James Ritson

It's something I'm trialling, was going to make a quick post about it at some point. From initial tests it seems to do an OK job (better than the in-app search, in fact ) - it's currently in Photo English, US and German. If it seems to be functioning well then we'll probably just roll it out across all languages and for both apps.

The display acceleration and Metal compute hardware acceleration are two entirely separate things - using Metal for display acceleration just means it's used to present to screen (i.e. the canvas view). It should be faster than OpenGL, but between the final High Sierra beta and the public release something changed and presented some issues with the way Affinity's Metal renderer is implemented. It's hopefully something that will be addressed in the future. In the meantime, the OpenGL renderer was tweaked to compensate (it's noticeably faster in 1.6 than 1.5).
 
Metal compute is hardware acceleration, and is a back port from the iPad development where Metal implementation was necessary to achieve good performance. In particular, equirectangular projection absolutely flies using Metal compute, often hitting 60fps at 5K resolutions and above. Complex live filters like Twirl and other distortions should also redraw much faster. At the moment, however, it's limited to integrated graphics chips which you'll typically find either on MacBook models or the 21" iMacs.
 
You'll notice enabling Metal compute will use the integrated GPU, but you don't need to check "Use only integrated GPU". Photo can still use the discrete GPU for presenting to screen and the integrated GPU for Metal compute quite separately.
 
Hope that clears it up a bit!

Hello all,
 
Just to let you know that in conjunction with the latest update, I've re-recorded one video and there are three new videos:
Opening, Saving & Exporting (Updated; 22nd February) Learn how to open images from different sources (Photos App, cloud storage), see how images are auto-saved and discover how to export and share images - both in common formats (JPEG, PSD) and as Affinity documents. Watch: Vimeo / YouTube iPad/Desktop Interworking Check out a quick and simple workflow to share and edit your work between the iPad and desktop versions of Affinity Photo using Open In Place. Watch: Vimeo / YouTube Exporting Learn how to use the export dialog on the iPad version of Affinity Photo to share your work in a number of different formats. Watch: Vimeo / YouTube 360 Live Editing See how to apply Live Projection editing to 360 images and retouch them. Watch: Vimeo / YouTube  
As usual, the list in the first post has been updated. Hope you find them useful!

@KyleG overscan is typically a TV issue, not an app issue - have you checked your picture settings? It's usually called Picture Size or Picture Frame, and you'll have options like 16:9 (which typically overscans), Zoom, Fill, etc. There should be one called Just Scan or Fit, which will display the entire frame. Hope that helps.

Hi Sam, if you follow the links in the Designer and Photo tutorial threads to the Vimeo versions, you can download high quality versions - there's usually a Download button to the left of Share. Given the choice, I'd go for the highest resolution available - this is usually 1080p, UHD 1440p, or, in some rare cases, UHD 4K. You can also download the "Original" versions which are the original uploaded video files, but they'll be significantly bigger in file size. If file size and download time aren't a concern the originals will look very nice 
 
Hope that helps.

Hi Sam, if you follow the links in the Designer and Photo tutorial threads to the Vimeo versions, you can download high quality versions - there's usually a Download button to the left of Share. Given the choice, I'd go for the highest resolution available - this is usually 1080p, UHD 1440p, or, in some rare cases, UHD 4K. You can also download the "Original" versions which are the original uploaded video files, but they'll be significantly bigger in file size. If file size and download time aren't a concern the originals will look very nice 
 
Hope that helps.

Affinity Online Help
Hello all, we're happy to be able to offer you an online version of the in-app help!
Access Designer, Photo & Publisher Help here: https://affinity.help
Here are some of the additional features we're able to implement as a result of having proper browser support:
Dynamic language switching: The help will determine your language and (if it's available) serve you a localised copy of the help. If you prefer to read in another language, however, you'll find a combo box at the bottom left which will enable you to change languages—and stay on the page you're currently reading. Print: Sounds simple, but with full browser support we can now implement printing of the topic pages. The print icon in the bottom left will give you a nicely formatted printout of the current topic. Share: Clicking the clipboard icon will copy the current topic's URL to your clipboard, which means you can easily point other people towards topics that may help them. Responsive: The help was responsive anyway, including off-canvas menu functionality so you could collapse the window and still read a topic, but this is taken further in this version of the help. The help is formatted nicely and usable even on a 4" iPhone SE screen. Search: we've implemented our own bespoke search for the online help which is fast and accurate. Access it via the tab system along the top left. Favourites: you can add topics to your favourites list to easily access them during future browser sessions. Simply click the + (plus) icon next to the "Favourites" tab to add the current topic.  
With this online version you'll be able to print out topics and view them on your tablets/phones, which are two of the most common requests when it comes to help feedback.
As always, if you have any feedback or find any issues with this online version, please let us know! Hope you find it useful.

