If you’re like most computer users, you’re using an LCD monitor as your primary computer display. And you’ve probably adjusted your monitor settings as best you could, but it still doesn’t “look right”. Some hues appear too blue while others appear too red, or maybe the black looks like a dark gray at best.

I will say up front that there isn’t any end-all/be-all way of setting the correct color on a monitor because it obviously depends on how you see things. That being the case, you should always set your monitor for what your eyes see and not what software or hardware “thinks” is correct.

Step 1. Start with white

Open up your web browser of choice and enter the following URL:

about:blank

Enter it exactly as such. Works in IE, Firefox and Opera.

After than, press F11 to go “full screen mode”. Wait a few seconds and the address bar should disappear. This will make your screen 100% white (or very close). You can press F11 again to go back to windowed mode.

Examine the screen and note if it looks pink-ish or blue-ish.

Step 2. Correct with both hardware and software controls

Most people adjust their monitor’s color using only hardware controls. This is when you physically press the “menu” button on your monitor and adjust using buttons.

The problem with only using hardware controls is that while your screen may look correct doing normal things like web browsing and so on, using other software like video games may look significantly different.

Software controls for color adjustment will give you the extra control you were looking for.

If using an NVIDIA or ATI video card, you can locate your color controls in the taskbar next to the clock.

If you don’t have that, either install the latest NVIDIA at www.nvidia.com or ATI at http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html.

If you have a laptop with proprietary control software for display settings, this is usually found either as a specific icon in the Control Panel or a tab in Display Settings.

Example: My older Dell Inspiron 6000 uses an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator Mobile driver. This is found by going to Display Properties first:

I click the “Advanced” button and go here:

I click the big tab at the top for the Intel stuff:

I click the “Graphics Properties” button:

This is a very ugly app but it has the settings I want to modify.

In this specific instance I am forced to change my colors this way because the monitor has no physical buttons for manual hardware changes on it; this is all software controlled.

Step 3. Adjust brightness/contrast for black

It isn’t easy getting a true black on an LCD monitor (even the more expensive ones) because when on, the back-light itself makes things gray even to a small degree.

Once again you can use both hardware and software controls to adjust for the black.

The same method for white can be used for black. Load up this web page:

http://www.blackle.com (a Google search in black)

…and press F11 again to go into full-screen mode, then adjust appropriately.

Final notes

Free-standing LCD monitors (meaning not a laptop) have presets for what it “thinks” is proper, such as “photo” or “movie” and so on. It also has settings to go more blue or red, labeled as “cool” and “warm”.

The best way to adjust is to not use the presets and manually configure it yourself with the red/green/blue, brightness and contrast. Yes, it will take time but your eyes will thank you for it later.

You can expect the adjustments you make via hardware controls to not be absolutely correct. You most likely will have to go to the software side to make small adjustments afterwards.

To date I have never known any monitor to be 100% spot-on perfect without adjustment, because the monitor doesn’t know your eyes – you do.