Tramontána Monitor Calibration

This handy little utility allows you to test, diagnose and calibrate your DTP monitor (or monitors, if you have more than one attached to your system), either of the traditional CRT type or the more fashionable TFT/LCD variant. Note that it is not a color profile generator, just a program that makes it possible to set the adjustment controls of the monitor into their optimal position. Or, you can just as well use it to check out the healthiness of your own monitor or a second hand one you're going to buy.

He have to stress one thing already in the beginning: we wrote this utility with the DTP professional in mind. Although, understandably, anybody can download and use the program freely, some of the tests it performs have no sense or are even completely impossible with simpler desktop monitors or cheaper, common video cards (just to mention one important aspect, the video card has to offer the possibility to adjust its gamma for the appropriate test to work).

Many other tests like the geometrical settings of the picture can be carried out on lesser monitors and video cards as well, so the utility might still be quite useful in those cases, we just wanted to be fair and mention already in the beginning that in order to use it to its full potential, you have to have the appropriate gear, too. But in any case, it's here, try it out for yourself...

What does it?

The wizard starts by asking whether you have a traditional CRT or a newer type TFT/LCD monitor because some tests are carried out differently or even have no meaning on one type or the other. You cannot tell the program which monitor is of which type in a dual-head (or triple or more) setup, so in such a case, please, perform the test twice with both settings.

After some initial words about color temperature, you will be able to adjust the brightness (black level) and contrast (picture content) of the monitor precisely and appropriately, not just by sheer trial and error that usually fails miserably.

Before every individual test, you will receive a detailed description of how to adjust your monitor and why to do it that way. Even during the test itself, on-screen instructions (you can hide them and show again if they happen to interfere with the actual testing operation) guide you precisely about what to do.

Later, you will be allowed to adjust the gamma of your video card to match the industry standard, to set up the display geometry to use up every available pixel on the screen real estate, yet to receive real horizontals and verticals, without any rotation, pincushion or trapezoid distortion. On a CRT monitor, you will be able to test and adjust the convergence of the red, green and blue electron beams. Next, you can test the sharpness of the individual lines on the display, also to make certain visually that your video card and monitor can cope with the resolution you want to use them at.

Moiré patterns are very annoying; our utility will help eliminate them if your monitor has the necessary controls. Next you can check the stability of the image: this is important because it can either warn you of a poor quality monitor or to indicate the aging process of your own.

The remaining tests deal with faithful color reproduction. On TFT/LCD monitors, they help you pinpoint those dreaded dead or stuck pixels while with traditional CRT monitors they can help ensure color homogeneity across the whole display area.

After having carried out all these tests and calibrations, you can rest assured your monitor is set up ideally. Needless to say, this is no replacement for a proper color calibration, more like a prerequisite to it. You will still need the appropriate calibration hardware and software (or the service of someone who has those) to create the individual ICC color profile matching your monitor.

The package you can download is a standard .msi Windows Installer package because this is fashionable these days. However, it only installs a single executable file. That file is completely standalone and self-contained, feel free to carry it around on a pen drive or similar to have easy access to it if necessary.