pageoneresults - 2:20 pm on May 10, 2006 (gmt 0)

I would also recommend calibrating your monitor.

My question would be; calibrating to what? There are too many factors involved when calibrating a monitor. Years ago I used to go through a weekly calibration routine with our Radius monitors and it's a tedious process to say the least. Most of the calibrated monitors are going to be found in the designer and print communities.

For many of us, calibration means adjusting the brightness and contrast. Few of us are going to adjust color saturation, hues, etc. We adjust to our eyes and not to a standard for calibration.

I go on press checks regularly and get to see color variations day in and day out. Matching colors exactly is very difficult when you take into consideration all the factors that influence color. The plants I work with are on the higher end and have all the latest gear for color calibration on screen. But, I'm not printing on the screen, I'm printing on paper and it will never look the same.

When it comes to the web, the best option is to let the client choose the primary colors from an industry trusted source on color such as Pantone. What we've done in some instances is provide the client with a selection based on their specified Pantone colors. We show them the conversion values so they can see that they match what Pantone specifies. If the client is not happy with the color on screen, we have them choose another color that they are happy with. Most of the time it's a minor adjustment in the values.