Monitor - printer calibration?

I was wondering what some folks use to calibrate their monitors, what they like or don't like about the specific calibration tool/software they are using?


I'm going to demo a friend's Spyder2 in the near future, I want to start making prints at home more seriously via ink jet printer. But I don't want to invest in a higher end printer until I have a better foundation in the calibration area between it and my monitor.


This appears to be one of those topics where the internet is full of precedure to the Nth degree and I have to admit I'm not sure I want to spend what some sites would suggest are hours of my life I may never get back calibrating my monitor and printer profiles to the last spectrum of the known color gamut.


Quick and easy (or as can be reasonable) that will get my monitor 95% accurate to my printer prints most days might be OK for my level of serious. I'm running a MacBook Pro laptop (w/ Aperture) if that makes a difference to anyones suggestion. Proper skin tones and a reasonable match on over all light or darkness of my prints to my monitor are my main two concerns at this point.


Thanks.

spider 2, but it needs recalibration every once a while, after a while I just gave up and print a test strip of different color adjustment and a print based on the adjustment i like.

Every monitor needs recalibration once in a while. Power up the monitor and let it work for at least half an hour before calibrating it. I personally use a Huey Pro because it was all I could find in Greece. It doesn't synch with printers, BTW. That is still very much trial and error, but I can't stress how important it is to use the specific ICC profile for whatever paper you choose to print on.


As for printers, I read and compared and finally opted for the Epson R2400. It has a known issue (massive colour cast) with PS CS3 and LR on both Mac and Windows platforms, which forces me to use Epson's rather limited print utility instead. The end result on paper such as Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl for colour prints is worth all the effort.