Tweaking monitor calibration

On 2011-03-30 19:28:23 -0700, John Turco said:

Savageduck wrote:

heavily edited for brevity

Spyder 3 Pro ranges in price here from $125-$160.
The Pantone huey Pro from $70-$100.
The ColorMunki from $400-$450.


All "Apple polishing" aside, what do you (and/or anybody
else) recommend, for a Windows PC?

Is any such decent, hardware-based monitor calibration
product available, at around $100.00 USD or lower?

Pantone huey Pro.
It is good for both Mac & Windows displays, CRT, or LCD (inc. laptops).
Mine including shipping was $79.87 from Amazon.

--
Regards,

Savageduck

On 4/28/2011 8:43 AM, John Turco wrote:
Savageduck wrote:

On 2011-03-30 19:28:23 -0700, John
said:

Savageduck wrote:

heavily edited for brevity

Spyder 3 Pro ranges in price here from $125-$160.
The Pantone huey Pro from $70-$100.
The ColorMunki from $400-$450.


All "Apple polishing" aside, what do you (and/or anybody
else) recommend, for a Windows PC?

Is any such decent, hardware-based monitor calibration
product available, at around $100.00 USD or lower?

Pantone huey Pro.
It is good for both Mac& Windows displays, CRT, or LCD (inc.
laptops). Mine including shipping was $79.87 from Amazon.


However...online customer reviews of the Pantone Huey Pro,
often mention how flimsy it can be.

I want something that will endure, long past its warranty
period.


I have a Spyder2 that is long past its warranty and still working fine.
A lot of my fellow CC members also have Sypders and they don't complain.

--
Peter

On 2011-04-28 05:43:54 -0700, John Turco said:

Savageduck wrote:

On 2011-03-30 19:28:23 -0700, John Turco
said:

Savageduck wrote:

heavily edited for brevity

Spyder 3 Pro ranges in price here from $125-$160.
The Pantone huey Pro from $70-$100.
The ColorMunki from $400-$450.


All "Apple polishing" aside, what do you (and/or anybody
else) recommend, for a Windows PC?

Is any such decent, hardware-based monitor calibration
product available, at around $100.00 USD or lower?

Pantone huey Pro.
It is good for both Mac & Windows displays, CRT, or LCD (inc.
laptops). Mine including shipping was $79.87 from Amazon.


However...online customer reviews of the Pantone Huey Pro,
often mention how flimsy it can be.

I want something that will endure, long past its warranty
period.

Well I am not using it to sweep the driveway, or as a tool for scouring
the toilet bowl. As a photo hobbyist, who does some printing at home, I
wanted a tool to calibrate my monitors, without costing me a fortune.
It fit my needs perfectly.

The huey Pro is not made of indestructible materials, and my usage is
not particularly harsh. So far it has performed as advertized, and I
have no complaints, nor any need to test the warranty.

--
Regards,

Savageduck

On 2011-05-11 19:10:19 -0700, John Turco said:

Savageduck wrote:

On 2011-04-28 05:43:54 -0700, John Turco said:

edited for brevity

However...online customer reviews of the Pantone Huey Pro, often
mention how flimsy it can be.

I want something that will endure, long past its warranty period.

Well I am not using it to sweep the driveway, or as a tool for scouring
the toilet bowl. As a photo hobbyist, who does some printing at home, I
wanted a tool to calibrate my monitors, without costing me a fortune.
It fit my needs perfectly.

Okay, I guess "flimsy" may not have been the optimal word.

The huey Pro is not made of indestructible materials, and my usage is
not particularly harsh. So far it has performed as advertized, and I
have no complaints, nor any need to test the warranty.

The criticisms were that, the Huey Pro stopped working, suddenly (i.e.,
it had nothing to do with physical abuse).

That depends on what "stopped working" actually means. For some reason
the software will not automatically open on start-up, unless it is
placed into the Mac "login Items" to be opened in account preferences.
It is not placed there as part of the installation. Those unaware of
this might believe it had stopped working whenever they restarted their
computer. Just my guess.

So far it is still working for me, but then I haven't checked to see
how it does for cracking walnuts.


By the way, how is an entirely calibrated system achieved? Does the
printer need its own such device, also? (I definitely doubt it, from
my Google searches.)

The key is to first have a calibrated display or monitor so the output
to the printer is what you intend it to be. Then it is a matter of
getting the print to be as close to what you see on the display.

The printer does not need its own device, though print results can be
measured and a custom profile created. I would rather have the paper &
printer manufacturers do that for me. Different printers, inks, and
different papers will respond differently. So to match what you have
achieved on a calibrated display with the output from any given
printer, you will have to match the ICC profile for a specific paper to
the printer.

For example, I am currently using Red River papers with my Epson R2880.
Red River provides custom profiles for each of their paper types for
specific printers.
http://www.redrivercatalog.com/profiles/index.htm
In some cases the paper manufacturer will give a list of the printer
manufacturer's profiles to be used with their papers without providing
custom profile like Red River. For the most part these work reasonably
well, but as they say YMMV when you use Staples generic, or Kodak
discount papers.


--
Regards,

Savageduck

Savageduck wrote:

The printer does not need its own device,

though many higher-end devices have one inbuild ...

though print results can be
measured and a custom profile created. I would rather have the paper &
printer manufacturers do that for me. Different printers, inks, and
different papers will respond differently. So to match what you have
achieved on a calibrated display with the output from any given
printer, you will have to match the ICC profile for a specific paper to
the printer.

And the ink (which can be pretty expensive, often many times
as expensive as the most expensive champagne).

BTW, there are also generic profiles from display manufacturers
--- the problem being that each display (and each printer)
is different. (Displays definitively age. But I understand
printers drift as well.)

-Wolfgang