monitor calibration

shuie · 10-29-2008, 01:51 PM

Ok could be a dumb question but how do most people calibrate their monitors? I'm using a new laptop, plus a viewsonic 32" and trying to get the color right between the two monitors and my printer has been trying at best. Printer is epson sp1400. I feel i'm probably doing sometthing wrong of there is software out that I don't know about. Thanks in advance.

**Buddha Jones** · 10-29-2008, 02:01 PM

I use the Huey Pro... which reminds me I need to re-hook it back up.

rfortson · 10-29-2008, 04:09 PM

Originally Posted by Buddha Jones

I use the Huey Pro... which reminds me I need to re-hook it back up.

Same here, and same here.

Though I still have problems getting my prints to match my screen. One of the reasons I'm switching to Lightroom is the integrated printing is supposed to be much better.

*Wheatfield* · 10-29-2008, 06:53 PM

Gretag-Macbeth Eye-One Match.
I calibrate my screens every couple of weeks necause I do work for publication, and I need to know my screens are bang on.

Trying to get two monitors to look the same is pretty well impossible inless they are identical screens, and have close to the same number of hours on them.
Pick one screen and trust it.
Probably you don't want to trust your laptop screen, they are notoriously bad for colour.
Also, it isn't enough to profile your screen, you also need to tell your printer driver what paper is going through it (paper profile). If you can't do it with the printer driver, if you print from Photshop you can tell it to manage the colour, but then make sure you turn colour management off in your printer.
Often with consumer inkjet machines, you will have to build your own colour profiles if you really want a colour match.
If you are using Photoshop, learn about soft proofing, and make sure you are using the right View/proof setup. It's possible you have everything right in the background and are using the wrong screen bias.

todd · 10-29-2008, 09:37 PM

I went looking a while back for software monitor calibration tools, specifically for anything I could find that was free, and found this one.. Don't know if it helps or not but I installed and went through the wizard anyway..

Hex2Bit - Software by Mike Walters

Wulifou · 10-30-2008, 04:07 AM

I use Spyder3Pro which can be found here : Products: Calibration for color fast displays and printers - Datacolor AG, Europe (Zurich, Switzerland). Works fine for my needs ....

shuie · 10-30-2008, 08:38 AM

thanks all, I think I'll invest in the huey pro after looking at them. one other thing about monitors, has anyone else had problems finding the correct resolution for their widescreen displays so as to prevent distortion of the image. I noticed early on that some settings would cause the image to appear wider or taller than it should. I finally ended up changing settings while I had photoshop open with the rulers up and then used a tapemeasure to verify that the horizontal inch marks matched the vertical inch marks.

ghelary · 10-30-2008, 09:34 AM

The answer is : always use you LCD at its nominal resolution (mine is a 1920x1200 for example)

Upscaling is often producing nasty blurring effects even if the proportion are respected.

Regards,
Guillaume

CaymanImaging · 11-08-2008, 03:49 PM

I use Spyder3 Pro with my Viewsonic 2250wb and all works just fine.

ll_coffee_lP · 11-11-2008, 07:10 AM

Huey Pro. Works great and is inexpensive.

c[_]

*Wheatfield* · 11-11-2008, 08:53 AM

Originally Posted by ll_coffee_lP

Huey Pro. Works great and is inexpensive.

c[_]

Any calibration tool is going to work better than no calibration tool at all. I've used the Spyder and Gretag tools, both work extremely well.
I expect the Huey is going to be much of a muchness with the Gretag or Spyder
The Spyder that I used didn't support dual monitors, so I always had one monitor somewhat out of whack.
I doubt if any of the tools don't support two monitors nowadays though.
Before I got the Spyder, I calibrated using Adobe Gamma, which comes packed as an auto install with Photoshop, and perhaps Elements as well.
While an improvement over no calibration, I wouldn't be able to go back to it as a sole calibration method at this point.

Also, don't discount monitor quality. They really aren't all created equal, and the cheap TN film panels are visibly not as good as the better panels. I have a good LaCie sitting beside a relatively inexpensive Samsung, and the quality difference is quite visible.