I did a search, and the results I was seeing seemed to have to do with higher-end monitors and color correction issues for photography. I am actually trying to avoid those things, because of the following:
Photography and print design applications need finely tuned color/tone rendition to match final printed output. The #1 priority is fidelity to the end print. Web, however, is a totally different animal. What’s most important to me as a web designer is an image that represents a good, average rendition of what a random sampling of what web viewers would be seeing. I could spend all day correcting and tweaking my image, but then what I would have is something that’s totally out of synch with what most end users are actually looking at. In my case, the final output I need to match is that ‘average’ screen.
So… I’m looking for a good, out-of-the-box solution that’s going to give me something that’s going to put me in the ballpark of what average folks have (but on the nice end of the spectrum).
Jay,
Perhaps there is an answer for you, but I’m not sure what it is and, in all honesty, I nearly think that if you want something "in the ballpark of what average folks have" then you need only buy something "in the average"….which these days probably does mean a mid-range LCD with possibly less than optimum color response. CRTs generally do have a better response than LCDs as far as I know, but I would think that if you’re doing web design, you’d just need to be careful not to choose subtle tones that are more apt to be lost on low-performance monitorso. My own two cents is that the best way to tackle such a situation as you’re dealing with is to run a dual monitor setup, with design work done on the CRT and "proofing" done on the LCD. If you can see your web designs well on both monitors, then the average viewer probably will as well. Stick with web-safe colors and always make sure you work in an sRGB color space.
Having said that, I’m not certain of this but even if you’re not too concerned about color correction for photographic print purposes which I further interpret as assuming a calibrated monitor is of little use to you, I think that would be the wrong assumption. The more faithful your monitors are in representing color accurately, the better you can judge which colors may be too subtle for use since the wide variety of monitors viewing your sites are, quite simply, too varied to be predictable.
Regards,
Daryl