In these three versions of the same image, brightness, contrast, and gamma are adjusted so the three images have the same total brightness range, but they still look different because they differ in gamma correction.

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Dark tones dominate in this version (gamma correction = 1.0)

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Light and dark tones are more balanced in this version (gamma correction = 0.6)

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Light tones dominate in this version (gamma correction = 0.4)

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Which of these looks best depends on how the images are viewed.

On Macintosh monitors (which usually have built-in gamma correction), little or no gamma correction is required. On most PC monitors (which usually have no built-in gamma correction), gamma correction of 0.4 to 0.6 often looks best.

Different printers may have different gamma correction: the only way to be sure is to print out a test picture with several different values of gamma correction (such as this page!). Some sophisticated image processing programs have built- in facilities to calibrate for different types of printers.