Calibrate monitor

rookies

rookies

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Andrew
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Do any of you guys calibrate your monitor and printer?

Does it make a big different monitor wise?
 
Yes. A monumental difference.. assuming it's calibrated properly.
 
Pookeyhead said:
Yes. A monumental difference.. assuming it's calibrated properly.
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What do u use pls? As there many diff ones
 
How much does it cost to do a monitor screen ?
 
juancarlos66 said:
How much does it cost to do a monitor screen ?
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Christian, the price of the equipment required to calibrate your screen is the only cost you will incurr. The price of equipment varies quite a bit from £70-300, some kit can cost even more.

My windows 7 has a calibration facility which allows you to calibrate your screen. It gets you close but is not nearly as accurate as using separate hardware to do it.
 
I use the clormunki to calibrate the monitors - at some point will need to calibrate my printers too, currently use stock profiles for those which are fine for ordinary use.
 
rookies said:
What do u use pls? As there many diff ones
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I use two systems.

for the screen I use a X-Rite Display Pro colorimeter, and Eizo's Color Navigator software for my screen, as my monitor is hardware calibrated directly, not the video card output like most monitors.

This is just for monitor calibration though

By hardware calibration, I mean that you are actually profiling the monitor itself.. it's internal colour look up table. With most screens you're actually profiling the video card, not the monitor.. despite putting the colorimeter on the screen... it's the video card output that's adjusted.

For print I use the i1 Photo Pro 2 system. That's not cheap though.

"Color Munki Photo" is what I'd recommend if you don't want to spend a great deal. It actually works great.. and won't break the bank, and will do both your screen and print output.. it's an all in one package.
 
Carbonangel said:
I have a Spyer4pro

around 80quid, does the job perfectly.
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That can't profile your print output though, and the OP wanted a screen and print solution.
 
Just saying for clarity... not having a go.. calm down :) The OP may have looked at the price, and though.. I'll have that... bought it, and then realised he can't profile his printer output.
 
I had color munki photo and it didn't make any difference, complete waste of money. Having said that it all depends on what you have, a poor monitor and bad graphics card in a computer doesn't help.
Best to add a specific graphics card and say an IPS monitor first then think about calibration. My son built me a computer designed for photographic work and now with the IPS monitor I find calibration is a thing of the past. Now again with the new editing suite I won I get even a better choice of screen view and printout

Realspeed
 
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I'm sorry, but that is really, really bad advice. Having a IPS monitor is no guarantee of colour accuracy at all. IPS is just a panel technology, and not some kind of standard. Some monitors come reasonably well calibrated from the factory, such as the DELL "U" series screens, but some don't, and the accuracy is massively variable.

Even if every single monitor in the world came precisely calibrated, they won't stay calibrated. As backlighting ages, and LCD panels age, they change characteristics very markedly. I calibrate once every 100 hours use, and there is always a slight shift even after so little time. I once didn't calibrate for 3 months and it was way out. You'll never notice this visually as it's a slow shift and you get used to what's in front of you.

Saying it's a waste of time is highly misleading, and simply not true.

"Bad" graphics cards are neither here nor there, as it's actually the graphics card you are calibrating, not the monitor. As the output is just a 8bit digital signal you're just adjusting numeric values. Bad graphics cards haven't been a problem since people stopped using analogue video output.

If you think calibration is a thing of the past, you are massively mistaken.

If your print output is fine, you're just lucky, that's all.

The only accurate piece of information in your post is the advice that a poor monitor won't help. However... having an "IPS" monitor doesn't mean you have a good monitor. Anyway.. colour accuracy isn't even the main reason for profiling, although it's nice.. colour is subjective unless you're doing high end pre press proofing. What is more important is luminance, gamma and black point... and I've seen some truly crap IPS panels in this regard.
 
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David

You have your thoughts about calibration and if it helps you thats fine, but having owned the color munki photo what I found is that you waste good A4 photo print paper (it needs 2 runs to calibrate). Not only that it each printout has then have to be scanned each time at the right speed with a mouse. Also you have to stop using the colour management setting on the computer ( may mean deleting it altogether) but use the calibration one instead.

Presumably you have bought the color munki photo and use it as often as you say. For me I can't afford to waste printer ink and good quality paper for any minor adjustments that I can't see any difference from before and after. Again I suppose you calibrate your printer at the same time with it and it depends on how good a printer you are using.



The other problem is any picture on a computer screen is backlighted a hard copy isn't, so there is bound to be a variation between the two.

The cost of color munki varies from £250 to £300 approx and and having owned one and sold it speaks for itself.
Of course you must have a color munki yourself and happy with it , I wasn't especially when I have to purchase paper and ink carts on my pension. If you don't have to worry about costs via using say companies equipment, then I suppose one can afford to calibrate every 100 hours and not the number of printouts.

