Monitor Calibration

[Mark Elberson]

I have noticed that when I am having prints made that they are not always represenative of how the pictures appear on my monitor (laptop monitor).


Can anyone recomend any software to calibrate my monitor? Bryan reviewed one "X-rite i1" which sells for $200 at B&H.


Are there any cheaper ones that do a good job?

[Colin]

Is that the same as the i1? I used that for my monitor and it's built into my printer. In terms of color matching, it seems to work really well (though my calibrated CRT monitors are in the basement right now, pending a move, and I haven't calibrated this old dim laptop in a long while).


I think some people have said good things about Spyder calibration products, though I can't vouch.

[Daniel Browning]

Let me warn you that even after calibration, your laptop monitor will still be inaccurate (though hopefully much better). Most laptop monitors are only 6-bit and use dithering to achieve something similar to 8-bit color. But even a high quality 8-bit LCD will still not match a print because of the different between projected light and reflected light as well as the gamut. I'm just trying to make sure you are aware that display accuracy is a sliding scale, with uncalibrated laptops at the low end.


Kind regards,

[Mark Elberson]

Let me warn you that even after calibration, your laptop monitor will still be inaccurate (though hopefully much better). Most laptop monitors are only 6-bit and use dithering to achieve something similar to 8-bit color. But even a high quality 8-bit LCD will still not match a print because of the different between projected light and reflected light as well as the gamut. I'm just trying to make sure you are aware that display accuracy is a sliding scale, with uncalibrated laptops at the low end.


Kind regards,
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I was afraid of that. I recall reading other posts referring to the inacuracies of laptop monitors. Would you still recomend calibration?

[Daniel Browning]

Would you still recomend calibration?


Yes.

[Mark Elberson]

Has anyone heard of or used "<span id="btAsinTitle"]ColorVision Spyder2 Express"

[Sinh Nhut Nguyen]

I have ColorVision Spyder 2 Express, bought it for $75. I found it very useful for an ameture photographer like myself.

[Mark Elberson]

ColorVision Spyder 2 Express


Thanks Nate! Currently <span>$59.49 at Amazon :)

[John Dooley]

I have aColorVision Spyder2 Express and it seems to do a good job in helping me attain a balance that otherwise would be somewhat off.I needed something to apply instead of the standard profile in use with my Canon Pixma Pro 9000 ( a smokin' hot printer!!!) For the price, its a good buy, it is a little slow in defining your profile compared to te 200-300 dollar models, but overall, Im quite satisfied with what Im getting from it-


Cheers

[IAMB]

If you're confident in your eyes, you can always go for the "poor man's solution": start with a picture on your monitor that has lots of nice colors, adjust it until you like how it looks, take it to wherever you have prints done (whether that be at home or at a store somewhere), compare the finished print to the picture on your monitor and then adjust your monitor to match the print as closely as you can manage. Sure, it's a pain, but it works (in some rare cases you can do the reverse and adjust the printer to the monitor, but most of the time it won't work that way).





However, if you can't score lower than a ten on the FM100 hue test (http://www.xrite.com/custom_page.aspx?PageID=77), I wouldn't even think about attempting this method.

[richscorer]

I use the Pantone Huey pro, it does what it says on the tin.

It work very will in combined use with CS3 and the out of gamut warning and print previews, to gift a fairly accurate colour view but it is always too bright in comparison to the printed final.

Additionally if you working in Adobe RGB and then run gamut warnings then print to a sRGB print lab then there is no point anyway as the colour spaces differences mean you going to get clipped colours anyway.

Additional with the Pantone you get free colour palettes from Pantone to download and some articles which are really good if your going to be combining images into more art / digital publishing.

Hope this helps.

I am sure if i am technically wrong with the above someone will correct me.

[Madison]

I use the Pantone Huey pro, it does what it says on the tin.





I use it too but I hardly see any differences because my printer (now broken) was profiled in the system software as well, AND I use the color profiles of my photo lab from within Photoshop. So you need more than just a calibrated monitor (which is step 1) but also profiles etc. of your output devices or labs because then you can preview what you get. But to explain a true colormanaged workflow in a forum reply is a bit too much. There are several good websites and books that will tell you how to do it properly.

[Colin]

The cliff notes version of that is that you want your printer calibrated too...

[Madison]

Actually the cliff notes would include a *bit* more:





1. Start with calibrating your monitor using an extarnal calibration device like the ones mentioned above


2. Make sure you print to printer profiles in your software (they come with most good printers) that way your computer knows what you SEE and what the color space of the printer is and what the paper type will be and you (or your computer) can make sure things turn out the way you intend them to.


3. Make sure you soft proof to the printer profiles of your lab if you send stuff out for reproduction. It's the same as step 2 but you will need to profile your work and end it out and make a proper order (aka the profiles and papers you order match the lab profile embedded in the file and you soft proofed your image with on your screen).





Man. I guess it's safe to say I suck at cliff notes.