[Edit] One more video added [/Edit]
 
Hello all,
 
As a present for 2016 here are four more videos for you all:
 
Global Cloning - http://vimeo.com/149628411
Subtle Toning - http://vimeo.com/149269746
Multiple Colour Formats - http://vimeo.com/149265352
Maximum Stacking - http://vimeo.com/150416756
 
Multiple Colour Formats highlights how, as an example, you can work in LAB with adjustments whilst your document remains in RGB. A useful little feature!
 
More videos on the way soon - hope you all have a good New Year!
 
James

Affinity Online Help
Hello all, we're happy to be able to offer you an online version of the in-app help!
Access Designer, Photo & Publisher Help here: https://affinity.help
Here are some of the additional features we're able to implement as a result of having proper browser support:
Dynamic language switching: The help will determine your language and (if it's available) serve you a localised copy of the help. If you prefer to read in another language, however, you'll find a combo box at the bottom left which will enable you to change languages—and stay on the page you're currently reading. Print: Sounds simple, but with full browser support we can now implement printing of the topic pages. The print icon in the bottom left will give you a nicely formatted printout of the current topic. Share: Clicking the clipboard icon will copy the current topic's URL to your clipboard, which means you can easily point other people towards topics that may help them. Responsive: The help was responsive anyway, including off-canvas menu functionality so you could collapse the window and still read a topic, but this is taken further in this version of the help. The help is formatted nicely and usable even on a 4" iPhone SE screen. Search: we've implemented our own bespoke search for the online help which is fast and accurate. Access it via the tab system along the top left. Favourites: you can add topics to your favourites list to easily access them during future browser sessions. Simply click the + (plus) icon next to the "Favourites" tab to add the current topic.  
With this online version you'll be able to print out topics and view them on your tablets/phones, which are two of the most common requests when it comes to help feedback.
As always, if you have any feedback or find any issues with this online version, please let us know! Hope you find it useful.

Affinity Online Help
Hello all, we're happy to be able to offer you an online version of the in-app help!
Access Designer, Photo & Publisher Help here: https://affinity.help
Here are some of the additional features we're able to implement as a result of having proper browser support:
Dynamic language switching: The help will determine your language and (if it's available) serve you a localised copy of the help. If you prefer to read in another language, however, you'll find a combo box at the bottom left which will enable you to change languages—and stay on the page you're currently reading. Print: Sounds simple, but with full browser support we can now implement printing of the topic pages. The print icon in the bottom left will give you a nicely formatted printout of the current topic. Share: Clicking the clipboard icon will copy the current topic's URL to your clipboard, which means you can easily point other people towards topics that may help them. Responsive: The help was responsive anyway, including off-canvas menu functionality so you could collapse the window and still read a topic, but this is taken further in this version of the help. The help is formatted nicely and usable even on a 4" iPhone SE screen. Search: we've implemented our own bespoke search for the online help which is fast and accurate. Access it via the tab system along the top left. Favourites: you can add topics to your favourites list to easily access them during future browser sessions. Simply click the + (plus) icon next to the "Favourites" tab to add the current topic.  
With this online version you'll be able to print out topics and view them on your tablets/phones, which are two of the most common requests when it comes to help feedback.
As always, if you have any feedback or find any issues with this online version, please let us know! Hope you find it useful.

Hi Mike, thanks for your comments, I do really appreciate your feedback as it's something we are aware of (and have been for some time now). In an ideal situation with more time, we'd have already been able to provide a more comprehensive, structured beginners course. I have produced an initial set of beginners videos that take you through the absolute basics (opening, saving, adjustments, filters, exporting etc), but from your comments it sounds like there's nothing for the skill level past that point where it focuses more on A to B workflows.
 
I know Simon's (Drippy Cat) video courses have received some great praise and he offers some great structured learning, which is what we struggle with as the in-house videos tend to be a mixture of new features, specific techniques, genres, etc. What did you find was the issue with his videos? I'm sure he would appreciate the feedback as he's pretty active and is constantly working on new material or revising it.
 
