Monitor calibration software

I have Windows XP Pro, a Mitsubishi 17" CRT Diamond Pro 730 monitor and a
Canon i865 printer.

What is the best way (including best calibration software) to calibrate the
monitor to match the printer output?

Also have Photoshop Elements and ACDSee 6.

regards

PeterH

In article , PeterH
wrote:

I have Windows XP Pro, a Mitsubishi 17" CRT Diamond Pro 730 monitor and a
Canon i865 printer.

What is the best way (including best calibration software) to calibrate the
monitor to match the printer output?

to properly calibrate a monitor you need a hardware device. colorvision
has the least expensive unit but there are others from monaco and
gretag-macbeth.

http://www.colorvision.com/
http://www.monacosys.com/
http://www.i1color.com/

PeterH wrote:
I have Windows XP Pro, a Mitsubishi 17" CRT Diamond Pro 730 monitor and a
Canon i865 printer.

What is the best way (including best calibration software) to calibrate the
monitor to match the printer output?

Also have Photoshop Elements and ACDSee 6.

regards

PeterH

Hi,

Of the non-hardware solutions, Adobe Gamma is one of the most popular -
presumably supplied with Photoshop Elements. However, I don't find this
particularly effective. In fact, I find a far more effective method is
to use your video card's properties screen - which should include Gamma,
brightness and contrast controls (Right-click on your desktop, choose
Properties, the Settings, then Advanced, then find the tab with the
gamma control on it. Then, use the excellent Gamma calibration charts
at http://www.photoscientia.co.uk/Gamma.htm to calibrate your monitor to
the gamma of your choice. Use the Gamma 2.2 chart if you are a
Microsoft Windows user, or 1.8 if you're a Macintosh user. I find this
approach extremely accurate and way better than Adobe Gamma - and it's free!

Paul

Ack! Thank you!!!

*bursts into tears of joy*



"Paul Howland" wrote in message
...
PeterH wrote:
I have Windows XP Pro, a Mitsubishi 17" CRT Diamond Pro 730 monitor and
a
Canon i865 printer.

What is the best way (including best calibration software) to calibrate
the
monitor to match the printer output?

Also have Photoshop Elements and ACDSee 6.

regards

PeterH

Hi,

Of the non-hardware solutions, Adobe Gamma is one of the most popular -
presumably supplied with Photoshop Elements. However, I don't find this
particularly effective. In fact, I find a far more effective method is
to use your video card's properties screen - which should include Gamma,
brightness and contrast controls (Right-click on your desktop, choose
Properties, the Settings, then Advanced, then find the tab with the
gamma control on it. Then, use the excellent Gamma calibration charts
at http://www.photoscientia.co.uk/Gamma.htm to calibrate your monitor to
the gamma of your choice. Use the Gamma 2.2 chart if you are a
Microsoft Windows user, or 1.8 if you're a Macintosh user. I find this
approach extremely accurate and way better than Adobe Gamma - and it's
free!

Paul

In article ,
"PeterH" reply to says...
I have Windows XP Pro, a Mitsubishi 17" CRT Diamond Pro 730 monitor and a
Canon i865 printer.

What is the best way (including best calibration software) to calibrate the
monitor to match the printer output?

Also have Photoshop Elements and ACDSee 6.


You don't calibrate the monitor to match the printer output -
you calibrate/profile it in order to display colours on it
_correctly_.
This is important, since a well calibrated monitor is a
necessary starting point in print matching, but only gets you
half way there. The printer must also be profiled so that it
produces the output colours correctly.

For monitor calibration, the GretagMacbeth i1 Display is often
regarded as the best at its price point (just over $200, or the
same in UK pounds), but Adobe Gamma is adequate to get started
as you own a CRT.

If you're lucky, and you stick to Canon ink and paper, you may
get a reasonable match to the prints using the standard printer
settings or profiles. If you change ink/paper, or you are
unlucky (printers vary!), you'll need some sort of printer
profiling.

Cheapest is a scanner-based profiling system. Profile Prism is
generally regarded as the best at http://www.ddisoftware.com/ -
it costs $79, and you naturally need a scanner. This type of
system can be rather hit-and-miss - some people get good
results, others don't. They also tend to need a bit of work to
get a good profile, printing a few iterations and making
changes for each.

Another reasonable priced option, if you only use a limited
number of printer/ink/paper combinations, is to have a custom
profile made professionally for ~$40-50 each. Try:
http://www.cathysprofiles.com/
http://www.drycreekphoto.com/

The most expensive solution is to buy a proper
spectrophotometer printer profiling system such as
GretagMacbeth i1 Photo. These systems _start_ at well over
$1000...