Mac (1.8). This Apple link has further advice. support.apple.com/.../HT2026

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