Considering ColorVision Spyder [Archive]

synergy

05-22-2007, 08:58 PM

I looked into those as well. I'll give you my $0.02 on the
matter, though in my case I decided not to buy a calibration
system after researching the features / benefits / problems.

a) The Spyder2 and Spyder2 suite are very commonly used
for low to mid-end 'basic' color calibrations, and they seem
fairly well regarded in all the reviews I've read of them.
I believe they'll deliver "as promised" results if you get
them, and the cost is reasonable anyway.

b) The Pantone 'Huey' is a competitive unit that I've
heard of; I don't recall either model of the Spyder vs Huey
having really compelling price or feature advantages wrt.
the other.

c) Yes, you'll need to get some kind of printer profiling
software to help color calibrate the printer. Be advised,
though, as far as I *RECALL* (and I may be wrong) the
Spyder2 and Huey are both sensors for *emissive*
(monitor) devices, and if I recall correctly, they're not
entirely as good as sensors that are designed for reflective
materials like printed pages/photos. So the printer profiling
offered in the Spyder2 Suite may not be quite *as* good
as could be achieved with more capable equipment and
software if my understanding of the limitations is right.

d) I've heard it said as a blanket statement that average
decent LCD panels have nowhere near the color gamut
of average decent CRTs. I understand that there were
some extremely new and rare exceptional LCD panels
coming out that had "much better" color gamut than
common panels, but, I believe the results were still
considered to be inferior to CRTs and that consequently
"serious" graphic arts people always had calibrated
CRTs in addition to whatever LCDs they may also use.
Research that as you like and determine how it may effect
your plans and options.

e) I've also heard it said that the CRT or LCD has nowhere
near the color gamut of a decent photo printer, so even
if you have a perfectly calibrated monitor, and a perfectly
calibrated printer, you *still* will not be possibly able to
'see' the same variety of colors on the screen as the printer
is capable of producing; some of the subtleties and
saturations are just not possible to see on the monitor
at all. Of course conversely you should, more likely, be
able to get a reasonably accurate print-out of what you
DO see on the screen for computer generated/edited
content, though for content that's originally from a high
end camera or scanned original, there's no guarantee the
calibrated monitor can have the fidelity to show the
colors accurately so in many cases the mismatch of the
printer and monitor is actually *good* in that the printer
*should* be able to more faithfully
display what the monitor cannot.

f) the color calibration for monitor viewing as well as
for viewing photos / prints on paper is *extremely*
dependent on ambient light conditions, and to really
be effective you'll benefit from having a very controlled
lighting environment with very subtle, dim, and indirect
lighting when you're viewing the monitor (even in the day),
and well diffused color temperature / brightness
controlled lighting conditions or some kind of viewing "box"
for the printed photos. Otherwise there will be perceptual
color / brightness / contrast shifts and that'll effect your
calibrations.

g) The Monitor calibration will also be sensitive to things
like warm-up time, any background colors / windows on
the screen, etc.

Given all that, it seems like the consensus is that it's
only really possible or desirable to 'match' screen and
printer under a limited set of circmstances in a
WYSIWYG sense.

Having a color calibration device will certainly help you
achieve the best 'compromise' calibration of a LCD panel
or monitor that you can under the circumstances, though.
However AFAIK you can 'eyball it' and get pretty close
to the right calibration settings (mainly brightness and
contrast) for the monitor based on just a few reference
photos / charts without the need for color calibration.
Of course it's important to use the right manufacturer's
color profile for your monitor, and to select the right color
temperature setting, and use proper room lighting.
Obviously CRTs and LCDs may shift a bit as they age,
but I'm not so sure that's a big factor that still can't easily
be corrected by eyeballing a standard set of charts without
a color calibrator hardware system.

Similarly the manufacturer's color profiles for your printer
and ink set are probably pretty close to right unless you're
using non-standard inks or unusually porous/tinted media.

Given all the limitations of achieving 'true matching'
personally I decided to just eyeball it, use a 19" CRT
for one system, and a 24" LCD for another, standard
injket printer for prints, and not worry
about software/hardware calibration systems for any.
What I learned in the process helped me to learn to
eyeball calibrate the screens better and to make better
choices for room illumination, though.

Certainly $60-$120 isn't that much to spend for a tool
that'll be useful for years, though if you feel it'll help
you, but just be aware of the limitations of the tools you
use and don't expect it to work a whole lot better after
the calibration than what you probably already can
achieve if you're doing a good job with eyeball calibrations,
room lighting, and using the proper ICC / color temperature
settings and profiles for your monitor / printer / software.

Good luck!
http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html
http://www.normankoren.com/printer_calibration.html
http://www.normankoren.com/color_management.html
http://www.normankoren.com/color_management_2.html
http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a?topic_id=1701&category=Color+Management%3ECalibration
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_color_management
http://www.outbackphoto.com/tforum/viewtopic.php?TopicID=1930
http://www.phoronix.net/forums/showthread.php?t=261
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=1046788
http://www.argyllcms.com/index.html