f.lux

[webwit]

I am trying this:
http://www.stereopsis.com/flux/

Nice..although slightly disorienting.

[sixty]

Tried that for about 20 mins a while ago. Could not get used to it at all. Uninstalled due to oldman-syndrome. Too much of a change for me to adjust to.

[bugfix]

Okay, so now my screen looks orange...

[sixty]

Okay, so now my screen looks orange...

You will now resolve conflicts more easily... or something:

From http://www.springerlink.com/content/g0882155n2838807/ "Effects of indoor lighting (illuminance and spectral distribution) on the performance of cognitive tasks and interpersonal behaviors: The potential mediating role of positive affect"
In Study 2, subjects exposed to warm white light reported stronger preferences for resolving interpersonal conflicts through collaboration and weaker preferences for resolving conflicts through avoidance than subjects exposed to cool-white light. Additionally, illuminance and spectral distribution (color) interacted to influence subjects' self-set goals on a clerical coding task. In Study 3, receipt of a small, unexpected gift and exposure to warm-white light both increased the amount of time subjects were willing to donate as unpaid volunteers. In addition, in the absence of a gift, subjects volunteered more time under low than under high illuminance.

[webwit]

Yeah.. my first thought was my monitor was dying because of the yellow/orange. But I'll let it run for a couple of days.

[sixty]

Yeah.. my first thought was my monitor was dying because of the yellow/orange. But I'll let it run for a couple of days.

If you have that thing running, I will no longer have any three page debates with you about "that RGB shade of green is not green enough" in the future ever again.

[webwit]

You can't get to me. My yin and yang are completely in balance now.

[sixty]

Really? With your sun adjusted screen and your weird ergonomic datahand keyboard you are the ultimate hipster of computing!

[webwit]

Well I removed it. It was weird..much yellowing, but some things in very high contrast such as your mouse pointer or colored text.

[instantkamera]

The truth is, the avg persons monitor brightness IS probably too high, even in daylight. A fairly controlled viewing environment is best, where light intensity doesn't change drastically though the day/night.

I can say for sure that this solution is terrible for anyone who calibrates their screen.

My television allows for separate night and day calibrations to account for ambient daylight vs night-time viewing. This is another situation where many people have the brightness set unnecessarily high.

[itlnstln]

I keep the monitor brightness low and try to keep the ambient light at a low level. The lower brightness helps with the eye strain and the low ambient light makes sure I am not competing with it to see the monitor. I never watch TV or use a computer in complete darkness, though.

[ynih]

I keep my monitor brightness really low as well, helps my eyes adjust when I'm reading forums late at night -_-

[daedalus]

I remember one particularly dark winter night I was sitting in bed reading something on my laptop. The brightness was set to its highest, and it lit up the room around me. Subconsciously, the ambient light registered in my brain as being that light you have at the early hours of the morning during summer, thus making me forget that it was winter at all.

So, there are advantages to having your brightness turned up full in the middle of the night.

[nanu]

I tried f.lux early on and thought it was nifty but at the time I had already been using a script written to let me adjust my monitor brightness and contrast on a schedule (through the Windows gamma ramp and through my old nVidia card). So given this missing feature, I instead borrowed from f.lux to have my script set a warmer color temperature merely for the dimmest output level, since I never managed to find any information about mapping color temperature to RGB output. So no smooth transition for color temperature, and not really even for brightness:

In its current state it's set to stay at full output from sunrise until sunset, calculated from a manually set longitude/latitude coordinate. Screen output is set according to the ambient light level, detected via a photoresistor on my desk that's hooked up to a teensy++ along with a script that polls its resistance every few seconds but doesn't apply any change until a new window is focused. That way it's less enforced upon me while I'm staying in any one app, or if the desk lamp is lit.

The initial goal for all of this was to battle insomnia but now it's failing to work consistently anymore to convince me to go to bed; so much for that.

[NewGuy]

I get the idea behind it, and maybe for people that just plug in their monitor and leave it at that, it wouldn't be such a bad idea, but I would much rather stick with a properly calibrated display.

D65 white balance and a reasonable brightness of 80-100 nits means you have accurate images on your display and it's not so bright that it will light up a room or give you eye strain in the dark, or so dim that it's not usable in the daytime with a little shade. (or you can just turn it up in the day)

[pzlate]

Eh, I prefer uniform brightness.

[Moneyless]

What would you guys say is the easiest way to calibrate one's monitor? I think my monitors are too bright, as it is now when I'm viewing white-based web pages my eyes start to hurt within a few minutes...

[NewGuy]

Well, the easiest way to calibrate is to have a DDC compliant monitor (most claim to but do not implement it properly) with internal LUTs that can be written to, an EyeOne Pro and a copy of ColorEyes. It's far from being the cheapest though.

