If you'd like to start...  I'll throw out some simplified concepts...  I apologize if some of this you already know; I'm trying not to assume anything.

Do you understand that a color profile defines how pixel values (e.g., RGB values) map to actual colors?

• A computer application such as Photoshop may open an image and interpret it into pixels, each of which has RGB values.

• It may also read a color profile that describes how to interpret those RGB values. 
• Or it may assign a color profile from preset defaults (or ask you to assign one). 
• Or it may choose to ignore color-management entirely, and just send the RGB values on to whatever display or device the application feeds.

• The application may convert the pixel values to different values, using a color-profile you've told it you'd rather use.

Does this seem fairly straightforward so far?

-Noel

Excellent.

The application may, as part of its normal operation, send RGB values to a device, such as a display monitor or a printer.  For the sake of this discussion let's talk about the display monitor.

A particular display monitor's characteristics for turning pixel values into actual colors are also described by a color profile.  This is the monitor profile associated with the device in a table managed by the operating system.

The application's responsibility is to transform color values from the document to those needed to properly display the color on the monitor for each and every pixel to be displayed.

To do this, the application must take into account both the document profile and the monitor profile.  Ideally both profiles are properly-formed, and the color management software runs accurately.

For the monitor profile, Ideally, all the parts of the display process, from video card to cable to monitor electronics to LCD panel, are taken into account and the monitor color profile accurately describes just what color each RGB value will cause to be displayed. 

Of course you know that things are never ideal - they don't even stay the same over time - hence suggestions to calibrate and profile a particular display, and to repeat the operation over time.

Now let's try to define a "decent" display system.  Things that come to mind are:

• Consistent color performance with little sensitivity to viewing angle and by position on screen.
• Color performance that drifts minimally over time or by temperature or by what's displayed elsewhere on the device.
• A color gamut that suits the purposes you need - e.g., web development or printing.

-Noel

Noel Carboni wrote:

 

• …A color gamut that suits the purposes you need - e.g., web development or printing.

 

-Noel

That's good to keep in mind and it is implied in my posts.  I should stress that in my particular case I am concerned with printing 100% of the time.

For my sRGB reference system I have set the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 profile to be the default profile in the Windows Color Management dialog.

Calibration can be directly adjusted via the video card driver control panel.  But you may want to center your on-monitor controls first, or set them to reasonable defaults (depends on the monitor and other factors).  It's possible the monitor's sRGB setting has already done this for you.

As I have an ATI card and ATI Catalyst drivers, I use the Catalyst Control Center functions to directly manipulate the various color settings.  Then I save them as a named preset and Catalyst Control Center auto-activates that default on login.

-Noel

The good news is that most LCD monitors, probably because of the specifications war, can be made so bright as to almost do eye damage.

The calibration I do makes my own 7 year-old monitors, pictured in post 15, a bit darker when it kicks in, but they're still quite bright.

-Noel