The problem we have with our video structure at the moment is that there are plenty of really useful techniques, many of which I'd say could be suitable for beginners to digest, but they're almost "hidden" in videos that cover a particular feature or workflow aid. This is something that we have plans to address, but can't really provide a timeline for. Ideally I'd like to knuckle down and produce a few more of what we call "Projects" videos, where it's a workflow demonstration that covers the start to finish of an image edit. I'm a keen landscape photographer too so I have plenty of ideas to pool from for this subject!
 
Sorry I can't offer more in the way of a resolution at the moment, but we are aware of the gap in the learning material we provide and it is something we're hoping to address. In the meantime, if you had any specific areas you were struggling with, I could try and point you towards videos that would cover those areas (as I mentioned previously, it's not always obvious by the video title). Do let me know, perhaps in this thread, and I'll do my best to help. Thanks!

Hi again, check your Develop Assistant settings. At some point, you've switched to 32-bit output rather than 16-bit. 32-bit will be using a linear colour space, which Apple Photos doesn't interpret correctly, so it's causing the mismatch that you see when passing the document back. Once you switch back to 16-bit and then open a RAW file from Photos, everything should then correct itself (that's my hope, anyway )
 
If you're not sure where the assistant is, check out this video: 
 
 
Bear in mind that you might have to re-open the RAW file once you've changed the setting for it to apply (the above video will need an update when I have time!).
 
Hope that solves it!

Hi again, check your Develop Assistant settings. At some point, you've switched to 32-bit output rather than 16-bit. 32-bit will be using a linear colour space, which Apple Photos doesn't interpret correctly, so it's causing the mismatch that you see when passing the document back. Once you switch back to 16-bit and then open a RAW file from Photos, everything should then correct itself (that's my hope, anyway )
 
If you're not sure where the assistant is, check out this video: 
 
 
Bear in mind that you might have to re-open the RAW file once you've changed the setting for it to apply (the above video will need an update when I have time!).
 
Hope that solves it!

Hi Mike, thanks for your comments, I do really appreciate your feedback as it's something we are aware of (and have been for some time now). In an ideal situation with more time, we'd have already been able to provide a more comprehensive, structured beginners course. I have produced an initial set of beginners videos that take you through the absolute basics (opening, saving, adjustments, filters, exporting etc), but from your comments it sounds like there's nothing for the skill level past that point where it focuses more on A to B workflows.
 
I know Simon's (Drippy Cat) video courses have received some great praise and he offers some great structured learning, which is what we struggle with as the in-house videos tend to be a mixture of new features, specific techniques, genres, etc. What did you find was the issue with his videos? I'm sure he would appreciate the feedback as he's pretty active and is constantly working on new material or revising it.
 
The problem we have with our video structure at the moment is that there are plenty of really useful techniques, many of which I'd say could be suitable for beginners to digest, but they're almost "hidden" in videos that cover a particular feature or workflow aid. This is something that we have plans to address, but can't really provide a timeline for. Ideally I'd like to knuckle down and produce a few more of what we call "Projects" videos, where it's a workflow demonstration that covers the start to finish of an image edit. I'm a keen landscape photographer too so I have plenty of ideas to pool from for this subject!
 
Sorry I can't offer more in the way of a resolution at the moment, but we are aware of the gap in the learning material we provide and it is something we're hoping to address. In the meantime, if you had any specific areas you were struggling with, I could try and point you towards videos that would cover those areas (as I mentioned previously, it's not always obvious by the video title). Do let me know, perhaps in this thread, and I'll do my best to help. Thanks!

Hello all, just reappearing briefly to post a new video! It covers how to achieve the Orton effect in Photo. I've seen various videos and guides that more or less replicate the Photoshop method, but that's a destructive approach, and I wanted to demonstrate a few tweaks to make it non-destructive. Hope you find it useful!
Orton Effect - YouTube / Vimeo  

Hey all,
 
The Photo for Windows beta has proven incredibly popular, and I appreciate that, like with any software, there's a learning curve and the requirement to invest time in understanding the software's functionality and idiosyncrasies.
 
With no firm commitment to delivering them consistently (that bit is important to note  ;) ) I'd like to share some example editing/workflow videos. My aim is to demonstrate Photo's feature set and, hopefully, help viewers understand how the tools and features they're accustomed to using in other software can translate to Photo's implementations.
 
