Calibrating monitor

[kryn_sporry1]

Well, the whole colour management is starting to baffle me a bit.

I used to print on a an EPson 950 stylus photo, and with Photoshop

CS I always got spot on prints. What I see is what I get. I had my

CRT calibrated just with adobe gamma, no probs.

Now I have an iMac G5 and an R1800. Before I had the R1800 I printed

through the mac successfully on my 950. SPot on images always. The

preview function, which I heard was not supposed to show me what the

print would look like, actually told me what it would look like!

With the R1800 not so. Images are just falling short of being

acceptable. People already suggested that I should get a calibration

device, so I am considering buying a Monaco Optix RX, which is

supposed to be tested very well.

Considering my past experiences being rather good without

calibration tools, I wonder if I really need a monitor calibration.

WIll I really notice that much difference?

My prints right now are off not too much, but enough to be annoying.

Considering the change of printer I wonder if instead I need to have

some decent print profiles. ALthough I want to use Epson Crispia and

Fuji super photo grade (resp 300 and 320 gsm), I also use PGPP (for

which Epson does provide a profile). I already use the profiles

provided by the US epson website.

 

Advice please?

[kryn_sporry1]

extra question: WHat is teh difference between the Optix XR and the pro version? Will I really see much difference (note, I'm a serious amateur, not a pro)

[andrew_rodney1]

The difference is in the software (more options) but the hardware is the same.

[ira_wunder]

I think anyone who is serious about digital printing should have colormanagement hardware. We find all the major monitor calibration tools to preform well for that purpose. The range is 149.95 to 250.00 dollars. We use the Eye One and find the software very good. We have colleges that use Colorvision and the XiRite/Monaco with great results. One note, if you are going to use Colorvision you must first delete Adobe Gamma from the machine and associated profiles and recently X-Rite merged with Gretag McBeth so you will soon see a combined product.