Monitor calibration and color correction

Jedoc

Okay, so here's the deal. I just reinstalled Windows XP on my main PC, and so of course it reset the color profiles to default. I'm running dual LCD monitors, and I've never been able to get the colors to match up right, which is extremely irritating and distracting. I've tried a couple of programs and calibration images, but it turns out I'm pretty terrible at eyeballing it.

I ran a search on this forum before posting this question, and found a thread that recommended a free calibration tool for Macs, but there was no Windows version.

So keeping in mind that I am way too poor to purchase a Spyder, what is the best way to get both monitors closest to true color? What calibration programs do you use? Open source or freeware would be ideal, but if it's a really good program and no other options come up I'd be willing to throw a moderate amount of cash at the problem.

subedii

To be honest, I have the same problem, but the way I sort it is to go to hotmail.com and tweak my settings until I can make a good distinction between the yellow "read" and white "unread" message backgrounds. I don't mess around with individual colour temperatures or anything, just things like gamma and contrast and stuff.

I suppose if there's a good application out there I wouldn't mind finding out as well.

flatlinegraphics

http://epaperpress.com/monitorcal/

good color correction is not going to be open source, mainly because you need hardware (like the spyder thing).

other than that, most graphic card drivers should have a color correction tab. atleast the nvidia ones do.