Calibrating your monitor is a quick and easy way to ensure that the images and other computer content you're viewing is being seen as intended. It will also make working on the computer easier on your eyes. Most monitors have buttons on the front panel to allow you to calibrate them, and it's a fairly easy process. For precise instructions, please refer to your manual.

Before beginning, make sure your monitor is in 24 bit color mode or higher. Most systems today are set at 32 bit, and that's just fine. If both of the bars below look the same, you're probably set to 16 bit color depth. To make sure, on a Windows system, you can right click anywhere on your desktop, select properties, go to the settings tab, and the color depth should be listed along with the current resolution.

When calibrating, ensure that there are few reflections on your monitor surface from background light, and use the amount of light you would normally use while working at the computer. Once all of these things are set, you're ready to calibrate!

Note, if you use any software for monitor calibration (you would know if you do), then don't bother following any of these steps. While they will calibrate your monitor well enough for standard computer work and web surfing, they may mess up the more advanced calibration done by the software you've used.

Ok, let's start with a baseline brightness/contrast calibration:

First, set your brightness to ZERO and put your contrast all the way up. I know this sounds strange, but trust me. Now, take a look at the image above and raise your brightness until you can see all the numbers. If it seems like an awfully low brightness, don't worry. Mine is set very low as well.

Next, we'll test your black and white levels. Take a look at the square below:

The black square should be completely black and be the darkest thing on your screen. It should match the page background, and that should match the black border around your screen. If the black border around your screen is darker, then you'll need to adjust your brightness down a bit. Conversely, the white square should be the brightest thing on your screen, and should appear to be bright pure white. The two gray squares should look the same, and should have NO color at all, just gray. If you see colors, that might be a sign that your monitor needs degaussing or simply replaced. Most newer monitors are set to degauss automatically when they are turned on, so you can try rebooting your monitor - especially if you never turn it off.

On to the next!

You should see 10 distinct shades of black to gray to white here.

Finally, let's take a look at Gamma. Gamma is another term for brightness, put very simply, and will affect how washed out or overshadowed your images will look. Gamma can usually be adjusted by your video card software, though there are free programs available on the internet.

Stand back from your monitor about 5-10 feet and check which square blends best with the checked background. That's your gamma level. 1.8 - 1.9 is acceptable for Windows machines and web surfing.

If you like, you can take a quick look for a calibration program. This will ensure that your monitor is calibrated correctly.