Calibration questions for new Mac with NEC PA271w

[7enderbender]

Hello Everyone,

Just posted the same quesiton over at dpreview but thought I may get what I need from our experts here:

I just upgraded my desktop for photo editing and I'm now on a Mac and a NEC PA271w. I still have my ColorMunki Display with the corresponding X-Rite calibration software (and I'm aware that this version is not compatible with NEC's own calibration software). I upgraded to CS6 and LR5 for Mac (not that it matter for this question I think).

What's the right way to calibrate the setup now (without spending more money on another calibration device plus software)?

I started out by doing what I did before on my Dell PC/Monitor: install the X-rite software, update everything, run the software, follow the on-screen instructions.

Well, things get a little more complicated here. First, I'm aware that my new NEC has the ability to store profiles in its hardware (obviously you can change profiles via the buttons on the monitor, but also via a free NEC piece of software).

So question #1: what internal profile should the monitor be set to when running the x-rite profiling process?

But it gets worse: now that I have deliberately chosen an aRGB monitor I want to have at least two profiles to switch back and forth between: aRGB for the fun stuff and sRGB for the other half of the fun plus the usual web browsing and everything else where aRGB gets messed up.

So I now created two profiles, one with the monitor in sRGB mode and one with it in aRGB. I have a feeling something is wrong with that approach. Should I instead have the monitor in some kind of default mode (see question 1) and is there then a way to create these two profiles with the x-rite software (aRGB + sRGB). If so, how?

Question #2: After whatever the correct process above is how do I actually switch between the two profiles? Are they managed (on the Mac) via the systems settings (monitor>color>ICC profiles XY or Z...) OR by switching them in the actual monitor hardware via the NEC tool ("MultiProfiler") OR is it in fact the x-rite software running in the background (little grey/green ball) that does this? Is the latter actually getting in the way of manually switching between two or more profiles?

Gee, I hope this makes sense. Maybe I'm just overthinking this again but I can't figure it out.

Thanks a bunch

 

[mackguyver]

The monitor's internal lookup table (LUT) (i.e. hardware calibration) should be done first, followed by the software (video card LUT) after that to get the best results, but if you only do the software one you'll be close enough for all but the most critical applications. The hardware calibration will be active at all times (depending on the modes you've calibrated) and the software calibration will be loaded into the OS by the X-Rite software.

As for sRGB vs. AdobeRGB modes, see if NEC has any software you can download. With my Dell, I use "Dell Monitor Manager" which runs in the background and automatically switches to sRGB for applications without color management and AdobeRGB for all ICC-aware applications (other than video stuff which I use the Rec. 709 HDTV calibration. You associate the monitor mode/profile with each program on the computer and when that is the active window, the monitor switches modes. It works really well, so hopefully NEC offers something similar.

If NEC doesn't have something like that, any applications that aren't ICC-aware will look really garish and over-saturated in AdobeRGB, but all ICC-aware apps will look great. You might just have to live with the garish colors or manually switch back & forth using the monitor's front panel controls.

Maybe someone with an NEC monitor can better advise you - I haven't owned one of their models since the CRT days when I was running Windows 98 and color management was just starting to take hold.