CodedColor PhotoStudio Manual - digital photo software, picture viewer, image editor, page layouter and flash / pdf album exporter (similar ACDSee, IrfanView)

Monitor Calibration

Gamma

Move away from your monitor and squint your eyes. In the following test strip, the numbers 2.2 should almost disappear, meaning that you monitor is correctly calibrated to a Gamma value of 2.2. Careful: You will get different results in very light or very dark environments.

Another test: In the following strip the first two and the last two rectangles tend to blend into each other. If you actually see a difference, your monitor has perfect Gamma calibration.

Color depth and tone

Calibrating the color of your monitor with your eyes only is not possible. There are plenty of webpages on the internet, where you can download color charts and compare them to printed paper strips from KODAK or likewise. There are usually two types of color charts: RGB for monitors, beamers, websites, presentations and films, and CMYK for print products. You may also downlad Adobe Gamma, a tool which allows for some basic software-based calibration. If you're an image editing professional, you should buy a hardware-based monitor calibration tool.

If you have a good personal printer, and are generally satisfied with the printed results, you can also print out a photo (preferably showing human skin) or a color chart, hold it next to your monitor and adjust the colors until they match the printout. Make sure your monitor is in high color or 24-bit mode (Windows monitor & graphic properties), the room is dimmed, but not too dark, and there are no reflections on the monitor.

Never edit your images without a backup! (see Automatic Backup Option)

CodedColor PhotoStudio by 1STEIN is a Windows photo viewer and editor to organize, edit, resize, reformat, correct, compare, sort, watermark, annotate and print digital images, and to edit EXIF and IPTC data in digital photos. You can rename multiple images, remove scratches, create panorama pictures (stitch), convert RAW photos (from Canon, Nikon, Olympus, etc. cameras), send images via Skype, send photo SMS, burn digital watermarks, correct colors, run a screenshow, convert and correct JPEG images in a batch process, rename fields, open pictures and image folders from the Explorer, generate a webalbum in HTML and compress JPG images. The CodedColor full version is not free, but during registration you can choose the Freeware edition, in which some functions are deactivated. After the download you can try the PhotoStudio shareware for 30 days without any restrictions. The CodedColor software interface looks very similar to ACDSee, is easier to use than Photoshop and more versatile than Picasa and Irfanview, but still contains editing and correction features as effective as Paintshop. Have a look at our Before / After tutorials, in order to get an idea of the powerful editor capabilities. The software comes with a detailed handbook and a fast database to store EXIF / IPTC data and color informationen. CodedColor PhotoStudio is a powerful and versatile photo organizer and image editing software for digital camera users. The user friendly interface includes features like photo editing & printing, web & flash album galleries, slide shows, photo management & cataloging, custom sorting, IPTC & EXIF editor and display, GPS tagging, perspective correction, barrel distortion, effects, thumbnail generation, resize & resample images, jp2000, batch conversion, database keyword searching, red eye removal, color / sharpness / brightness & contrast correction, artefacts removal, clone brush, scanner & TWAIN import, screen capture, lossless JPEG rotation, transparency (alpha channel), gamma correction, print ordering and screenshows with many transition effects, watermark text, image annotations, panorama stitch & animation, video capture, PDF album export, photo layouts, collages, frames, shadows, histograms, automatic white balance, skype photo sharing, etc. Opens and converts all common image formats: BMP, WMF, GIF, JPEG, JPEG2000, TIFF, PCX, PNG, PSP, PSD, PCD, and all current RAW formats. Visit the CodedColor FotoStudio homepage to learn more and download a free copy! Includes BYNGO MMS messenger and CodedColor Publisher, a versatile photo layout and DTP tool, from which you can order individual photobooks through KODAK.