Exactly ! Thank you for pointing this out to me. I forgot about the
existence of this feature (maybe because I rarely used it). I adjusted
the gamma for the game HL2, and -- voi-las ! -- the darks are not too
dark anymore. And I do not need change gamma in nVidia Control Panel
anymore when I am returning back to the desktop. I guess the darkness
of images in the photoediting software is less significant and can be
"healed" by minor changing the brightness/contrast settings in the
monitor.

Still... The colours look too contrasty and less narural than in a
higher-quality LCD monitor I used. I can observe a distinct banding.
Which is a consequence of this monitor being cheap and nasty TN type.
Oh well.

There

Download the gamma test graphic for the workspace of your choice. PCs tend to
default to 2.20 and Macs to 1.70. Before starting make sure your monitor has
been turned on for 30 minutes or so, so that all components are warmed up and
operating at working levels.

Load up the graphic in any graphic viewer and view it at 100%. It won't work if
it isn't displayed at a 100% ratio. Meaning don't zoom in or out on the graphic.

Make sure you save or write down your beginning brightness, contrast, and gamma
settings so that you can always go back to them. You can get hopelessly lost in
trying to adjust them and be unable to get back to where you started unless you
have some reset features.

Start out by adjusting brightness and contrast so that you can't see any
difference between the black and dark-gray squares on the lower-right strip, and
that you can barely see a difference between them on the top-right strip. While
doing this keep an eye on how bright your whites are, try to adjust for white at
the same time to a level that is tolerable for you. You will have to go back and
check this again after you adjust your gamma settings.

Use your gamma adjustments (sometimes in combination with contrast adjustments)
to make sure that you see an even gray ramp from pure black to pure white on the
center and left sets of vertical bars. There should be no color hue changes on
the RGB/CYM bar (center section), and all grays should match horizontally across
the board. If you see strong hue shifts you may have to adjust the gamma of each
channel separately. It's a rare monitor/video-card that will get them perfectly
gray all across so don't get upset if they're a little off.

The double-bar on the far left will match in gray levels horizontally when your
brightness, contrast and gamma is correct. You shouldn't see a strong division
between left and right side of it, or at least no glaring differences. The same
as with the RGB/CYM bars, there should be no strong division between the 3 bars.

While doing this you may have to back away from your monitor a few feet or try
to blur your eyes a bit while viewing the graphic to make the fine lines of
colors blend into solid grays. I get by with squinting my eyes to get the fine
color lines to average together for the grays. Otherwise it's difficult to make
an adjustment, back away, come back to the computer to tweak settings again,
back away, etc.

Go back and check your brightness and contrast again because changing the gamma
levels will also change your blacks. Repeat until you get it right.

If your setup is like most I've adjusted it will end up being a combination of
monitor adjustments and video-card adjustments (if your card has them). This can
get quite convoluted and frustrating when approaching it from both devices but
often it's the only way to get it as accurate as possible. Don't discount your
white-balance settings on your monitor too. Most manufacturer's default
color-temperature (color-balance) settings royally suck, and they might be
keeping you from attaining pure blacks grays and whites out of that graphic. If
you can manage to get the black, grays, and white right on a monitor (from that
graphic) then all your displayed colors will be 100% accurate.

It's a good idea to find a nice setting then wait a day before tweaking them
again. Your eyes and mind have the ability to do their own white-balancing act.
Stare at any color of light long enough and it'll look white or gray to you. You
may come back a day later and notice you have a strong color hue on your monitor
because of this. Tweak the settings a bit again if you do. When I get a new
monitor or video card I will load up that graphic a few times for a week or so
until I have reached a happy medium between all ambient lighting situations and
my own eyes trying to fool me.

Civilian,

There's a fool proof and easy way to calibrate a monitor. I've been using it on CRT's first and now on LCD's.The only catch is you have to buy a calibrator, like one of
http://search.ebay.com/spyder2express_W0QQ_trksidZm37QQfromZR40QQpqryZspider2express
This calibrator sends signals to the monitor and measures what color the monitor emits. Based on the difference between expected and actual colors, the calibrator creates monitor's profile and saves it in the computer. Every time when the computer starts, it loads the profile.
No matter how badly you have already screwed up the settings, the calibrator fixes everything with the monitor profile. On aging CRT I had to use it quite often. On an LCD I set the colors once only.
Hope it helps.

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