Damn you Adobe Gamma, and your Evil Minions!

January 10, 2006 4:33 PM

I can't seem to calibrate color values on my PC monitor (using Windows 2000) using Photoshop! Help!

My girlfriend’s PC uses Windows 2000 5.0, and as a working photographer using digital images, she finds that her machine cannot calibrate the color on the monitor through the Adobe Gamma controls. She uses Photoshop 7.0, but she can’t control the color values on her monitor (Phillips 107 T4) when editing her JPEG image files. Is this endemic to Windows 2000? Could there be an issue with the graphic card or the monitor? Is there a workaround or quick fix?

posted by zaelic to computers & internet (5 comments total)

The first thing I'd say is, are you sure you understand all the steps for utilizing the software? Adobe Gamma is nice, but it's not always intuitive. Further, sometimes you need to do some information gathering on your hardware in order to properly set it. A simple Gamma walkthrough can be found here, although more detailed ones can be found if you search.

From the way you phrased your question, I have to assume that Photoshop itself is not loading the values of the gamma correction. These values are not loaded by windows at startup, but by individual apps instead. One site that discusses getting around windows flaws with gamma correction is here, and it specifically discusses Win2k.

As for the monitor itself, I haven't seen anything in searching that suggests a gamma problem from hardware. You can contact Philips about it and see if they know anything.
posted by mystyk at 5:04 PM on January 10, 2006

When you say 'can't' do you mean,

A) the controls on Adobe Gamma don't do anything, or

B) can't get a reasonable profile?

If B, the answer is to go get a hardware monitor calibration tool like Opitcal/Spyder. Adobe Gamme is never going to get close to accurate monitor calibration. The best it does it get you in the ballpark and even then only if you know what you're doing.

if A, I can't help you. Well, I can, but it involves you buying your GF a nice new Intel Mac. If you really love her, I mean.
posted by unSane at 5:13 PM on January 10, 2006

Sorry but your description is too vague to even guess. Break it down into steps

1- set monitor using Adobe Gamma
2- Launch Photoshop and open image x
3- (at this point what's happening that's wrong)
posted by doctor_negative at 5:44 PM on January 10, 2006

Dr. Negative: She can't set the monitor using Adobe Gamma. When she opens up the wizard, the fourth window offers colored squares to manually calibrate color values. On her computer she can not get the colors to change. On my computer - a much more primitive Win98 job - it works.
posted by zaelic at 2:16 AM on January 11, 2006

If you still haven't found a solution for this, it might help to post the graphics card in the problematic machine, and its driver version. For example, some versions of the ATI Catalyst drivers override Adobe Gamma (and other software), leading to the symptom you describe. Updating to Catalyst 4.6 drivers fixes that problem.
posted by mdevore at 12:15 AM on January 13, 2006