A basic guide would be to set the colour temperature of the display to the 6500K option (though that does not necessarily mean the display is actually running at 6500K, many are not properly calibrated at all) or the "Warm" setting.

I would then turn down the backlight as low as it can go (may be labelled brightness or something else depending on the screen) and leave it at that for a couple of minutes. Then, with a full white screen, gradually turn the backlight up a few steps at a time until the white screen looks bright, but is comfortable to read rather than blinding.

[sixty]

What would you guys say is the easiest way to calibrate one's monitor? I think my monitors are too bright, as it is now when I'm viewing white-based web pages my eyes start to hurt within a few minutes...

I wonder too. Last time I calibrated my monitor was in CRT days, when you would turn the knobs until some grey bars disappeared on a test picture. It seems nowadays if you want to calibrate your monitor you need some pretty complicated equipment.

http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/moni ... _tools.htm

[NewGuy]

Oh one other thing, that may or may not be of help. The majority of LED-based Mac notebooks are around 80 nits when set to 50% brightness. Now I suspect many of the people hanging around here will be using PCs, but it's something you could use as a reference if you have access to one. Their screens are also fairly close to 6500K by default too.

[Moneyless]

Well, the easiest way to calibrate is to have a DDC compliant monitor (most claim to but do not implement it properly) with internal LUTs that can be written to, an EyeOne Pro and a copy of ColorEyes. It's far from being the cheapest though.

A basic guide would be to set the colour temperature of the display to the 6500K option (though that does not necessarily mean the display is actually running at 6500K, many are not properly calibrated at all) or the "Warm" setting.

I would then turn down the backlight as low as it can go (may be labelled brightness or something else depending on the screen) and leave it at that for a couple of minutes. Then, with a full white screen, gradually turn the backlight up a few steps at a time until the white screen looks bright, but is comfortable to read rather than blinding.

Alright, well what I've done after reading your post helped a bit (but I could probably calibrate it better). My main monitor is an ASUS VW266H, and it doesn't list the color temps in K, there's only Cool/Normal/Warm/sRGB/User-Defined, so I set it to Warm, then reduced the brightness a tad. My second monitor is an LG L226WTY-BF, and it was already at 6500K, and the brightness on it actually seems fine. I should probably bring down the brightness on my 25.5" ASUS a tad more so that it is more in line with the LG.

Know of any websites with special pictures and whatnot to use to help calibrate monitors? Since all I have are some fairly average TN panel monitors I'm not looking to spend any money to calibrate these to any serious professional level or anything...

[urlwolf]

You do have to leave it running for a few days to get used to it. For me it's a must, I've used it for around two years, together with a dark desktop theme. I think this is one of the killer tools for interacting with a computer and I'm glad to see it pop up on this forum!

[Zykos]

At first, I also thought it was too yellow for me, but after a few days. Wow, when i turn it off, everything just seems so bright. It feels so natural now with it on and now i leave it so it is the most yellow. I would definitely recommend this.

[espritsc]

The default setting for the "night" was so unbearable I had to change the setting a bit brighter. This will surely take me a while to get used to. Did anybody actually liked the default night setting?

[ripster]

Well, the easiest way to calibrate is to have a DDC compliant monitor (most claim to but do not implement it properly) with internal LUTs that can be written to, an EyeOne Pro and a copy of ColorEyes. It's far from being the cheapest though.

EyeOne FTW!


My first Zooey Post here. Don't worry, there will be more since she's ALL over Reddit and Canv.as.

[NewGuy]

I would suggest that if you're buying a new meter to go with an EyeOne Pro or a ColorMunki. With modern displays using either wide gamut CCFL or LED backlighting, you really need a spectro for accurate calibration unless your monitor of choice has an optional colorimeter with specific calibration tables for its light source. (many of the better displays do) Unprofiled/calibrated colorimeters are really only suited for sRGB displays.

[db_Iodine]

Software like this just messes up the otherwise accurate colors on my monitors.

[keyb_gr]

It's an interesting idea for sure, but I'd rather have a monitor with an ambient light sensor take care of that (minus the color temp adjustment, obviously). Those are the shit. (Typically some upscale Eizos or NECs.) And the idea isn't even new - the folks at Grundig already implemented such things in TVs and clock radios 35 years ago, not digitally of course.

[ben]

At work I run Shades to tone down the cornea-burning iMac display.

It's a simple, adjustable, screen "tint" with hotkeys and without any clocks or sunrise nonsense.

http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/shades

At home I use Flux as it does feel easier on the eyes, but I can't say it's helped my sleeping pattern any.

[xbb]

I agree with ripster and NewGuy. Also you'll find different software that works with those calibrators. (argyll is free, but you still need the hardware).
This always if you need to work with colors or you just want your monitor calibrated.
If you develop for the web (sRGB colors) I suggest you buying one. If you are a photographer then it's a must.
I have a spyder 2 but I wish I bought and EyeOne instead.