Modern desktop operating systems like Windows and Mac OS X offer built-in tools for calibrating your display‘s brightness, contrast, gamma, and color levels. This can help make text more readable and give images and videos more accurate colors.
Sure, digital photography professionals will want to use colorimeters to do this. But, if you don’t have such a tool and just want to make some quick adjustments, you can just do it with your eye.
Before performing any of these steps, ensure you’re using your display’s native resolution.
Use Your Monitor’s On-Screen Controls
If you have a monitor with on-screen controls, you can do this just by pressing those buttons. But it’s hard to adjust options without anything to go by. Use the Lagom LCD monitor test pages (or a similar online tool) and you’ll have on-screen test patterns that you can look at while calibrating the various settings. Go through the pages one by one and they’ll explain what you need to look for when adjusting the various settings on your monitor.
If you don’t have such on-screen buttons — let’s say you have a laptop, for example — you can also use the tools built into Windows and Mac OS X.
Windows 10, 8.1, 8, and 7
Windows has had a built-in display-calibration tool since Windows 7. To open it, launch the Control Panel. On Windows 10 or 8.1, you can do this by right-clicking the Start button and selecting “Control Panel”.
Click “Hardware and Sound” in the Control Panel window, click “Display”, and then click the “Calibrate color” link at the left side of the Display control panel.
You can also open the Start menu, type “calibrate” into the search box, and click the “Calibrate display color” shortcut that appears to launch the calibration tool directly.
The Display Color Calibration tool will appear. This tool will walk you through adjusting the various options — gamma, brightness, contrast, and color balance — explaining what option means and what you’re looking for when adjusting each option. Windows does a good job of explaining what you need to know, so just read along as you go through the wizard.
Mac OS X
Mac OS X has its own display calibration tool built-in. To open it, click the Apple menu on the menu bar at the top of your screen and select “System Preferences”. Click the “Displays” option in the list.
Click the “Color” tab at the top of the window, and then click the “Calibrate” button.
This opens the Apple Display Calibrator Assistant. It will walk you through calibrating the display’s various settings, explaining what you need to know and how to select the ideal option on the way. Different settings may be available on different displays. The assistant will explain what you need to know and what you should look for when adjusting various settings.
Modern Linux desktop environments may have display-and-color calibration built into their control panels, too. Of course, if you’re using a Linux desktop, you can also just load the color calibration web pages and adjust the settings on your monitor itself.
Chromebooks and Chromeboxes don’t have any built-in tools for this as it’s just not integrated into Chrome OS. If you’re using a Chromebook with an external monitor or a Chromebox, however, you can use the above web pages and adjust the settings using the buttons on the monitor itself.
Until watchOS 2, the “Mail” app could only show notifications for and display incoming emails. Now, you can reply to emails messages in Mail using your Apple Watch the same way that you can reply to text messages on your watch.
There are three ways to reply to emails using your Apple Watch. You can choose among several default replies, speak your reply, or reply with an emoji.
When you get a notification on your watch that you received an email (as pictured above), tap on the notification to open the message.
NOTE: Your Apple Watch can’t display the full content if rich-text and other complex media was used in the message. It will only display text. Read the email message on your phone to view the full content.
If you want to reply to the email after you’ve dismissed the notification, or reply to a different email, you can open the Mail app on your watch. To do so, press the digital crown until the Home screen displays. Tap the “Mail” icon.
The emails in your Inbox display. Tap on the email to which you want to reply.
Tap the “Reply” button at the bottom of the email.
You can also force touch the Apple Watch screen while viewing an email message to access actions you can take on the message you’re currently viewing.
Once you’ve tapped “Reply”, a list of default responses display, such as “Let me get back to you”, “Can I call you later”, and “Got it, thanks”. Scroll through the list to see if there’s an appropriate response for the current email. If so, tap on it to insert it into your message.
If you don’t find a response you want to use, you can speak your reply. To do so, tap the microphone button.
Speak your reply to the watch. It types out what you say on the screen, including punctuation marks, like “question mark”, “exclamation point”, “comma”, or “period”. Tap “Done” when you’re finished speaking your reply.
The message you spoke displays in your reply. Tap “Send” to send your reply.
At the top of the screen, a “Sending…” message displays with a progress bar. Once your message is sent, press the digital crown to return to the Home screen and again to return to the clock face.
You can also choose to send an emoji as a reply to an email. Once you’ve opened the email to which you want to reply on your watch and tapped the “Reply” button, tap the emoji button at the bottom of the screen.