Realspeed
 
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realspeed said:
David

You have your thoughts about calibration and if it helps you thats fine
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They're not thoughts, they're facts.


realspeed said:
but having owned the color munki photo what I found is that you waste good A4 photo print paper (it needs 2 runs to calibrate). Not only that it each printout has then have to be scanned each time at the right speed with a mouse.
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You only have to do that once to create the profile.. you make it sound like you have to use twice as much paper :) I think you've been using it wrong.


realspeed said:
Also you have to stop using the colour management setting on the computer ( may mean deleting it altogether) but use the calibration one instead.
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Not really... you shouldn't be changing anything on the computer to create or use a print profile. You create your print profile, and then when printing from photoshop, you select "Photoshop manages colors" and then select the print profile you created. You change NOTHING in Windows. If you've been changing settings on the computer, you've been doing it wrong. Unless you are referring to the monitor profile, in which case, yes, of course you do. You set windows to use the monitor profile you created, and no, you do not need to delete anything. Who told you that?? You just select the monitor profile in windows colour management tab and set it as default. That's correct.. if you don't do this, then your display will not use the profile... and therefore what was the point of creating a profile? I don't know why you're in there messing anyway, as the color munki software does it all for you. You have to change nothing.

I think you're a little confused as to what to do with your profiler :)

realspeed said:
Presumably you have bought the color munki photo and use it as often as you say.
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I've used it regularly, and still use at work. I don't own one any more.. I moved to the i1 system.

realspeed said:
For me I can't afford to waste printer ink and good quality paper for any minor adjustments that I can't see any difference from before and after.
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Again.. you only need to create the print profile once. You only need to re-profile if you use a different paper and/or ink.


realspeed said:
Again I suppose you calibrate your printer at the same time with it and it depends on how good a printer you are using.
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It shouldn't make any difference. It can profile any medium and ink. You're not profiling the printer, you're profiling the media.



realspeed said:
The other problem is any picture on a computer screen is backlighted a hard copy isn't, so there is bound to be a variation between the two.
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No, there isn't really. Technically there is, but a well calibrated monitor should have a black level of less than 0.2mCd/m2, and unless you are looking at a completely black screen, it's perceptibly black in contrast to the lighter parts of the screen. If yours isn't, it's not calibrated right.

realspeed said:
The cost of color munki varies from £250 to £300 approx and and having owned one and sold it speaks for itself.
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Well. from what you've said you were using it wrong, and you're the only one I know who's had any problem with it.


realspeed said:
then I suppose one can afford to calibrate every 100 hours and not the number of printouts.

Realspeed
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The 100 hours was for the monitor.. which costs nothing to calibrate. As I said, you only need to create a print profile once for each paper and ink set you use... that's ink and paper brand.. not each time you buy new.. so in effect, if you always use the same paper and ink, you only have to profile the printer once.. ever.. unless the manufacturer changes the formulation of their media.. which would be hard to ascertain unless they tell you, so I used to create media profiles every 6 months or so to keep current.
 
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I have the ColorMunki Photo and its fantastic, profiling my monitors is really easy and also creating printer profiles is equally simple.

I use 24 inch roll paper and buy it in either 30 or 40m lengths. I use Epson ink and only profile the ink/paper/printer once per roll. If the paper is from the same batch, I don't re profile it as I found it un necessary.

The ColorMunki isn't cheap but it is worth its weight in gold to me. I very highly recommend it.
 
I don't even profile for different batches any more. I've found Epson papers and inks to be highly consistent. I'll create new profiles once every few months jus to be certain, but there's rarely anything other than very minor differences.

For the money, the Color Munki Photo rocks.
 
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Thank you everyone for your input on this.

For your info I am using a iMac so the machine itself should be up to the standard. But I need to get it done and to match the printer too as the print are not matching. Some people say the printer might be doing it as it should it just the screen not showing the right colour..

Soooo Wonder where the best place to get this ColorMunki Photo hmmmm any in the member market ha ha
 
Pookeyhead said:
I don't even profile for different batches any more. I've found Epson papers and inks to be highly consistent. I'll create new profiles once every few months jus to be certain, but there's rarely anything other than very minor differences.

For the money, the Color Munki Photo rocks.
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And I think I am going to get one if I find the lowest price first. Hoping under £300 but I be lucky
 
If your monitor is out, then you'll find it hard to work out if it's the printer or monitor, but chances are neither will be accurate if not profiled.

If you do a lot of your own printing, you should really invest in a method of profiling both monitor and print media, and right now, the Color Munki Photo is the best value system there is.
 
Pookeyhead said:
If your monitor is out, then you'll find it hard to work out if it's the printer or monitor, but chances are neither will be accurate if not profiled.

If you do a lot of your own printing, you should really invest in a method of profiling both monitor and print media, and right now, the Color Munki Photo is the best value system there is.
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Yup and this is something I might invest into.. But I have had a quote for someone to come to my home and do it all for £55
 
That's fine for print output profiling as that doesn't drift so much if you use the same paper and inks, but your monitor will drift. It will only be accurate for a few months.. after that you'll start to notice your print output will differ from your screen. £55 every few months will soon add up to the price of the color munki. False economy if you ask me.

