Spyder3 printer calibration

[Jerry Skrocki]

Originally Posted by AndrewRodney

Yes and no.

A Colorimeter is generally better for display calibration due to its ability to measure dark colors with less noise than a Spectrophotometer in the price range we're talking about. But a colorimeter without tuned matrixes may suffer far worse issues on wide gamut displays or those it doesn't "expect" to measure. Here a colorimeter is far superior (would you rather have butt ugly color with some dark banding?). The best device IS a tuned colorimeter (or better yet, a $20K Spectroradiometer).

One other note. Only X-Rite (now that they own GretagMacbeth) can sell you a device that will measure a display AND a reflective print due to their patents. The boys at Color Vision/Data Color may tell you that they need two devices because its "better" which as discussed above, is partially true. But they can't provide you a single device to do both tasks for legal reasons, not technical ones.

So are you agreeing or disagreeing with my assessment.

In your opinion, which is the better tool for monitor calibration, the Xrite ColorMunki or the Spyder3 Elite?

Jerry

[AndrewRodney]

Originally Posted by Jerry Skrocki

So are you agreeing or disagreeing with my assessment.

In your opinion, which is the better tool for monitor calibration, the Xrite ColorMunki or the Spyder3 Elite?

Jerry

For say a wide gamut unit, the ColorMunki. Again, depends on the display. For someone that has the budget, a good colorimeter and Spectrophotometer are ideal (you can even use BOTH on some products). For someone that's not building output profiles, and using a standard gamut device, a Colorimeter.

[Jerry Skrocki]

Originally Posted by AndrewRodney

For say a wide gamut unit, the ColorMunki. Again, depends on the display. For someone that has the budget, a good colorimeter and Spectrophotometer are ideal (you can even use BOTH on some products). For someone that's not building output profiles, and using a standard gamut device, a Colorimeter.

I have not used the ColorMunki for display calibration, but did read this comparison: http://spyder.datacolor.com/pdfs/CI-...ibrating-S.pdf

Used as a screen sensor, the ColorMunki does not contribute much more than the Huey. It's fast and assisted by a good software
program, but the quality of the calibration is slightly less good than
Datacolor's, particularly in the treatment of shadows. In addition,it does
not calibrate "old" CRT screens.

I am not surprised by the review since this was your point about the use of spectrophotometers for monitor calibration.

I have used the Spyder3 Elite to calibrate two 20" LCD displays and the LED LCD of my MacBook Pro. The results are excellent and the software allows for more customization of individual settings than what I have read of the ColorMunki:

As with Datacolor,you can opt for the entirely automatic or an "advanced" mode,which enables you to choose white point and gamma settings (1.8 or 2.2) but offers far fewer regulations than with the Spyder3 software. The optimization of the luminosity and contrast is a mystery: the software fixes the settings itself.Which ones? We'll never know! The choice of gammas, color temperatures and luminance levels is very limited, and some peoplewill be unhappy about this.

Jerry