This is an extremely common condition, usually caused by comparing two displays of different manufacturers, often of radically different quality levels.
- When comparing two different displays, you need to establish that they both are using the same
- color temperature
- luminance
- gamma
- contrast settings at a minimum
- Another very important aspect to consider is the viewing angle each display is using. Most Cintiq 27 owners will be using their display as a drawing surface as well as color display, and it will be set to a completely different angle than an existing display not used for drawing.
- More often than not, owners of LCD monitors or other Cintiq displays (even very expensive ones) are not fluent, or even aware of the basic menu settings possible, or special features their monitor might need to disable. If someone isn’t able to adjust the brightness on their other display, then it is very likely that they haven’t been seeing correct color on their other display. This makes comparison between the Cintiq and another display very challenging, and possibly misleading.
- One suggestion for those times when you are required to investigate a “difference” in Cintiq 27 vs. another display, would be to obtain the ICC profile that the Wacom Color Manager software will save.
- You can simply drag and drop that profile onto the ICC profile icon in the workflow, and that will load all the settings used for that other display’s profile.
- Often you’ll see immediately that they’ve chosen settings for the two displays that wouldn’t normally make them look similar. It may be simple human nature, but we normally assume the first instance of something to be the “reference standard”, such as the first time you hear a vocalist perform a song. It’s impossible to avoid some degree of comparison between two examples of an image on two separate displays, and due to the factors already mentioned.
- It can be challenging to make two dissimilar displays look “identical”. A recommendation would be to direct the support call by saying “I’m here to make sure you’re seeing correct color on the Cintiq 27, so let’s review how you’re using our software on our display. That’s something that I can help you with.”