What kind of monitor will show colors accurately?
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Until now I've been doing all my work on my good ole' laptop and wacom intuos pro. My laptop is not the best in terms of speed etc.(I didn't buy it for graphics work), but it works.
I don't usually print my work, and the one time I did, I was bothered that the colors came out less vivid and more yellow/ greyish. At the time I blamed it on the printer.
I recently sent the final illustrations for my first book to the publisher. They commented that the colors are a bit 'earthy', can I make them more vibrant. I didn't really understand what they meant, to me it looked very vibrant.
Now I just borrowed a big screen, and the difference in the colors is unbelievable. On the big screen the colors look exactly how they looked when I printed it out, and oh yes! the illustrations for my first book look very earthy indeed. I tried to fix them up with adjustment layers etc. Its not perfect but I think it does the trick.
My major problem now is that I just started coloring another book, (a bit behind schedule), with a deadline in a few weeks. I can't color it on my laptop because it does not show the colors accurately. I need to buy a new screen TODAY, but I haven't the foggiest idea what I need.
How do I know if the screen will show colors the way they will look when printed?
How do I make sure the screen will be clear (the one I borrowed was slightly fuzzy)?
Is there anything else I should look out for?
Also would you know if plugging in a screen into my laptop will slow it down? -
For accurate colours you will need an IPS monitor like a Dell Ultrasharp one or something along those lines. I use a Dell IPS 27 inch monitor and also a spyder 4 calibration tool (few years old now but still works fine). Hard to say which monitor you should get- it is a considered purchase, I would recommend you do more research and ask computer techy experts on the subject. You need to check what monitor connection sockets you have in your laptop before you buy one as well and check the system requirements.
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I also think that an IPS monitor is a must: the colours are the same from whenever angle you look at it
mine is a samsung syncmaster F2380, it's a good few years old but still work great and was very well priced at the time (they are usually more expensive than other monitors)
I don't have a spyder to calibrate it, I did it visually (some websites explain how to do this in a few steps), it's not the best but works for me at the moment
and then, there's also a difference between screens and printers, if they're not calibrated the same way... -
Thank you so much.
So basically, I need to;-
speak to a tech, invest in a quality screen AND calibrate it, (whatever that means)
Thank you again for your help
