Monitor Calibration

[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.