Hi Mike,
in post # 128 you supported us with a user manual for your screen.
“I did fine the exact user manual for my display:
https://gzhls.at/blob/ldb/4/0/e/6/64c620a3ed2d2657cc233a243dbce8174806.pdf
2.01 MB”
which is from 2019 (check page 2).
This one from Guenter (post # 150)
is from 2014. – Both versions describe on pages 3-7 to 3-9 how to enter System Setup and how to revert to the factory default mode with All Reset, which is what you said you never changed.
I suggest to check!
[BTW, no need to get mad. People here are solely trying to help you, knowing that it is complicated stuff with so much detail you maybe never heard of.]
All required settings are part of the OSD / On Screen Display (black screenshots in your manual).
In the calibration process the X-Rite i1Studio software will show you 3 checkboxes to choose from
(at least in my windows version)
- Contrast
- RGB (= Colour)
- Luminanz (= Brightness)
Only WHEN ticked, the i1 Studio software takes you to the equivalent ‘test page’!
(In your / Joannas’s screenshots so far I’ve only seen that one about the required luminance level).
Now, your monitor OSD:
Here you can / have to adjust Contrast, Colour (R-G-B) and Brightness, to match the required levels, that you chosed beforehand in i1 Studio as your calibration targets.
STOP, to adjust your screen’s colour by hand (e.g. to approach another screen), leave that for when you need to AND know how to!
– quick info: The settings for the 3 colour channels R-G-B are not only responsible to correct the colour, but they also influence the brightness. Therefore one adjusts the Brightness level last. – As older monitors (my second Eizo must be about 15 years now) commonly have lost brightness over time, you don’t want to ‘lose’ to much brightness and leave them set at lower settings, just because you found the correct colour setting (be aware, it’s tricky). –
Now you know, why you have to dive in your monitor’s OSD, when to calibrate properly.
What I read from the manual: your Asus covers 100% sRGB (I have no idea about your iMac).
Whatever colour space you set your camera to (ok, stay with AdobeRGB 
), PL will develop your
raw-file in AdobeRGB colour space to give you maximum freedom. But to export for web like smugmug etc, make shure to explicitly export as ‘sRGB’ and not ‘as shot’ or ‘original’.
And then, there are small notes in the manual, that several settings would be ‘hardcoded’, that is you couldn’t change settings (e.g. sRGB, which should be a hotkey to that mode). – Simply try out how you can change Contrast, Colour temperature and Luminance. You don’t ‘break’ anything and know already how to reset, just in case.
Oh, I just wanted to upload this text ,when I saw your post # 165 – you found OSD!
In the screenshot Color Temp is set to 6500K. – Remember to always choose the equivalent calibration target in i1 Studio and vice versa!
BTW, your and Joanna’s JPG-files don’t show EXIF-data. When you export to JPG, have you checked ‘remove EXIF data’? – While PL4 says ‘RGB’ (of course it’s an RGB-file and not CMYK), ExifTool doesn’t show any colour space.
But when I do so and check ‘remove’, ExifTool still shows ‘sRGB’ (note: for web it’s recommended NOT to remove colour space tag). – Is this another difference between MAC and Windows?
You may bookmark this post for later (Guether already mentioned how to), when your brain is reset again.
have fun, Wolfgang