With the i1 Basic the first thing that you will want to do is to profile your monitor. What this does is to take a reading of how your monitor displays a specific color and compare them to what the actual color should be. To do this, you plug in the i1 Pro Spectrophotometer into a USB port and then start up the software.
When the software starts up, you will choose the display module. Please note that although there may be other modules visible, they will not be active unless you purchase the addon functionality, or have purchased the i1 XTreme. Also note that on the right of the screen is the context-sensitive help.
While choosing easy mode may be the best place to start for basic needs or for those new to profiling, it is the advanced mode that will let you bring out the most accurate color profiles. Keep in mind that it also requires more knowledge and experience to do it well, where easy mode makes the choices for you.
In advanced mode, the first choice you have is the white point. The choice of white point will be dependent on where and in what industry that you work. In the U.S., for print it is probably 5000 Kelvin. In Europe it most likely is 6500 Kevin. The point is here that you have the choice.
Then you have the Gamma settings. These refer to the mid-tone brightness of the display. The higher the value of the gamma number, the darker the mid-tones will show on the screen. Apple monitors are native at 1.8 and Windows are native at 2.2. Here you want to choose the setting that is correct for your machine.
Luminance is a measurement of the overall brightness of your display. If you are in a workgroup, you can use i1 Match to measure the luminance of all of the monitors in your group and set them accordingly to assure that all of the images are viewed equally on all displays. You also have the option to measure the ambient light in your workspace. This will allow you to determine if the color temperature and the amount of light in your workspace will accommodate good color judgment on screen.
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