[supertackyman]

what's the best way to calibrate one's monitor so that it accurately represents colors produced at printing (say from a photo lab)

I understand the whole Gamut issue. that some colors cannot be accurately printed but look ok on the monitor. but what i want, is for most of my colors to look the same, from screen to print.

I was thinking of making a test pattern of basic colors and black and white. taking it to the photo lab at wallymart and having it "developed" and comparing. but that seems like a pain in the ...

the reason I want to know is that my old monitor was a bunch on the bright side so when i printed, the pics seemed darker than i expected and the pics out of my camera looked washed on the screen.

I have used the adobe gamma but is there anything that is a bit more accurate and possibly have a more in depth wizzard?