Monitor calibration

zeitghost

zeitghost

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Yvonne
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I've recently gone to a 2 monitor setup - got my old dell 24 inch and I was given a Samsung last week. Only problem is that now I have 2 monitors I can see the difference in colors between the two (eg grey colors on the samsung are looking beige on the dell - eg the photoshop workspace)

So has anyone got recommendations for monitor calibration tools? Preferably something nice and simple to set up. (I used to use the old adobe tool)
 
I use the xrite colour monkey, great calibration device, minutes to set up and use and prints match the monitor nicely, but its more expensive than the likes of spyder, haven't tried that one so can't comment. Nice thing is you can also profile printers and projectors with it.
 
I use the Spyder 3 (on a Dell and a Samsung funnily enough) and while it works perfectly fine I would hesitate to call it simple. That's not to say it is really difficult, it just does not explain itself so well sometimes, especially when it comes to setting the amount of light being emitted. The Dell (IPS panel) was simply a case of adjusting the brightness up/down but the Samsung (TN panel) was horrid to get even close. Some instructions on the screen about how to obtain the required levels would have helped!
 
zeitghost said:
I've recently gone to a 2 monitor setup - got my old dell 24 inch and I was given a Samsung last week. Only problem is that now I have 2 monitors I can see the difference in colors between the two (eg grey colors on the samsung are looking beige on the dell - eg the photoshop workspace)

So has anyone got recommendations for monitor calibration tools? Preferably something nice and simple to set up. (I used to use the old adobe tool)
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First off- how important is colour management to you. Colour accuracy can be a total pain, so it is up to you to decide how important a colour managed work flow is to you.

What panel technologies are employed by the 2 monitors? If they are TN then you'll struggle to get a good calibration from them, if the 24" dell is an ultrasharp then it will be a PVA or IPS if it's a newer model. It is always difficult to get a consistent colour across two monitors- especially those using different panel technologies.

The problem with the sypder calibrator (as I understand it) is that it doesn't give you a value for what it is calibrating to, I don't like the idea of my display being calibrated to a 'mystery' value, I want to be more specific.

I use an i1 display 2, and I would highly recommend it. It calibrates multiple monitors too.





Unless you really want to open the hurt locker of colour management, I would take a serious think into how
Using the i1 display is easy if you have a good panel, but as the previous poster said, it can be difficult to get a good calibration from a TN panel, and then there's the issue of printer calibration, and then making sure that now your prints match your screen that they also match reality- and that your viewing environment has full spectrum daylight balanced lighting...

but I digress, colour management is a requirement of my job as a designer.
 
Thanks to all for the advice.
First off- how important is colour management to you
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. More so these days as I do a lot of web application programming and now get asked to do graphics as well. But I do also need it for my photography though my love of Black and white still runs deep (i think I spent about 20+ years just doing B&W). Monitors wise the samsung is new but the Dell is now getting on for about 6-7 years old - I am meaning to change it soon.

hmm both the colormunki and i1 look pretty interesting
 
I've got the i1 which as far as I'm aware uses the same software as the colormunki, the only difference being that the colormunki can create printer profiles.
 
I've just used a Spyder3 Pro to colour match my two monitors, pretty straight forward process & they now agree :thumbs:
 
NeilG40 said:
I've got the i1 which as far as I'm aware uses the same software as the colormunki, the only difference being that the colormunki can create printer profiles.
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I'll just add that the printer profiles are not such a big deal these days as you can get such good canned ones online. I'm using canned profiles with my current printer and it works great in combo with the monitor calibrated using colour munki. I think the printer profiling is most useful for printing on oddball media when it may be hard to find good profiles.
 
I use a Spyder3Elite for exactly that purpose. I've got one 30" IPS monitor but also like to use at times my old 22" TN panel.

With the Spyder3Elite I have one display profile for the 30" which is color accurate (and one for the 22" as best as it can), however when using both it is noticeable there is a difference. The software has a further feature where it will match the two screens together as they have different panel (to the slight detriment of the 30") which to be honest I don't use for photo work, but do use for normal general office stuff. So I just quickly switch profiles, but actually have an automater script linked to the apps so it happens automatically.
 
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