The Display Calibrator Assistant takes you through some or all of the following steps, depending on what type of display you use:
- Set Up, which includes brightness and contrast adjustment
- Native Gamma
- Target Gamma
- Tristimuli Values
- Target White Point
The Set Up step may be skipped on flat-panel (LCD) displays, because they are backlit. The brightness and contrast settings on backlit displays do not usually affect the gamma settings for that display.
The Native Gamma step may be skipped with flat-panel displays, because native gamma does not apply to them. Cathode-ray tube (CRT) displays use the gamma function to determine the relation between the input voltage and the display brightness. Unlike CRT displays, LCD displays are backlit. Because the brightness from the backlight is constant, a native gamma function is not necessary.
The Tristimuli Values step is not necessary on many later display models because the optimized Tristimuli values are already stored in the display and sent to the operating system when the display is connected. If the display provides these optimized values to the operating system, this step is skipped. Tristimuli values are used to control the proportionate levels of red, green, and blue on an RGB display.
Note: In Mac OS X 10.0, some of these steps were enabled when they should not have been. This has been addressed in Mac OS X 10.1.