monitor calibration systems

[John Hawkins]

I seem to have a problem with the outcome of my photos from what they look like on my monitor. I have had pictures that look great on my monitor, but when I print them they look terrible. Has anyone used any particular systems to correct this. I have been reading about Eye-One Display 2 by X-Rite. Can anyone help me with this? Thanks John

[Sid Overbey]

John, I am using the Spyder2 Express to calibrate my old Dell monitor and it seems to work very well. I usually upload my photos to Costco for printing and they come back pretty true to the monitor.

Good luck.

[Bob Ettinger]

I have the Eye One Display 2 and it works fine on my desktop LCD and my laptop

[Roger Clark]

I'm using a spyder 3. What kind of monitor are you using? I find using a TN type LCD (what all laptops and most cheaper LCDs are) gives very poor consistency. Once I got a S-IPS LCD, I have much better consistency. Every LCD monitor I've seen is way too contrasty with too saturated colors out of the box. They all seem to need calibration and reducing contrast/saturation (even apple cinema displays). Google S-IPS LCD monitors. CRTs are much better regarding color, contrast and brightness, but too bad they are so big and heavy and can't match the resolution of LCDs. (I'm using a dell 30-inch S-IPS 4.1 megapixel LCD--wonderful; can't wait for a 40-inch monitor).

With LCDs, I find I must always be sure the histogram is appropriate because LCDs are pretty bright compared to normally viewed prints. For things that you want to come out 15% gray, be sure it is at the mid level of the histogram.

Roger

[Gayle Clement]

John,
Calibration is important but also make sure that you have the correct printer profile downloaded and use that profile to soft proof before you print. Printing from RGB does not give accurate results from most printers.

[Bob Steer]

i would second the Eye-One Display 2 works great. I have it as well as the Spyder 2 but like the Eye One better. The reason is that you can place the Eye One anywhere on your screen and it will find itself. This is especially useful since the menu for your monitor adjustments usually comes up in the center of the screen which is right where the spyder has you place the colorimeter so that you constantly have to lift it off the screen to see the menu and then undisplay the menu so the colorimeter reading doesn't get messed up.

I also have the Eye-One Photo which allows me to make custom profiles of my paper/printer combinations which improves the quality of the prints I get as well as making them almost identical to what I see on my monitor. It will never be exact since you are dealing with an emitted image on the monitor versus a reflected image on the print but it will certainly be pretty close. You can get paper profiles from the paper manufacturers online for your printer and some are pretty good (ie Epson) but others are plain horrible. If you are only using one or two different papers you can get custom profiles made for you at a cost of around $50 - $100 per profile which may be cheaper than buying your own profiling system (Eye-One Photo is around $1500)

One thing to add if you do calibrate your monitor using one of the available calibrating systems and you are using a PC make sure to TURN OFF Adobe Gamma as it will interfere with your computer reading the wrong profile if you don't . Most of the calibrating systems will tell you to do that and explain where and how to do this.

Hope this helps

Bob