Selecting a Monitor

[ZooCity]

Kind of stumped on this.  This decision opened up a can of worms that I wasn't expecting to get into regarding color space, calibration and gamuts. 

I know exactly what I want as a designer/separator/etc. but was thinking that it's kind of pointless to have this beautifully calibrated display with a super wide adobe RGB color gamut when your jobs are being approved from jpegs displayed on a clients phone or ipad, the designers submitting them aren't running in calibrated workspaces and your inks mixed in house to PMS anyhow.  This is purely from a screen printing angle. 

We do outsource CMYK printed items and monitor accuracy becomes much more important to keep that gold from printing lemon yellow and the blue as purple, etc. so there's a second angle.

The third angle is for separations and it's clear that the widest possible color gamut will be helpful there.

So I had two questions if there are any color/display nerds out there that can help me out:

• How wide of an sRGB gamut is needed to accurately submit CMYK files for digital and offset?
• Is it worth committing to Adobe RGB or is sRGB sufficient for screen printing and for CMYK for digital/offset?

If cost was not issue I'd just buy an Eizo or NEC and be done with it but, working on a more reasonable budget, I don't want to blow my wad on a monitor with a color gamut that's too wide for me to take advantage of.  You can get a lot of bang for the buck going with a monitor covering 72-75% of sRGB v. the ones that are 90-110% sRGB and/or 98% adobe RGB. 

[jsheridan]

I'd be more worried about making a custom ICC color profile so that each monitor displays the same vs trying to find the one with the best color.

[ZooCity]

Great point.  I considered this and I only really need best possible color accuracy on one monitor....for now.  Trying to go for something in the $3-400 range so buying a set of 3 down the road wouldn't hurt so bad.  This felt like a better plan than buying one super nice Eizo for me and then junk for everyone else.

Personally, I use two monitors but monitor 2 is just for ai and ps pallets, email, etc., not color critical stuff.

I'm really just looking for an affordable IPS monitor but not sure if I should go for those in the 72% gamut range or the 90-100%.  I bet a set of any decent monitors could be profiled to each other without much issue.

[mimosatexas]

When I built my new computer I bought 3 of these for a triple display: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009483  Thin bezel and great color, and pretty much the cheapest IPS panel around.  Mine had no dead pixels as well.

[ZooCity]

What's the model again?  The link didn't work.  How do you like the color?

[blue moon]

I bought 3 new 23" Dell monitors for less than $200 ea.
they are at the 82% as far as the color range and I could not be happier with them. They will tilt, swivel and go up and down. There are also several USB ports that come in handy and I think they also have a firewire port (too lazy to flip it around and check, sorry).

I can help you with calibration when you are ready. . .

pierre

[IntegrityShirts]

I used to use a couple cheapie lcd monitors but no matter how much I adjusted them, they were never close to the same visually. I recently picked up one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/YAMAKASI-301-SPARTA-Follow-2560x1600/dp/B00HJFL8VY

30" IPS display and I'm extremely happy with it. Color range to the naked eye is much better and more accurate than the LCD's. Plenty of space on it to do everything with one monitor.  In my opinion, color on screen is only as accurate as the monitor, and heck I don't even trust my new one. I always have a pantone book sitting next to me if the customer is getting "color picky". Then I make them look at actual ink smeared on a card if they really want to be confused by ink thickness and opacity based on the underlying garment color.

[ZooCity]

The Korean panels are a really good deal, these are the same used in Apple, etc except with maybe a few stuck pixels. I was looking at a crossover and monoprice but both are in the mid seventies on the color gamut.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk

[GraphicDisorder]

I run these, 2 of them: 
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6426991&Sku=YYT1-10247464&csid=ITD&recordsPerPage=10&body=REVIEWS&SRCCODE=WEBGOOKWL&cm_mmc_o=mH4CjC7BBTkwCjCs81CjCE&gclid=CN-Hg-KDrr0CFaLm7Aod40gA6w#CustomerReviewsBlock

I got Shelly and Erik both 2 of the 27 inch versions.  Everyone else here has just cheap 24 inchers.  Like Dell and a Samsung. 

[mimosatexas]

i fixed my link.  for some reason it added a period at the end when I copy/pasted...weird.

[Im-Magic]

In another life I was Australian Monitor Manager of Samsung. It is interesting that around 80% of the worlds monitors are now made by them as the cost of building an LSD plant is in the range of 10-20 billion dollars. So if you buy Apple or Dell or Phillips or Nec etc they are all coming out of the same factory.

[ZooCity]

I wound up trying one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/CROSSOVER-27QW-IPS-LED-2560x1440/dp/B00EZM7GCY

Got a pixel perfect one off ebay.  It's one of the Korean ones that's the same panel as the Apples, Dells, etc.  What you don't get is any of the setup features, etc. in the name brands, it's just a panel in a case, there's not even a menu and it's DVI dual link only. 
 
So far it might be the best money I've spent on a computer item in a long time.  AHS-IPS is pretty dang nice.  I do need to fully calibrate it before giving it a full seal of approval but it looks hard to beat for under $400.  The power supply that comes with it is really weird though, it buzzes and makes little noises when you move elements around in Adobe programs so that needs an upgrade but it's a small complaint.

[royster13]

Wonder how much duty and taxes at this end coming into Canada....

[ZooCity]

Run it through this seller on ebay and see:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Perfect-Pixel-Crossover-27-27QW-IPS-LED-QHD-DVI-D-AH-IPS-2560x1440-Monitor-/321293825809?ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:US:3160

Shipping was included on the one I bought but I imagine duty/tax is on you.

I went with them because they test before shipping, have a pixel perfect option and a 1 yr warranty.

Again, I need to get a calibration puck on this thing before I can give it 5 stars or whatever but it's a darn sight better than my old samsung.