Posted by Howard Cihak on March 15, 2011 at 1:08 PM
I'm getting ready to buy a much better color monitor, almost certainly an 24 inch NEC with an IPS panel. NEC has two different lines. One line features an Adobe color gamut match of about 76% while another (more expensive) line claims an Adobe RGB color gamut match of about 97%.
Obviously, more is better, but my question is: "In your opinion, does a 27% gain in color gamut match justify a substantially higher price?"
"Is the additional gain in color gamut match of practical value to anyone other than a photographer striving for close to perfect color matches?"
If you purchase a monitor that displays only 76% of Adobe RGB and the find out later that that's not good enough, you will be be spending even more money. Therefore, your return on investment is substantially reduced.
If the higher end monitor is within your budget (or mayber a little higher) you can't go wrong, imho.
In answer to your second question: Grandma doing e-mail, perusing the net, or writing documents in a text editor probably won't be aware of the reduced gamut. However, a graphic artist, architect, or web deleoper may need the the larger gamut of Adobe RGB.
Keep in mind that if you have a monitor that will show nearly all the colors in Adobe RGB you can convert to a smaller gamut like sRGB without much loss.
btw: I have an 22" NEC MultiSync Wide Gamut monitor--The color display and sharpness are a thing to behold. For the price, the NEC is a good deal.
--P
Posted by Mark Stahlke on March 15, 2011 at 6:01 PM
Howard, what is your intended output medium and color space?
If you're only doing images for web display the wider gamut won't be helpful because your output will be in sRGB color space. I suspect the "76% of Adobe RGB" monitor's color space is very close to the full sRGB color space.
If you're doing printing you should compare your printer/paper profiles to Adobe RGB and sRGB color spaces. If your profile color spaces extend beyond sRGB then you might find the wider gamut useful. If not, then you don't gain anything from the wider gamut monitor.
Just my half formed (that's formed not baked ) opinions.
Posted by David Bostedo on March 15, 2011 at 7:33 PM
If you're doing printing you should compare your printer/paper profiles to Adobe RGB and sRGB color spaces.
Just as an FYI, most current printers, especially any of the 13x19 or larger ones, is capable of printing color beyond sRGB on most papers. As Mark said, though, this is dependent on the paper and which profiles you're using. Soft-proofing can help you see this, by showing what colors your software identifies as out-of-gamut for the chosen soft-proof setup.
I'm not sure what models you've chosen, but you should take a good look at Preston's monitor (NEC P221W) before you buy. That's a great monitor at a very reasonable price. Had they been manufactured when I was monitor shopping, I definitely would have bought one!
Posted by Howard Cihak on March 15, 2011 at 7:59 PM
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'm considering an NEC PA241W-BK and an LCD2490WUXI2-BK-R. I may be able to get the latter model (76% ARGB match) for about 40% off the usual price.
I plan to use the monitor in conjunction with my Epson R2880 printer.
"I plan to use the monitor in conjunction with my Epson R2880 printer.
Given your statement, Howard, I would lean heavily toward the wide-gamut monitor for the reason stated above by David.
--P
Posted by David Bostedo on March 16, 2011 at 2:57 PM
Just as an example - here're three gamut cross sections (not full 3D respresentations, but a slice at a particular luminance/brightness). You can see that the two Epson 2880 gamut's go well outside of sRGB in some colors. (Of course, they are smaller than sRGB in others.) Still, with a monitor smaller than that gamut, you won't be able to as easily reproduce those colors.
Posted by David Edwards on March 22, 2011 at 6:31 AM
I am also preparing to purchase a substantially better monitor and printer, and after months of research have decided on investing in the NEC PA241W. As Preston mentioned, the wider gamut monitors are a bigger investment, but you don't want to only get half of what you need and have to spend more, especially if you are doing your own printing. There is some good info on an Australian site regarding the NEC monitors and imaging in general - ImageScience
Discussion
8 repliesObviously, more is better, but my question is: "In your opinion, does a 27% gain in color gamut match justify a substantially higher price?"
"Is the additional gain in color gamut match of practical value to anyone other than a photographer striving for close to perfect color matches?"
If you purchase a monitor that displays only 76% of Adobe RGB and the find out later that that's not good enough, you will be be spending even more money. Therefore, your return on investment is substantially reduced.
If the higher end monitor is within your budget (or mayber a little higher) you can't go wrong, imho.
In answer to your second question: Grandma doing e-mail, perusing the net, or writing documents in a text editor probably won't be aware of the reduced gamut. However, a graphic artist, architect, or web deleoper may need the the larger gamut of Adobe RGB.
Keep in mind that if you have a monitor that will show nearly all the colors in Adobe RGB you can convert to a smaller gamut like sRGB without much loss.
btw: I have an 22" NEC MultiSync Wide Gamut monitor--The color display and sharpness are a thing to behold. For the price, the NEC is a good deal.
--P
If you're only doing images for web display the wider gamut won't be helpful because your output will be in sRGB color space. I suspect the "76% of Adobe RGB" monitor's color space is very close to the full sRGB color space.
If you're doing printing you should compare your printer/paper profiles to Adobe RGB and sRGB color spaces. If your profile color spaces extend beyond sRGB then you might find the wider gamut useful. If not, then you don't gain anything from the wider gamut monitor.
Just my half formed (that's formed not baked
Just as an FYI, most current printers, especially any of the 13x19 or larger ones, is capable of printing color beyond sRGB on most papers. As Mark said, though, this is dependent on the paper and which profiles you're using. Soft-proofing can help you see this, by showing what colors your software identifies as out-of-gamut for the chosen soft-proof setup.
I plan to use the monitor in conjunction with my Epson R2880 printer.
Given your statement, Howard, I would lean heavily toward the wide-gamut monitor for the reason stated above by David.
--P