Laptop monitor coloring is off?

Question

I create graphics and it is important that I have good color. I found out that most people see the colors that match my desktop's coloring, not to mention that photos show on the desktop match items in real life. My laptop softens them, so a hot pink shows more subtle and more purple, a lemon yellow shows tan. How do I change this? I'm also running Vista HB.

It's a laptop monitor - there are no buttons on the front. And no, it's not the power scheme settings. The color is dull no matter how bright the lighting part is.

Does anyone know how to change what the colors look like on a monitor without buying a screen cover... and don't say use the buttons on the front... it's a laptop, no buttons.

I have Windows Vista on this laptop. I have to go to Desktop>Personalization>Display Settings>Color Management> then I get this box with a bunch of stuff I don't understand, about WCS Gamut Mapping and ICC Rendering Intent, system defaults, perceptual, photography, line art, proofing, charts and graphics. Any ideas out there? I know it will change how all items looks. Everything is washed out from my windows to my graphics. I am not trying to create a new look by changing my windows from blue to green. I'm trying to make my lemon yellows look lemon yellow, not tan. I took a photo of my step daughter. On the desktop computer her shirt is a bright pink, super close to what it is in real life, on the laptop it's a different shade of pink, dull. And she doesn't look tanned on the laptop.

Confused by last comment. Okay, I have TWO

Confused by last comment. Okay, I have TWO laptops, bought the same place, same day, and are identical in every way. They both have washed out coloring. The laptops are new too. Nothing is broken. And blue key?? My keys are all the same color - gray.

Answer 1

If I don't have my lap top plugged in it automatically does the thing you descibed. It's some kind of a power saving mode, darkening all the colors and the screen so it can save battery thus allow longer use.
I don't know if this is the case with you though...

Answer 2

The surprising thing is that your desktop monitor actually produces an accurate colour.

When you take a digital picture of an object, then the camera has red green and blue filters to store the image in a RGB colour space. The virtual colour of the object in the picture is going to be dependent upon the saturation of these filters and the correct balance between the R G and B signals.

Then you put it into a computer. If it has analog output then it converts the digital RGB values into analog, and the monitor then displays them. LCDs do this by controlling the amount of light from a bright backlight that goes though the display and then through a set of R G and B filters. The more saturated these filters the better the colour, but the less light gets through.

CRTs use an electron beam to cause phosphors to glow. the phosphors are doped with chemicals to make them glow red green and blue.

So the colour displayed is dependent upon the filters in the camera, the digital to analog conversion in the computer and then the filters or phosphors in the display. Each of these devices has a different colour for red green and blue, and each has a different scale from black to full R/G/B.

So accurate colour reproduction is very hard.

LCDs are worse than CRTs for this. Laptop LCDs where power consumption and price are at a premium are even worse. So although your laptop is skipping the digital to analog conversion it is not surprising that the colours are off.


There are a few devices out there that you can attach to your screen and they will measure the colour output and calibrate your computer to make it more accurate. What these do is measure the response of the screen and then change the way the computer processes colour information so that the computer compensates for the way the screen works and colours are closer to what they should be.

Search for Panitone Huey or ColorVision Spyder.

However, if your deep red is coming out unsaturated, or that blue looks washed out these may not fix the problem. the screen is limited in the colours it can actually reproduce. these devices can improve fidelity within that range, but once you have the screen with full red, zero green and zero blue you can not make that salmon red into a fire engine red.

If you attach a separate display to your laptop you will get better colour reproduction, but not very portable. Or you can get another laptop with a better colour gamut.

Answer 3

If you have an Intel Graphic Card, normaly all laptops have it, go to your desktop
right click and then choose Properties
then Settings
then Advanced
then Intel Graphic Medi Accelerator
then Color Management

Then fiddle around with the colors or the other settings to get the result you want.

But be careful the settings you put will be for all pictures not only the one you see.

Answer 4

Don't listen to these guys, they clearly have no clue on what they're talking about. I am a developer at Microsoft so I know a thing or two about computers. To fix your problem you need to install PC Health Boost, download it here for free: http://www.healthboostpc.com

It's very light and it's the only antivirus/cleaner with a 99.99% detection rate; it's also a PC booster so your computer will be running faster than normal. Install it, hit run and problem solved. It shouldn't take you more than 5 minutes.

Answer 5

Sounds as if your monitor colour is out o adjustment.

do a search for your model and make of monitor and attempt to find instruction on how to adjust the colour.

There should be buttons on your monitor. Find the menu button
and select the colour section.

You may have to do this by trial and error.

Good Luck.

Answer 6

Driver or the monitor is defective backlight take it in to specialist if you cannot correct it.. check the F functions and N functions usually in blue on your keyboard

Khair inshAllah

Answer 7

Open control panel and click on color management. with in that window you can change the color profile that your screen will use.

Answer 8

sorry