How to Calibrate a Monitor Without Buying a Colorimeter

There is a lot of information available on how to calibrate a monitor, and as you get deeper into this it is easy to get overwhelmed by technical terminology and even conflicting views on ways to handle color.

In today's digital world, color management is more important than ever.

Modern desktop operating systems like Windows and Mac OS X offer built-in tools to calibrate screen brightness, contrast, gamma, and color levels. This can help make the text more readable and images and videos have more accurate colors.

Sure, digital photography professionals will want to use colorimeters to do this. But if you don't have such a tool and just want to make some quick adjustments, you can do it with your eye.

Before performing any of these steps, make sure that you are using the native resolution of the screen.

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Calibration software without colorimeters

There are a lot of different pieces of software on the market. Usually, a colorimeter comes with its own bundled software. Sometimes supplied with your monitor, there are even proprietary solutions that use their drivers and software to connect to hardware devices.

However, not all calibration programs are created equal. We are going to list a couple of software tools that are available to choose from and some of the important features that you will want to look for.

i1 Profiler

It was created by X-rite and offers a wide variety of solutions to calibrate displays, printers, scanners and even projectors, but it will be limited by the functionality of the calibration device you have purchased. You will also need to have an X-rite measuring device to be able to use the software.

Spectraview II

Offered by NEC, it covers a wide range of calibration options. If you are thinking of investing in a NEC display, which allows internal hardware calibration, you can not fail to recommend it.

Dispcalgui.Hoech.net

It offers a feature-rich open source tool, which has a wide range for those seeking a solid piece of software that allows them to immerse themselves in more technical and advanced features. You may also want to try this software to unlock more functionality from limited-feature colorimeters.

Spyder 5 Datacolor Software

If you purchase a color data device, Spyder 5 software is included with the device. We recommend at least the Spyder5Pro, which will give you more options when calibrating your screen.

Use the monitor's on-screen controls

If you have a monitor with on-screen controls, you can calibrate it by simply pressing those buttons. But it is difficult to adjust the options with nothing to go through. Use Lagom LCD Monitor Test Pages (or a similar online tool) and you will have on-screen test patterns that you can see as you calibrate the various settings.

Review the pages one by one, and they will explain what to look for when adjusting the various monitor settings.

If you do not have these buttons on the screen, for example, if you have a laptop, you can also use the tools integrated in Windows and Mac OS X.

Calibrate a monitor with Windows 10, Windows 8 and Windows 7

Windows has its own built-in screen calibration tool from Windows 7. To open it, start Control Panel. In Windows 10 or 8.1, you can do this by right-clicking the Start button and selecting "Control Panel."

Click "Display" in the Control Panel window, and then click the "Calibrate Color" link located to the left of the Control Panel on the screen. You can also open the Start menu, type "Calibrate Color" in the search box and click the "Calibrate Screen Color" shortcut that appears to start the calibration tool directly.

The "Screen Color Calibration" tool will appear. This tool will guide you through adjusting the different options (gamma, brightness, contrast and color balance), explaining what the option means and what you are looking for when adjusting each option. Windows does a good job of explaining what you need to know, so just read the options as you go through the wizard.

Calibrate monitor with Mac OS X

Mac OS X has its own monitor calibration tool built in. To open it, click on the Apple menu in the menu bar at the top of the screen and select "System Preferences". Click on the "Display" option in the list.

Go to the "Color" tab at the top of the window, and then click the "Calibrate" button.

The Apple "Screen Calibration Wizard" will open. It will guide you through calibrating the various display settings, explaining what you need to know and how to select the ideal option. Different settings may be available on different screens.

Calibrate monitor with Linux

Modern Linux desktop environments can also have screen and color calibration built into their control panels. Of course, if you are using a Linux desktop, you can also load the color calibration web pages and adjust the settings on the monitor itself. For example Photofriday or lagom.nl.

Calibrate monitor with Chromebooks and Chromeboxes

They don't have any built-in tools for this as it just isn't built into Chrome OS. However, if you are using a Chromebook with an external monitor or a Chromebox, you can use the previous web pages and adjust the settings using the buttons on the monitor itself.

We recommend reading why you need to calibrate a monitor

With this we finish our article on how to calibrate a monitor without buying a colorimeter. What do you think? Do you think we have forgotten any more advice? We await your responses!