Photo editing monitors / True color monitors

Image processing screens for photographers

Professional photographers who often print images for their clients or for the walls of galleries, should work on a perfectly matched system. Photography lives on the colors & the light, so a monitor for image processing must deliver a high coverage in various disciplines. It depends on which color spaces are covered by the monitor in which size / percentage to be as true to color as possible. Professional image processing monitors must offer the possibility to be adjusted in brightness and colorfulness and offer a good coverage of all colors.

Through the calibration and a color-fast monitor, the professional photographer also has a security / quality assurance of their work. Because customers often have a problem with the perception of colors and brightness on your displays & monitors. For example, the display on smartphones is very dependent on the display technology used, so an image on one phone gets a green cast while on another it is more bluish. Other factors can also be the settings like "easy on the eyes" mode, which tries to reduce the blue light of the phone display.

Quality features of monitors for image editing

Monitors for image editing offer photographers and designers the possibility to create extra color profiles (ICC profiles) and calibrate the monitors to their needs. Another important quality factor is the built-in illumination of the monitor, this should be the same over the entire surface of the monitor if possible, so as not to see irregular contrasts in the image or design that do not exist.

What color space coverage should my monitor have?

When we talk about color spaces in photography, we quickly end up with the following terms: RGB or sRGB, the debate in forums on various platforms is as old as the Internet itself, but there is a simple answer: it depends on the application.

Color Space Theory

The RGB color space is larger and finer than the sRGB color space, but is that necessary on the Internet or in a purely digital application? No. Using the RGB color space comes with some dependencies, such as the print service provider also maintaining appropriately calibrated systems, this is a significant cost factor that many companies today do not realize without a cost premium.

We cannot obtain the largest color space with any monitor and we are talking about the Lab color space. Which we can think of as a sphere. If you work with Photoshop or other image processing programs, then you always have recurring elements, such as the color circle or the colored field, in the color selection. These 2D representations are basically individual layers from the three dimensional color space (Lab color space). By moving the sliders, we work our way through the luminance and saturation of the individual colors. The L of the Lab color space is the coordinate for the brightness value (luminance) and with A & B we move through the different color levels of the perceptible color space. Enough about the Lab color space for now, we're going back to the RGB & sRGB color space.

These are all based on the Lab color space and try to cover as many colors as possible of the big brother, so the RGB color space only covers a triangular section of the Lab color space, within the RGB color space the sRGB color space is trimmed further.

Color space for digital work

When working with digital results, it is sufficient to work with the sRGB color space and to use a monitor that covers this color space to a high percentage, in the best case to 100%, most monitors, which attach importance to color accuracy, cover about 98-99%.

Color space for printing images

Images to be printed have special requirements for the photographer or designer, because instead of the sRGB color space, the printer uses a completely different color space, the CMYK color space, which is larger than the sRGB color space and resembles a trapezoid and not a triangle due to its four components C = Cyan, Y = Yellow, M = Magenta and K = Black (Key / Contrast). Therefore, a monitor should be able to show a high coverage of the Adobe RGB color space for working with the print results. Since the CMYK color space goes further in the range of cyan and yellow tones than the sRGB color space does, it cuts back on greens and reds in return.

Known brands for image processing monitors

The most well-known brand for image processing monitors is EIZO. The brand relies on various functions, for example, to also minimize side light on the screen EIZO installs diffused light screens / light protection screens, which are attached around the monitor. Another highlight of EIZO monitors is the self-calibration of the system, the monitors have the ability to control themselves and adjust the monitors to the perfect calibration to replicate / restore an always perfect working condition. Another emerging brand in the field is BenQ, they target audience of their monitors are predominantly designers, yet the models are equally professional for image editing photographers.

What accessories are available for the perfect picture?

A good monitor, which already provides good color coverage, is not enough to ensure a perfect image after unpacking the device, because the monitors come from the factory with their own color & brightness profile. That's why we suggest still relying on a calibration device.

Please don't forget that this calibration has to be done again in a regular interval. This is the only way to ensure that the results are always consistent.