advice needed on Colorvision Spyder???

[ctgoldwing]

I am at the point now where I am frustrated when I try to get correct color balance between what I see on my screen & what I get when I print. I am just confused when I read the various models that are available (professional???) & what they can really do for me. Are Printfix & the Spyder what I really need? Are there other alternatives?
Jerry

[robertwgross]

One question only:

Is your entire computer system color calibrated, or not?

That would include input devices, monitor, output devices, and anything else in the middle.

If you have profiles on everything, and if your OS and editing software is working right with profiles, then it should not be a big deal.

---Bob Gross---

[ctgoldwing]

Bob,
I am using a Viewsonic PF790 monitor here with an Epson 1280 printer. I would have to say no the whole system is not color calibrated. I must confess ignorance on how to do this. The only thing I have tried is the gamma correction in PSP.

[robertwgross]

First of all, with most modern components and operating systems and software, if you install them correctly, then all of the profiles will kind of fall into place, and it works. However, if you have any single piece whose profile isn't right, or if the OS can't find the profile, or the software can't deal with it, then you have a problem. Anyway, it is supposed to work right in theory.

If you have a problem, or old components, or if you need to be ultra-precise, then you can use the external systems like a color spyder.

I can take a color input target, scan it in, and it looks the same on my monitor. Then I can print it out on my Epson printer, and the output looks the same as the input target. I call that calibrated.

Then I can shoot with my Canon camera, suck that in as RAW, convert to TIF, make one gamma correction, and then I am still correct. I leave that gamma correction number conveniently stuck in my image editor program.

Mine is probably only 99.9% perfect, but nobody has yet called me about any problem.

---Bob Gross---

[jhankins]

I'm about to go down the road of Color Profiling as well. Have not made the purchase as yet but was looking at the Manaaco EZColor bundle for what it's worth.

My main interest is Screen/Scans using my Epson 3200 Photo Scanner and of course the images from the 10D which I will the have sent out to my Lab for which I have their Kodak profile.

I will definitely be doing something within the next couple weeks or so and can let you know the results. You may also want to search on google for reviews.

[jhankins]

I Just noticed that Monaco just got aquired by XRite. Interesting. Hmmm, I think I'm going to wait a few weeks before I place an order as I suspect there will be some changes coming down the pipe here. I'm also looking into Kodak's package as well. (I use them for my processing, might as well give them an opportunity on the color management.) I noticed that Kodak bundles Xrite's sensors with their packages.

[who10]

Originally I bought Spyder to maintain color consistency across processing I did in PS7 on a G4 Mac (what I saw on a 20” Hitachi monitor), work I would do on the road using the 15” LCD display of a G4 laptop and ultimately the expensive 20x16” enlargements produced on the LightJet used at my service bureau.

More recently Spyder has solved the problem of maintaining color presentation between RAW (10D & D60) image processing with C1LE on a DELL laptop (with a 17” Hitachi Superscan monitor), and final pre-flight processing I do in PS7 on Mac OS X prior to targeting and archiving final output (for the web, LightJet or press).

To my eye what I see in C1LE is the same as what I see in PS7 is the same as what I get back from press in my final prints. I can’t comment on how well PrintFix works because I rely on ICC profiles supplied by the service bureaus (I don’t print anything at home), but I can recommend Optical and Spyder as worth its price.

David

[jimsloy]

So, to be clear, I need to have PS7 realize my monitor profile, then have it also realize my Epson 960 profile?

If you get the Color Spyder, do you need to buy the monitor spyder as well as the printer output calib software?

I'm using a laptop - so you're saying if I have the right monitor profile and printer profile, everthing should look good without having to use the Spyder. B/C so far, it doesn't!!

Anyone have a good test color JPG that I can use to run a match?

[acolville]

[quote]jimsloy wrote:


I'm using a laptop - so you're saying if I have the right monitor profile and printer profile, everything should look good without having to use the Spyder. B/C so far, it doesn't!!

Every device is different! ie one monitor is not the same as the next - even if they are the same brand and model. This gets even more complicated when you look at printers. The printers include generic profiles for the manufacturers ink and papers - change either of these and all bets are off!

A colour managed workflow involves using profiles for each of you devices, ie input - Camera, Scanner, display and output.

I suggest you look at the following site which has some excellent tools for setting up various parts of the system.

http://www.aim-dtp.net

Lastly, I use the spyder with Photocal software (you only need Optical if you are calibrating a number of monitors on a network) and it works very well. This coupled with my profiled 10D output produces superb results.

Lastly, I would strongly recommend obtaining a Kodak Q60 target. These are available in either transparency or reflective types. They are produced in small batches and Kodak publishes full spectro data for each colour patch.

Thanks,

Alistair

[john_houghton]

jimsloy wrote:
Anyone have a good test color JPG that I can use to run a match?

Two popular test images are:
PhotoDisc at http://www.inkjetart.com/custom/JPEG.zip
Fuji calibration image at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/j.houghton/fuji_test_image.jpg

John