If you haven't caught them already, it's also worth noting that there's a huge set of video tutorials for Photo available at http://affin.co/PhotoTuts - around 165 at last count.
 
Here they are:
 
Hadrian's Wall
 

 
Link: https://vimeo.com/191642138
 
This video focuses on:
Raw noise reduction and dithering Marquee selections from tonal ranges Layer masking Blend modes Blend ranges Channel duplication/loading to alpha mask Live filter layers Configurable layer behaviour  
Tiled Building
 

 
Link: https://vimeo.com/191981432
 
This video focuses on:
Accurate selections using selection brush tool Saving selections to spare channels Loading channel information into a layer's alpha mask Live brush previews Creative painting with blend modes Dynamic brush resizing on the fly Live Lighting filter Live filter layer mask painting Fast history scrubbing  
Portrait Retouching
 

 
Link: https://vimeo.com/194985128
 
This video focuses on:
Automated Frequency Separation Healing Brush and Clone Brush Merging visible layers Live filter layers Live brush previews and blend modes Changing/adding colour tones Changeable workflow behaviours via Assistant dialog Live scrubbing History panel  
Monochromatic Architecture
 

 
Link: https://vimeo.com/194986066
 
This video focuses on:
Adjustment Layers Live brush work with live previews Painting & Erasing Live filter layers Non-destructive noise/grain addition  
Canary Wharf
 

 
Link: https://vimeo.com/203283705
 
This video focuses on:
RAW development Tone Curve option Apply Image with channel equations Black & White adjustment with Multiply blend mode to knock out sky colour Pixel painting to enhance colours Curves tonal adjustment Live Unsharp Mask filter for final sharpening  
Banded Demoiselle
 

 
Link: https://vimeo.com/203294769
 
This video focuses on:
Creating selections with the Selection Brush Inverting a selection Masking an adjustment using a selection Tweaking layer opacity Live Lighting filter with blend mode Live High Pass filter with masking White Balance for tinting  
I'll keep you posted as further videos appear. Hope they prove helpful to you!

Hello all, just reappearing briefly to post a new video! It covers how to achieve the Orton effect in Photo. I've seen various videos and guides that more or less replicate the Photoshop method, but that's a destructive approach, and I wanted to demonstrate a few tweaks to make it non-destructive. Hope you find it useful!
Orton Effect - YouTube / Vimeo  

Hello all, just reappearing briefly to post a new video! It covers how to achieve the Orton effect in Photo. I've seen various videos and guides that more or less replicate the Photoshop method, but that's a destructive approach, and I wanted to demonstrate a few tweaks to make it non-destructive. Hope you find it useful!
Orton Effect - YouTube / Vimeo  

Hello all, just reappearing briefly to post a new video! It covers how to achieve the Orton effect in Photo. I've seen various videos and guides that more or less replicate the Photoshop method, but that's a destructive approach, and I wanted to demonstrate a few tweaks to make it non-destructive. Hope you find it useful!
Orton Effect - YouTube / Vimeo  

Hello all, just reappearing briefly to post a new video! It covers how to achieve the Orton effect in Photo. I've seen various videos and guides that more or less replicate the Photoshop method, but that's a destructive approach, and I wanted to demonstrate a few tweaks to make it non-destructive. Hope you find it useful!
Orton Effect - YouTube / Vimeo  

Hello all, just reappearing briefly to post a new video! It covers how to achieve the Orton effect in Photo. I've seen various videos and guides that more or less replicate the Photoshop method, but that's a destructive approach, and I wanted to demonstrate a few tweaks to make it non-destructive. Hope you find it useful!
Orton Effect - YouTube / Vimeo  

Hey Paul, it's a tricky one. The vast majority of monitors, especially lower-end models, tend to ship with a high brightness level for the same reason as you've observed: everything looks "punchier".
 
Unless you're working specifically to a medium such as print, you should aim to make your brightness the same as the ambient light level in the room you're in. If it's brighter or darker then you won't perceive tones and detail correctly.
 
However, I'd really recommend that you invest in a colorimeter (e.g. the i1Display Pro) - this way you can profile your monitor to particular conditions, including brightness levels. For example, in a typical office environment with overhead lighting, you might calibrate your brightness to 100cd/m2. 120cd/m2 is the typical value given for general office and web use, but it really depends on the environment lighting. What will shock you is just how bright monitors ship by default: most iMac 5K panels I've profiled tend to be around 170 to 180cd/m2 by default (this is with the automatic brightness control enabled), but I've seen some other monitors that come in at over 200. I had an old Hazro monitor that was highly rated for photo work, and that was insanely bright to begin with.
 