Emojis display in several categories, such as “Frequently Used”, “People”, “Activity”, and “Objects & Symbols”.
Swipe or turn the digital crown to scroll through the emojis. When you find one you want to use, tap on it. For example, we’ll reply with a thumbs up emoji.
The emoji you selected displays in your reply. Tap “Send”.
NOTE: If your Apple Watch is connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot, it has enough Internet connectivity to send replies to existing emails, even if the watch is not currently connected to your phone. However, your watch must be connected to your phone through Bluetooth in order to be able to receive new mails.
Complications on the Apple Watch allow you to display various types of information and quickly access apps on the watch. The Weather app on your iPhone provides a complication for watch faces that can be customized, such as the Modular, Utility, and Simple watch faces.
The Weather complication displays the weather for one default city, but you can change which city is the default city using your phone. To do this, tap the “Watch” app on the Home screen.
Make sure the “My Watch” screen is active. If not, tap the “My Watch” icon at the bottom of the screen.
On the “My Watch” screen, tap “Weather”.
Tap “Default City” on the “Weather” screen.
NOTE: The city currently displaying as the default city on the Weather complication is listed next to “Default City”.
Scroll through the list on the “Default City” screen and tap the city you want to make the default. If you don’t see the city you want, you can add cities to the Weather app on your phone. We’ll explain how to do this.
Tap the “Weather” app icon on your phone’s Home screen.
In the “Weather” app, tap the list button in the lower-right corner of the screen.
A list of all cities available in the app displays. Tap the plus icon in the lower-right corner of the screen.
Start typing the name of the city you want to add in the edit box. Cities that match what you’re typing start displaying in a list below the edit box. When you see the city you want in the list, tap on it.
The city is added to the list.
The city you added is now available to choose as the default city for the “Weather” complication.
Even though you can only view the weather for one city at a time on your Apple Watch, you can easily view the weather for all the cities you’ve added in the Weather app simply by swiping right and left. The row of dots at the bottom of the screen indicate the cities you’ve added as well as the arrow indicating your current location.
You can also add third-party complications from other weather apps you can find through the “Watch” app.
So, guess what? Google has changed the way they show local results! Again!
For those of us who operate in and around the local search industry this change is just another in a long string of functionality changes, display updates, and rebrands that Google Local has been through in recent years.
The latest change came out of the blue on November 17th. Google gave very little warning or explanation to business owners about these changes, which has created plenty of confusion and frustration among many SMBs. It feels like Google has ripped the rug out from under their feet and they’re left wondering whether it’s worth bothering with local search any more.
In this post I’ll explain what Google has changed, why it’s changed, and why Google Local is still a huge opportunity for local businesses to attract new customers.
What has Google Changed?
These changes are entirely centered on Google+ Local pages. Up until recently these pages displayed all the useful & important data that Google holds about a business, and Google linked to these pages from local and map search results.
In September, Google removed the links from Search Results to Google+ Local pages and now they have removed most of the business data from them.
The new look Google+ is a place for ‘interests’, with an emphasis on its ‘Communities’ and ‘Collections’. I explain more about these later in this post.
The most important point for business owners to understand from this change is that Google is still committed to local search & giving searchers information about local businesses, but they no longer think that Google+ is the right place to display business information.
So let’s take a look at the changes & compare old vs new.
Old Style Google+ Page
The image below shows the old Google+ interface which displays plenty of useful and important information about a business (note that Google still offers a link “Back to classic G+” so you can still view this old style page, but this won’t be forever).
I’ve highlighted a number of sections in red to show which info/content has been stripped away in the new interface.
This old style page was rich with content that was relevant to local businesses, including map, photo uploads, business description, and reviews. However, the new G+ pages no longer display the following features and info:
Reviews / Star Rating
Business Categories
Maps / Directions
Photo uploads / Interior photos
Opening hours
OpenTable/ Apps integration
So if we take away all those features, what are we left with?
New Google+ Page
The first thing you will notice is that the new Google+ is much simpler, and also more mobile friendly. According to Google, it focuses on ‘simple navigation and improved search’.
But there is almost no information about the business.
In the red circle I’ve highlighted a very discreet ‘info’ icon. Clicking on the info icon opens up an ‘About’ page, which loads the following pop-up which does contain very basic contact info:
What are Communities and Collections?
