Caution - Do Not Read This Post

[Mike Farley]

..... because you are going to want one of these.

https://www.apple.com/uk/imac-with-retina/

Well maybe not the iMac, but certainly the 5k Retina display.

While the undertying technology has changed from LCD to LED, TN to IPS, monitor resolution has remained stubbornly fixed at modest levels for many years. Now, after being pioneered on handheld devices, Apple is bringing its Retina technology to monitors. Given that 4k video capture devices with increased resolution are becoming more ubiquitous, display devices such as monitors and projectors need to catch up. It might take a while for higher resolutions to filter through to the Windows world as desktop icons and fonts have a limited range of pixel diemensions. Hence they will be much smaller and more difficult to see. Put simply, Windows has not been designed for anything other than standard resolutions. Unless Microsoft releases an update for Windows 8.1*, this should be addressed in Windows 10** for which there is no offcial release date currently, but the launch is expected "later in 2015".

What I have not been able to establish is whether the colour space of Apple's Retina monitor will be Adobe RGB or sRGB. It would be a shame if it were only to feature the smaller colour space.

*This is less likely (but not impossible) to happen for Windows 7, which is about to go into its five year extended support period when full support finishes in January 2015. Yes folks, Windows 7 is nearly five years old.....

** Apparently Microsoft is skipping Windows 9 in its determination to demonstrate to the world that Windows 10 is a substantial upgrade over what has gone before. Given Microsoft's track record in failing to innovate successfully with the first cycle of its products, this could be a worrying prospect. On the other hand, it does manage to alternate between between good releases and turkeys, with Windows 8 being the less than auspicious follow up to Windows 7.

[davidb]

I have an iMac (purchased in 2012) and am pleased with the machine. I would be pleased even more with the retina display version but at the moment it is but a pipe dream

If you're interested, the system settings for my machine are set within System Preferences\Displays. Mine is currently set for iMac but it looks as if this can be changed (each setting had a small effect on the screen as I selected it). I've attached some screen dumps which might interest you. How these profiles will change for the retina displays is anyones guess

[Mike Farley]

The list of profiles in the secons screenshot are all those which are installed on your machine. It would be interesting to see what happens when you tick the "Show profiles for this display only" box. My guess is that you would be left with the sRGB and Apple profiles. The values in the first screenshot do not mean much to me.

[Mike Farley]

I have just found this, which suggests that the new 5K Retina display falls some way short of Adobe RGB.

http://macperformanceguide.com/blog/201 ... gamut.html

The author of the piece is considering returning his Retina display in favour of the forthcoming NEC 32-Inch Professional UltraHD 4K Display (PA322UHD). Slightly lower resolution, but a better colour gamut.

http://diglloyd.com/blog/2014/20141030_ ... 22UHD.html

[davidb]

what happens when you tick the "Show profiles for this display only" box

The first screen dump was the iMac profile.

This is the System Preferences dialog. If you tick "Show profile for this display only" you are left with just the iMac profile so I don't know if the other profiles will work. Having clicked on each one and nothing serious happened I presume I could use any one of them if I wanted.

[Mike Farley]

If you tick "Show profile for this display only" you are left with just the iMac profile so I don't know if the other profiles will work. Having clicked on each one and nothing serious happened I presume I could use any one of them if I wanted.

The iMac profile is the only one which is designed to work with your display. Using one of the others will not break anything, but you might find that colours are not rendered properly. Do you calibrate your monitor?

[davidb]

Do you calibrate your monitor?

No but I should. When I get some free cash it might be worth getting one the calibrating devices available on the market. In the meantime I'll have to be satisfied with WISIWIG

[davidb]

MacWorld have just published their Lab Test of the new Apple Retina Display iMac.

What they have to say about the display:
"Impressive to the naked eye, the display of the iMac Retina 5K also turned in some of the best numbers our humble Spyder4Elite colorimeter has ever measured.

As you might hope, but where so many consumer products fail to deliver, the display was found to have a full 100 percent coverage of the basic sRGB colour gamut. Even IPS display technology often falters here and struggles to achieve even 90 percent coverage. And from the Adobe RGB colour space, the iMac recorded 78 percent cover."

To see the full review follow the link:
http://www.macworld.co.uk/review/mac-de ... ignId=6465

[davidc]

78% is quite low isn't it?

1 in 5 colours simply won't render?

[Mike Farley]

78% is quite low isn't it?

1 in 5 colours simply won't render?

That's standard for a sRGB device. Whether it matters is moot and depends on how the image was captured and is going to be displayed.

Most photographs are taken with low end devices which shoot JPEG only in the sRGB colour space. It's only those of us who take things more seriously who use something better, but we are a minority. Most display devices (monitors, TVs, mobile devices and digital projectors) are only capable of sRGB and this is how most images will be viewed.

Prints are a different matter, but the colour gamut will depend on which printer and paper are used. Most commercial colour labs specify sRGB and this is how the majority of images which do actually end up as prints will be made. Matte papers can only render a range of colours which is roughly equivalent to sRGB, glossy papers a bit more. Silk, lustre and pearl surfaces are somewhere in between. Those who do their own printing will need to have one of the more expensive models to get the most out of a paper.

Then there is the question of whether our eyes can tell the difference. A couple of years ago, I looked at a test image displayed side by side on two high end calibrated NEC monitors, one sRGB and the other Adobe RGB. There was no discernible difference between the two and others who were with me said the same. Given that this new Apple monitor is a high quality display which appears to be capable of rendering colours accurately, it is as good as most people will ever need.