Check the Picture Quality of Your Display

By viewing or downloading the

DisplayMate Reference Photos

below you can easily check the
calibration and picture quality of any computer monitor, projector, or HDTV.
Here is what you should see on your computer monitor, projector, or HDTV.
A sample of the DisplayMate Reference Photo is pictured below.

Good:

Be able to clearly make out ALL of the individual moldings
on the fireplace mantle.

Very Good:

See a natural, smooth and rich facial flesh tone without ANY
of the highlights appearing white washed, washed out, or over exposed.

Excellent:

See the left edge of the fireplace mantle where it meets the light green wall.

DisplayMate Reference Photo 1

Click to see a larger 640 x 480 image

See below for other Resolutions.

Many computer monitors, projectors, and HDTVs won’t pass this test.
Properly adjusted or calibrated HDTVs and computer monitors
(and almost any CRT) will do very well.
Note that the Test Patterns in any DisplayMate Product will perform a much more
accurate analysis than is possible with a Reference Photo.
If the display has user controls, you can try adjusting them to improve
the appearance of the Reference Photo.

LCD Optimized Photos

If the Reference Photo above appears washed out on your
LCD monitor or projector,
then compare its appearance with the photo below,
which has been generically optimized
to reduce the effects of gray scale compression
that occurs to some degree on most LCDs.

If this is not a problem on your display then the image below will look
worse than the Reference Photo above.

Optimized Photo for a Generic LCD with gray scale compression

Click to see a larger 640 x 480 image

If this generic optimized photo looks somewhat better than the Reference Photo,
then your display has some degree of gray scale compression.
To obtain accurate results the optimization needs to be performed for your
specific display or display model.
The optimization works with any display technology, not just LCD.

DisplayMate Image Optimizer

The

DisplayMate Image Optimizer

can mathematically process
all of your photos and images so that your monitor, projector or HDTV
will produce the best and most accurate picture quality that it can deliver
(with optimized gray scale and color).
This will dramatically improve all of your personal and business presentations.
For more information
see the
DisplayMate Image Optimizer.

Reference Photos

Click on the links below to view, or right click to download (by selecting Save As…)

All of the Reference Photos are identical,
but have been scaled to the specified resolution.

Reference Photo 640 x 480: Click on this link to view or right click to download.

Reference Photo 800 x 600: Click on this link to view or right click to download.

Reference Photo 1024 x 768: Click on this link to view or right click to download.

Reference Photo 1280 x 1024: Click on this link to view or right click to download.

Reference Photo 1600 x 1200: Click on this link to view or right click to download.

HDTV Reference Photos

Use these photos to check an HDTV that is connected to a computer
(and accepts the computer’s full 0-255 gray scale).

Reference Photo 1280 x 720: Click on this link to view or right click to download.

Reference Photo 1920 x 1080: Click on this link to view or right click to download.