Calibrating LED displays is important. You may have edited your photos perfectly fine but find them having distortions and low quality when you get them printed. To avoid situations like these, LED screen calibration allows you to have the most consistent colors and lights on your led display.
In this article, we will explain what led screen calibration is, and how you can do it on your led display.
What is led screen calibration
The process of ensuring consistency of color on all LED modules on a display. Calibration ensures that there is no moire, all colors are at a uniform temperature, and a balanced white color. LED screen calibration is critical for all LED displays. A well-calibrated led screen provides an engaging visually pleasing experience for the viewers. However, if your led display is not producing the correct shades and colors.
With time, your led display may lose its charm. You may notice the colors are looking a bit dull and there’s no accuracy in the colors. Some of you may be even considering upgrading your display. But wait. Before you consider upgrading your led display, you should always consider calibrating your screen. Calibration is a cost-effective and time-saving process that’ll help you achieve color consistency on your led screen.
Computers usually have built-in calibration tools so you can either get help from a professional or do it yourself. High-resolution displays and the latest displays can only prove to be an excellent visual experience when your screen is well-calibrated. Any off-shade or tone on the screen can completely ruin the whole viewing experience. Calibration is relatively a simple process so doing it regularly when needed can save you from trouble of having an unbalanced color and light pattern on the screen.
How to test the image calibration of your led screen?
Even if you have just got your led display or have calibrated it before, your led screen may still end up not producing the accurate color consistency. For this reason, it is important to test the calibration of your led screen and ensure that your led screen is actually well calibrated. In case you come across an inconsistency in the color, you’ll be able to fix it. Testing the led screen calibration makes you aware of these inconsistencies.
The simplest way to test the calibration of your led screen is to open an image-viewing program supporting color management. Once you have accessed it, open a grayscale gradient of large size. A badly calibrated screen will have some jumps in tone and slight bands of color may be visible. If you can see bands of color on the screen, then you’ll have to calibrate your screen. It’s best to perform this test at least every month to make sure everything is going well. This is especially recommended if color accuracy is important to you.
However, sometimes your computer itself may produce colors that are far from favorable which makes it impossible to calibrate it well. This may happen if your screen is old and no longer produces the optimal colors. This could also occur as a result of the settings you are using on your display.
Why do you need to calibrate your led screen?
Calibrating the screen is super important to ensure that your led screen has consistent color throughout. An uncalibrated or badly calibrated led screen not only has jumps in tones but also has color banding. This may look very odd on the screen and can completely ruin the viewing experience of the audience. Let’s be honest, LED displays are all about providing the best viewing experience. If visuals are not consistent in color and light or have a moire or some other odd pattern then your viewing experience is bound to get ruined.
It is important to calibrate your led display screen from time to time. This really makes a huge difference and ensures that the image quality on the led display is high quality. Especially if your monitor is old, then it may not be able to produce the best colors. This is why, with older led screens, you should calibrate your display more often to get the best colors.
Higher brightness results in high power consumption. An unbalanced brightness and colors result in high power usage. LED screen calibration may help you save a lot of power because it will help you achieve the correct brightness and color level. It enhances the picture quality and also reduces the chances of distortion in the image.
Tools needed to calibrate
Windows 10 has a color calibration tool with which you can balance out the consistency of the color and brightness of your display. With the built-in tool called Calibrate Display Color, you can adjust the color balance of your screen. You’ll have to adjust the gamma first, then the brightness, and then the contrast. After you are done, you can compare the before and after calibration and see if you are satisfied with the changes.
There are also some online led screen calibration tools that you can use to adjust the color consistency of your led display. One of the options for this is the W4zt Screen Color Test. It’s an online web-based tool that allows you to do simple calibration and provides you with options to do quick comparisons. It’s a quick and easy solution for those who are in a hurry and don’t want any complications.
Another one is Calibrize 2.0. It’s a more advanced tool that allows you to do more than what built in options allow you. This tool provides a guide and walks you through the whole process. It allows you to calibrate your led screen smoothly by explaining each and every step.
The best solution however is a colorimeter. Invest in a colorimeter since it allows you to precisely achieve the calibration throughout your led display. Temporary solutions depend on your perception so what may appear balanced to you may not actually be best for others.
How to calibrate your led screen？
If you are using Windows, then you’ll have to go to desktop settings. Once you have entered display settings, go to advanced display settings options and click on color calibration. Then as shown in the examples, adjust the gamma settings, brightness, contrast, and color balance. Once you are done, click Finish and your led screen will be calibrated.
If you are using a Mac, then go to the apple icon on top of your screen and choose the system preference option. Then go to the display followed by Color. You’ll then be given an option of calibration followed by a Screen calibration assistant. With the help of an assistant, adjust the white point based on the example shown on the screen. Name your color profile and finish the calibration.
Another option is investing in a colorimeter. The colorimeter analyzes the colors on your screen and makes the necessary adjustments of brightness and color on your display. This allows you to calibrate more precisely. Otherwise, with free software, you will get only a temporary solution that may land you in trouble if color consistency is important for your computer usage. Colorimeter provides the most accurate color profile so the end result will be the most balanced and well-calibrated screen.
Benefits of calibrating an led screen
There are so many benefits of regularly calibrating your led screen. By using the hardware and software, or permanent and temporary solutions you can ensure that your led display is producing the highest quality image. Some of the benefits of LED screen calibration are,
1. LED screen calibration allows the LED display to have a more consistent image quality. This is highly important if your work revolves around the colors of the image. For instance, medical imaging.
2. Another benefit of LED screen calibrations that with the correct and balanced screen colors, the backlights will operate at the balanced and correct levels. This will increase the lifespan of the led display.
3. The quality of the image produced by led display is also increased due to balanced colors and brightness on the screen.
4. Just like backlights, you’ll be able to reduce the usage of power by avoiding unnecessary high-brightness
5. The pictures produced by led displays are more accurate, have more detail and depth, and a higher picture resolution.
Conclusion
As you have read in this article, LED screen calibration is highly important. Unless you are using a computer to just write your essays or watch a series, an unbalanced color and brightness may cause you a lot of trouble. Industries like medical imaging, photography, video production and broadcast etc need the most accurate color balance. Though it may appear alright to you since your perception of balanced brightness and color may be different from others.
However, color balance also varies from device to device. If you are printing photos, or editing a video. Printed photos or uploaded videos may come out different than what you expected it to be. Calibrate your LED screens regularly and enjoy the best visual experience on your display.
