Mmm, icons

[triskellian]

Last night, I uploaded my fiftieth icon <points at icon>. Well, it's actually my more-than-fiftieth, because I've had others that I've abandoned, but it fills my last icon slot, which is a sad thing in a way, although there are a few of my existing icons that I don't much like, and will be happy to ditch when the time comes.

But this rambling sort of has a point. I made this icon on my laptop (flat screen, Mac), on which the colours and brightness look fine. Now, on my work puter (CRT, PC), it's far too dark, so I need to know how it looks to you guys...

[Poll #303301]
Hmmm. Some people use polls all the time, and seem to consider them the killer app for paid accounts. This is probably only my second or third poll ever - icons are the killer app for me, all the way ;-)

Comments

[wimble.livejournal.com]

I don't know how dark it's supposed to be. So it might be the "right" darkness, but darker than I'd prefer.

For comparison, Angel is supposed to be dark. But I cheat when watching it, by turning up the brightness on my TV: I'd rather see the details than get the right atmosphere.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

As a side note, the issue is generally poor contrast rather than poor brightness. For a CRT, the contrast on your monitor should be set to maximum (and possibly for flatscreens too, but I don't know much about them having only owned one for a couple of weeks - they're just not nice).

Macs are more likely to have correct default colour settings because they're used by artists who:

1) Need the settings to be right.
2) Are less likely to know how to change them.

But the software brightness/contrast settings on PCs can be changed if you know how. (I would tell you, but I only ever do it through Photoshop. It can be done without, though, because Beatrice has managed it !)

[al-fruitbat.livejournal.com]

The sad truth is that currently, LCD screens suck for making decent art. Your best bet would be to get a testcard which looks good on your CRT, then use it as a comparator on your laptop. Something like Photoshop's Image>Adjustments>Levels allow you to play with the general output until they look similar.

Alternatively, use the testcard to set your laptop screen to a lower brightness... but then you get a dark 'puter ;-(

[http://users.livejournal.com/_kent/]

I'd have said that the image would be just fine for brightness and contrast if it weren't Eeeny Weeny. The loss of detail when you resize leaves you needing to emphasise what detail is left.