Still.. better than not having it profiled at all I suppose.


Once you're all profiled, it's important that you knw how to print from Photoshop to make use of your profiles. Have a read of this..


http://www.colourphil.co.uk/photoshop-cs6-print.html
 
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What the Spyder2Express like as someone got one they said I can have for nothing. So if I had this I can keep the monitor up to date. And have this man to do them both and I keep the monitor up to date??

Or Be a goooood idea to get my own kit and it be cheaper in the long run incase I change paper etc
 
I'll need to know what monitor you have before I can answer thta, as the Spyder2 is hopeless with wide gamut monitors.

Also.. check there's a 64bit driver for it for windows or MacOS as it's old now. What's your OS? Is it 64bit?

If you can find a cheap screen profiling solution, then it may well be worth paying out the £55 for the printer profiling, as I reckon you can get away with that being done once a year if you use print papers and inks that are consistent. Epson premium Lustre is what I mainly use and it hardly ever seems to need reprofiling. Once profiled though, you can not change paper of ink type/brand.
 
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In House printer profiling is £30 and Screen is £25..

Ive a iMac and the screen is fantastic.. and I am using 64bits as using Mountain Lion
 
Ok.. it's not wide gamut, so the Spyder2 should be OK assuming it works with mountain lion. You'll have to try it and find out I suppose. Nothing to lose certainly.

iMac screens are ok, yeah... I wouldn't go so far as as fantastic :) I simply can't be doing with the glossy surface.. the reflections drive me nuts.

Give the spyder2 a go.


[edit] Just had a thought... which iMac have you got? They don't all use the same panel.
 
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I use Colormunki as well on my twin LED monitors. It works very well and has the added ability of matching the two identical monitors. Although they are not 100% identical they are damn close. 100% accuracy is very unlikely owing to slight differences in manufacturing specifications.

The issue of matching the printer to the monitor is a much more complex one as print output can depend on the different types of paper being used.
 
valb said:
I use Colormunki as well on my twin LED monitors.
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I know I'm being pedantic, but they're not LED monitors.. there's no such thing :)

valb said:
The issue of matching the printer to the monitor is a much more complex one as print output can depend on the different types of paper being used.
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Yep. But when you profile the printer, you're actually profiling the paper and ink. The color munki does a great job with most papers I've tried.
 
Personaly i wouldnt bother with home printing, Its far more expensive outlay for a few photos unless you need to do alot of printing. For me it was always a bit hit and miss, Your much better using a proffesional printer service instead like loxley its far more cheaper and better quality than anything you can do at home.
 
Hotshots said:
Personaly i wouldnt bother with home printing, Its far more expensive outlay for a few photos unless you need to do alot of printing. For me it was always a bit hit and miss, Your much better using a proffesional printer service instead like loxley its far more cheaper and better quality than anything you can do at home.
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Saying that how can I be sure they print what I see on my monitor?
 
rookies said:
Saying that how can I be sure they print what I see on my monitor?
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By having a calibrated monitor, and soft proofing in whatever profile they ask you to send the images in.

If the print comes back any different, it's their fault, not yours... assuming that you are confident that you have profiled the screen correctly.
 
Pookeyhead said:
By having a calibrated monitor, and soft proofing in whatever profile they ask you to send the images in.

If the print comes back any different, it's their fault, not yours... assuming that you are confident that you have profiled the screen correctly.
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Do they provide a profile to soft proof with?
 
Some do, yes, or they'll just use sRGB, in which case you would convert (never assign) a copy of your image to sRGB IEC61966-2.1
 
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Pookeyhead said:
Some do, yes, or they'll just use sRGB, in which case you would convert (never assign) a copy of your image to sRGB IEC61966-2.1
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Hmmm interesting what best way to do it in aperture
 
Pookeyhead said:
I'll need to know what monitor you have before I can answer thta, as the Spyder2 is hopeless with wide gamut monitors.
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Hi Pookey, I've been looking, where can I find a list of colorometers that work with wide gamut monitors?

there is a Spyder 3 Pro on sale for £60, will it be usable with AdobeRGB monitor?
 
rookies said:
Hmmm interesting what best way to do it in aperture
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z7dAPWI.jpg



You set teh profile of your output in the image export dialog there. If the printer has a downloadable profile, put it in Library/ColorSync/Profiiles in your home folder (Mac), and it will be available in Aperture after a restart. If using a PC then C:\Windows\system32\spool\drivers\color.



wuyanxu said:
Hi Pookey, I've been looking, where can I find a list of colorometers that work with wide gamut monitors?

there is a Spyder 3 Pro on sale for £60, will it be usable with AdobeRGB monitor?
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If you use Version 4 or higher of the Spyder software, it should be OK with wide gamut, yes, but the Spyder 4 would be a better bet.
 
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