Sorting Out Multiple Monitors, Color Profiles and the like

Back in the day being into photography, graphic design or video was easy, you just did the best you can when it comes to color. As soon as computers got good at handling color, a new crop of monitor calibrators came out.

Now in a world with one monitor, calibrating your monitor is pretty easy. In a world where we have two, three or more, it becomes less clear. Another wrinkle is that consumer calibrators, like mine, only support a single monitor. That makes calibrating multiple monitors nearly impossible.

Fear not dear readers, I am going to show you a hack to get past that pesky single monitor limitation, as well as a physical hack to keep yourself square and re-square if you have to disconnect and reconnect your setup.

Tip #1: Know Who You Are Deal With

I mean monitors! I use the Pac-Man Principle. The way I keep my monitors and profiles straight is by naming my monitors something other than Samsung 204b, and physically naming my color profiles to match. I have three monitors, and left to right I have named them Clyde, Inky and Blinky. On each monitor I have affixed a label (I am a label Nazi) that says “L Clyde,” “M Inky,” and “R Blinky.” When I set up my desk, it’s never a question of which monitor goes where.

The next thing is making sure that the monitors are always plugged in the right place. In addition to wrapping all three monitors together with zip ties, I have labeled the monitor end in L, M and R for Left Middle and Right obviously, and I have labeled the other end to make sure they always make it into the same ports like pictured.

This way again, if I have to move my setup, I am never concerned about what gets plugged where. As you will find, there are two significant factors that effect the color on the display, the monitor itself, and the video card you are connecting to it. I have two cards, so it’s super important that they are labeled appropriately. I believe in zero room for error!

Tip #2: Tell Your Computer What’s What

Since we have gone through the trouble to identify each monitor clearly and label them, it’s great practice to carry that through. When you calibrate your monitor, especially with one that has a single monitor limitation, you are going to come up with some ugly profiles. I solve that by using a handy little Mac utility called ColorSync Utility, it’s built into the OS and will allow you to both rename the files AND the friendly name that shows up in the OS Color Profile selector.

Tip #3: Trick The Limit

This last one is easy. Profilers like my Spider 2 Express, always calibrate the main monitor. Simply go into your display settings and change the main monitor before you calibrate.

The process is simple, set your main monitor, calibrate it, use the ColorSync utility to rename the profile to match your friendly monitor name, rinse and repeat.

Wrap Up

So those are some simple tips. Another thing to keep in mind, if you are lazy you can only calibrate the monitor you use to edit color.

That’s it, calibrate and enjoy!

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