The new Google+ is geared towards sharing content with those who share similar interests. Communities and Collections are areas on Google+ where users can find people with similar interests, and share content related to those subjects.
Communities – Google states that Communities now average 1.2 million new joins per day, and allows users to immerse themselves in content they are interested in, such as Star Wars or SEO.
Collections – Launched just five months ago, Collections are growing even faster and broadly focus on more creative or niche groups, such as Zombie Cats and Motorcycle Art.
Why has Google Made These Changes?
Google+ started life as a social network, but for a number of reasons it never really took off and Google is systematically breaking it up and keeping only the pieces that did work – e.g. Photos, Communities, and Collections.
Google+ Local piggybacked on G+ and became the place that Google displayed local business data. It always felt like an odd association – social features with business information – and now that association is ending.
As I said above, Google is still staunchly committed to providing quality local information, but this isn’t via Google+ anymore.
What Does the Change Mean for Local Businesses?
The change doesn’t have a material impact on local businesses. The reality is that very few search users actually visited/used Google+ Local pages because they got the information they needed from within search results pages.
Google+ Local pages are mostly used by business owners or SEOs to help them check, audit, and manage their business information. From this perspective, the change is annoying but shouldn’t affect how local businesses attract new customers from Google.
Google still presents local business data prominently in both normal search results and in map results (see screen shots below)
In fact Google now shows local/map results for more search terms than ever before – because they know that searchers want local information. Great news for local businesses!
We can see that on a typical search for a local service / product (in this case “Plumber Boston MA”), Google gives plenty of real estate to local business websites; not only in the three pack (left), but also in the additional results featured on the Local Finder page (right).
Google’s relationship with local hasn’t changed. Local search optimization has never been just about Google+ pages, and over the years Google has demonstrated its commitment to showcasing not just large, popular brands, but also small and local businesses that can serve a users’ needs.
Google My Business: Still the Place to Update Your Business Data
Nothing with Google My Business (GMB) has changed and you should continue to use your dashboard to manage your business information. The data from your GMB dashboard will show up everywhere that Google deems necessary; notably in Google Search, Maps, mobile search, and the Knowledge Graph.
In the annual Local Search Ranking Factors study, GMB signals made up 14.7% of the overall ranking factors (see image below). This is not going to change overnight, so Google is still very much focused on local, and there is little need for SEOs and local business owners to worry about changes to Google+.
Still Not Convinced?
If you, or a client, still have doubts about the effectiveness of Google/Local Search to drive new customers, then here are some tasty stats to convince you of the continuing power of Local Search:
97% of consumers use the internet when researching local products/services (Source: BIA/Kelsey)
43% of consumers search every month for a local business (Source: BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey, 2015)
The number one reason for an online search is to find the location of a ‘known’ business (Source: comScore, Neustar Localeze, 15 Miles – Local Search Study, 2014)
78% of mobile searches for local businesses result in a purchase (Source: Local Search Association Conference, 2014)
Local Search delivers better ROI than all other online channels (Source: BrightLocal Clicks & Calls Survey, 2015)
34% of SEOs/SMBs would choose Local search above any other marketing channel (Source: BrightLocal Clicks & Calls Survey, 2015)
Image credits Featured Image: rvlsoft / Shutterstock.com, Screenshots taken Nov 2015
If you’ve messed around with the DPI scaling option on your high-resolution display — in an attempt to make things easier to read — then it can sometimes come with a negative side effect: blurry fonts. (And unfortunately, it’s just one of several potential font issues in Windows 10.)
This happens because of the scaling method used by Microsoft in the newer versions of Windows. While the text will most certainly be bigger, the fidelity may be sacrificed to rescale. But not to worry, because you can fix it and bring back the sharpness to your text without making it tiny and impossible to read!
Worried that you’ll have to dig into the system registry to solve the issue? That’s one way to do it, but it isn’t a permanent or easy fix. Instead, your best bet is to download XPExplorer’s Windows 10 DPI Fix and let it handle everything.
All you need to do is download the file and run the .EXE. A small box will open, and in it you’ll be choosing between Windows 10 default DPI scaling and Windows 8.1 DPI scaling. The latter is the one that will fix your blurry font problem.
You can also use the dropdown menu to change the actual scaling to work with the size you need. Make sure to restart your computer in order to see the changes.
Did you run to the eye doctor for a new prescription when you first discovered blurry fonts when you upgraded to Windows 10? Share your story in the comments!