Originally posted by tlwyse Forget about doing any sort of "visual" calibration of your display. You need either a good spectrophotometer (EyeOne Pro) or colorimeter (XRite DTP94 or Spyder 3) and a good software package. I strongly recommend the ColorEyes Display Pro+DTP94 bundle. Best stuff there is and won't cost you an arm and a leg.
I'd start with that first before you go down the road of printer profiling (that'll set you back some $$$ to do it right).
Terry Wyse
WyseConsul, Color Management Consulting
While a calibrator tool is definitely going to be more accurate, a visual calibrator such as Adobe Gamma will put you very close to where you want to be, and is certainly better than running no calibration at all.
Epson paper profiles tend to be very accurate, certainly more than good enough for all but the most demanding professional use.
As long as the OP stays with Epson paper, or can download profiles for his printer for the paper he intends to use, he will be fine with visual calibration and prepackaged profiles.
Since the OP has already said a calibration tool isn't in his near future, you are effectively telling him to run no calibration at all.
This is bad advice, I'm not really sure why, as a professional, you'd be giving it.
FWIW, while I'm not hanging a shingle out on the web, I've been involved in the photo lab industry for just over 3 decades, and have been the QC guy at every lab I've worked at for the past 25 years.