Many computer monitor manufacturers provide a data disk with a free monitor calibration software but there are also multiple free alternatives that can be found on the Internet. One was covered today at the Lifehacker blog. Calibrize is only taking care of the black, white and color ratio of the computer monitor and works on flat screen computer monitors but also on CRT monitors.

It does so by displaying two easy to follow steps. Step 1 is being used to adjust the contrast and brightness settings of the computer monitor. Each step consists of a description that tells the user what to do, a test image and example images that display how the images should not look. The description mentions how the test image should look like.

The second step which is also the last step adjusts the gamma settings of the computer monitor. Another test image and a few sliders are shown that can be used to adjust the settings for red, green and blue values. The settings can be saved after calibrating the monitor.

An alternative is the online tool Screen Check which provides the means to adjust the same monitor settings.

The software Monitor Calibration Wizard [homepage] tries to aid the user in calibrating his monitor correctly by walking him through several steps that configure the monitor’s brightness, contrast and color settings. These settings can be saved as profiles which can be started during Windows startup.

Every part of the calibration process displays patterns that can be used to find the best setting for the connected monitor. The first test deals with the monitor’s brightness and contrast setting, after that the three colors red, green and blue will be tested before slight corrections can be made during the final test.

It does not take that long to calibrate the monitor. If you do not want to start another program during system start you can still use the calibration wizard but use the settings of your graphics card to make the changes.

Screen Check, discovered by Uneasy Silence, is a page that helps check two different parameters: Brightness and Color. It’s by no means a full calibration software but it aids with those two parameters. Both are shown as bars on the same screen. The first displays a range from white on the left to black on the right, all should be visible on screen. If they are not you need to adjust the brightness and contrast setting.

The suggested settings at the website are not optimal for all monitors. The settings for my Samsung Syncmaster 19″ flat screen monitor for instance are perfect at +45% Brightness and +38% Contrast. If I set the contrast to a higher value the darker parts of the bar become black as well.

The second bar displays red, green and blue colors which should be fluent from left to right. If they are not you might need to adjust the color setting of your display adapter to display a higher color quality.