With a colorimeter, you can also profile your display to a colour temperature more accurately. Most of the time you'd profile to D65 (6500K) for office and web use, as well as photo editing, but you can also profile to D55, D50 and other temperatures for print work, proofing, etc. It depends on what you need to do. You will likely find that your monitor has some sort of colour cast, even if it's slight. The 2014 iMac I use shipped with a horrible green tint, and I recently profiled a 2015 model that had a blue cast.
 
To give you an example, I typically create two profiles for my photo editing at D65 and D50 and I keep my brightness at 80cd/m2 because of dim lighting conditions. I stick with D50 most of the time (it also reduces my eye strain because it's warmer ), but toggle between that and D65 to sanity check my work. I'll often create a third profile which is based off the office's ambient temperature (profiling software allows you to take a measurement from the colorimeter) - this is for printed work where I want a closer idea of how it will look when printed and viewed under the same lighting conditions.
 
So, a bit of a ramble, apologies... At the very least, I would recommend making sure your monitor's brightness looks "level" with the room lighting, then work from there. I would definitely recommend looking at a colorimeter though, because that way you can ensure that you've taken steps to standardise your working conditions - that's all you can do, really. Different panels, different devices - they can all have varying temperatures, colour casts and brightness levels, and you'll drive yourself mad trying to satisfy every scenario. That said, if you have devices you can test on (such as phones, tablets, other monitors), all the better.
 
Hope that helps somewhat!

Hey Paul, it's a tricky one. The vast majority of monitors, especially lower-end models, tend to ship with a high brightness level for the same reason as you've observed: everything looks "punchier".
 
Unless you're working specifically to a medium such as print, you should aim to make your brightness the same as the ambient light level in the room you're in. If it's brighter or darker then you won't perceive tones and detail correctly.
 
However, I'd really recommend that you invest in a colorimeter (e.g. the i1Display Pro) - this way you can profile your monitor to particular conditions, including brightness levels. For example, in a typical office environment with overhead lighting, you might calibrate your brightness to 100cd/m2. 120cd/m2 is the typical value given for general office and web use, but it really depends on the environment lighting. What will shock you is just how bright monitors ship by default: most iMac 5K panels I've profiled tend to be around 170 to 180cd/m2 by default (this is with the automatic brightness control enabled), but I've seen some other monitors that come in at over 200. I had an old Hazro monitor that was highly rated for photo work, and that was insanely bright to begin with.
 
With a colorimeter, you can also profile your display to a colour temperature more accurately. Most of the time you'd profile to D65 (6500K) for office and web use, as well as photo editing, but you can also profile to D55, D50 and other temperatures for print work, proofing, etc. It depends on what you need to do. You will likely find that your monitor has some sort of colour cast, even if it's slight. The 2014 iMac I use shipped with a horrible green tint, and I recently profiled a 2015 model that had a blue cast.
 
To give you an example, I typically create two profiles for my photo editing at D65 and D50 and I keep my brightness at 80cd/m2 because of dim lighting conditions. I stick with D50 most of the time (it also reduces my eye strain because it's warmer ), but toggle between that and D65 to sanity check my work. I'll often create a third profile which is based off the office's ambient temperature (profiling software allows you to take a measurement from the colorimeter) - this is for printed work where I want a closer idea of how it will look when printed and viewed under the same lighting conditions.
 
So, a bit of a ramble, apologies... At the very least, I would recommend making sure your monitor's brightness looks "level" with the room lighting, then work from there. I would definitely recommend looking at a colorimeter though, because that way you can ensure that you've taken steps to standardise your working conditions - that's all you can do, really. Different panels, different devices - they can all have varying temperatures, colour casts and brightness levels, and you'll drive yourself mad trying to satisfy every scenario. That said, if you have devices you can test on (such as phones, tablets, other monitors), all the better.
 
Hope that helps somewhat!

Hey Paul, it's a tricky one. The vast majority of monitors, especially lower-end models, tend to ship with a high brightness level for the same reason as you've observed: everything looks "punchier".
 
Unless you're working specifically to a medium such as print, you should aim to make your brightness the same as the ambient light level in the room you're in. If it's brighter or darker then you won't perceive tones and detail correctly.
 
