My Monitor is a Filthy Liar

I always trusted my monitor. I calibrated it when I got it. The colours were right on the money. Or, so I thought.
I was working on a design for Christmas. I decided to do something different. I would make a Christmas design in blue.

I picked a lovely shade of blue. In my head I was calling it cornflower blue, because it seemed to have a hint of violet in it. Just a hint.

I went to Zazzle and added a bunch of products with my new blue Christmas design. Then, I posted images for my friends to see. The response was almost immediate and universal – ‘This isn’t blue, it’s purple’ I was confused. Of course it was blue. It was blue as blue. Okay, there was that hint of violet, but it certainly wasn’t purple!

To prove my point I went to my other computer and looked at the design. Well, darn and drat! It was purple!

Designs side-by-side
What I thought it looked like vs What it really looked like

Even with all the calibrations. Even though everything looked perfectly normal on my main computer. Somehow, my blues were off. I decided to name the design Oh Deer, it’s Christmas – Periwinkle.

Periwinkle Design

Then, I remade it with a true blue, checking both computers, and made an Oh Deer, it’s Christmas – Blue.

Blue design

Lesson learned. Never trust your monitor. Never ever.

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JesSimon

I design things for my shop Misfits Enterprise on Zazzle

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