Now that I'm sick of my plain black background no longer being black, I decided to adjust the gamma/brightness/contrast settings in the ATI software. Might as well calibrate it properly (though it's not critically important).

Any ways of doing this? Most internet searches end up with two solutions:
- buy a hardware calibrator
- buy a desktop with a proper monitor

Not wanting to go with either of those options, is there a better way? Maybe some kind of test card image?

Typing this quickly without really thinking... do you mean the sort of things you get on DVDs to adjust 'for best results'?

In fact, just found this if it's any use

http://www.orbitalzone.com/testcard.htm

Kinda but not quite.

Back in the days of Win95, I used to have a program that would help you calibrate your monitor. Things like adjusting the gamma setting so you could just see all the steps of a black->white ramp, adjusting R/G/B boxes so they matched their borders.

http://epaperpress.com/monitorcal/

I know bugger all about this stuff

EDIT:

http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/down ... _software/

That it?

Seems to be ones for all there...

Personally, I wouldn't recommend anything other than hardware calibration myself. I know the sort of thing you're talking about, they have one in OSX, but personally, I think it gives false confidence in your monitor.