How to get the colours on my Mac Screen and Cintiq to look the same in Photoshop

[Francis P.]

Hi, I've been struggling with this question for a while, and I REALLY want to get it sorted out.

How can I get my colour output to look the same inside photoshop when moving from my iMac screen to my Cintiq? They are ALWAYS desaturated on my Cintiq, and it happens only in photoshop, so I know that the photoshop colour profiles has something to do with it. Does anyone have any instructions or steps to sort this out? It's very annoying, and I'm not a colour profile expert...

I just want to know what colour profile to use so that it doesn't change between my iMac and my Cintiq.

I managed to show exactly the colour difference by taking a screen shot before releasing my mouse button while moving my photoshop window from the iMac to the the cintiq ( since the colour profile has not "snapped" into place yet "

So the Top image is EXACTLY what I am seeing on my iMac, while the bottom image is EXACTLY what I am seeing on my Cintiq.

Please, help me. Thanks!

[D Fosse]

This isn't about the document profile. This is about the monitor profile, the other, crucial half of the color management chain. The image data are converted from the document profile and into the monitor profile, and these corrected values are sent to the display.

If Photoshop doesn't display identically on the two screens, it's because the correct monitor profile isn't used for that screen. The profile could be the wrong one, or defective, or corrupt. Each profile has to be accurate. A monitor profile has to be an accurate description of the monitor's actual, current response. If it isn't, Photoshop will not display correctly. This is what you would use a calibrator for.

Edited for clarity

[Francis P.]

Well, I guess by now, a lot of people already own both an iMac AND a cintiq 27HQ. What is the "recipe" for the calibration. That's all I want to know.

[italosan]

Unfortunately, my friend, there's no such recipe.

I know, we all have thought at least once that, well... all mass-produced screens should be the same, right?

Wrong.

If you have a Cintiq 27HQ and an iMac and I have another Cintiq 27HQ and another iMac, even if we use the same color profile we could end up with four different color results.

The only way to have a correct measure and the right color profile, is a Screen Calibrator.