However, I'd really recommend that you invest in a colorimeter (e.g. the i1Display Pro) - this way you can profile your monitor to particular conditions, including brightness levels. For example, in a typical office environment with overhead lighting, you might calibrate your brightness to 100cd/m2. 120cd/m2 is the typical value given for general office and web use, but it really depends on the environment lighting. What will shock you is just how bright monitors ship by default: most iMac 5K panels I've profiled tend to be around 170 to 180cd/m2 by default (this is with the automatic brightness control enabled), but I've seen some other monitors that come in at over 200. I had an old Hazro monitor that was highly rated for photo work, and that was insanely bright to begin with.
 
With a colorimeter, you can also profile your display to a colour temperature more accurately. Most of the time you'd profile to D65 (6500K) for office and web use, as well as photo editing, but you can also profile to D55, D50 and other temperatures for print work, proofing, etc. It depends on what you need to do. You will likely find that your monitor has some sort of colour cast, even if it's slight. The 2014 iMac I use shipped with a horrible green tint, and I recently profiled a 2015 model that had a blue cast.
 
To give you an example, I typically create two profiles for my photo editing at D65 and D50 and I keep my brightness at 80cd/m2 because of dim lighting conditions. I stick with D50 most of the time (it also reduces my eye strain because it's warmer ), but toggle between that and D65 to sanity check my work. I'll often create a third profile which is based off the office's ambient temperature (profiling software allows you to take a measurement from the colorimeter) - this is for printed work where I want a closer idea of how it will look when printed and viewed under the same lighting conditions.
 
So, a bit of a ramble, apologies... At the very least, I would recommend making sure your monitor's brightness looks "level" with the room lighting, then work from there. I would definitely recommend looking at a colorimeter though, because that way you can ensure that you've taken steps to standardise your working conditions - that's all you can do, really. Different panels, different devices - they can all have varying temperatures, colour casts and brightness levels, and you'll drive yourself mad trying to satisfy every scenario. That said, if you have devices you can test on (such as phones, tablets, other monitors), all the better.
 
Hope that helps somewhat!

Hey Paul, it's a tricky one. The vast majority of monitors, especially lower-end models, tend to ship with a high brightness level for the same reason as you've observed: everything looks "punchier".
 
Unless you're working specifically to a medium such as print, you should aim to make your brightness the same as the ambient light level in the room you're in. If it's brighter or darker then you won't perceive tones and detail correctly.
 
However, I'd really recommend that you invest in a colorimeter (e.g. the i1Display Pro) - this way you can profile your monitor to particular conditions, including brightness levels. For example, in a typical office environment with overhead lighting, you might calibrate your brightness to 100cd/m2. 120cd/m2 is the typical value given for general office and web use, but it really depends on the environment lighting. What will shock you is just how bright monitors ship by default: most iMac 5K panels I've profiled tend to be around 170 to 180cd/m2 by default (this is with the automatic brightness control enabled), but I've seen some other monitors that come in at over 200. I had an old Hazro monitor that was highly rated for photo work, and that was insanely bright to begin with.
 
With a colorimeter, you can also profile your display to a colour temperature more accurately. Most of the time you'd profile to D65 (6500K) for office and web use, as well as photo editing, but you can also profile to D55, D50 and other temperatures for print work, proofing, etc. It depends on what you need to do. You will likely find that your monitor has some sort of colour cast, even if it's slight. The 2014 iMac I use shipped with a horrible green tint, and I recently profiled a 2015 model that had a blue cast.
 
To give you an example, I typically create two profiles for my photo editing at D65 and D50 and I keep my brightness at 80cd/m2 because of dim lighting conditions. I stick with D50 most of the time (it also reduces my eye strain because it's warmer ), but toggle between that and D65 to sanity check my work. I'll often create a third profile which is based off the office's ambient temperature (profiling software allows you to take a measurement from the colorimeter) - this is for printed work where I want a closer idea of how it will look when printed and viewed under the same lighting conditions.
 
So, a bit of a ramble, apologies... At the very least, I would recommend making sure your monitor's brightness looks "level" with the room lighting, then work from there. I would definitely recommend looking at a colorimeter though, because that way you can ensure that you've taken steps to standardise your working conditions - that's all you can do, really. Different panels, different devices - they can all have varying temperatures, colour casts and brightness levels, and you'll drive yourself mad trying to satisfy every scenario. That said, if you have devices you can test on (such as phones, tablets, other monitors), all the better.
 
Hope that helps somewhat!