color calibration tool for Mac Pro versus Spyder2

[danielsterno]

All:
I hope this is the correct category. I have a close photographer friend who is in the market for a color calibration tool. He has a Mac Pro with a LED cinema display. he is using Photoshop CS-6 and wants to print to an Epson R2400 photo printer. His results, until recently, were decent. He has an image shot on a Nikon D300 using Adobe RGB colorspace. The image looked perfect in Photoshop, but printed very dark with a greenish colorcast. Deciding to calibrate, he found out his Spyder2 no longer works with his set-up. What is the best tool / method to insure his images print properly on his R2400?"
Thank you in advance on his behalf…. Daniel.

 

[GaryLH]

Not sure.. But this may help your friend.. Luminous Landscape did a set of write ups about display vs print results. While display color calibration is the cornerstone, there are other pitfalls.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/inkjet_debunk.shtml

I have a spyder 4 that I use to calibrate my iMac. But I have found that part of the trick is to make sure u go thru the printer dialog. For me, I have found that the default print setting from my iMac are off vs what I c from the printer.

I had to create a personal setting for the paper I used, make sure the paper type was correct and set the correct print quality. I am not using photoshop or LR, so I am not sure if this part is an issue under a adobe controlled environment.

Gary

 

[danielsterno]

Not sure.. But this may help your friend.. Luminous Landscape did a set of write ups about display vs print results. While display color calibration is the cornerstone, there are other pitfalls.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/inkjet_debunk.shtml

I have a spyder 4 that I use to calibrate my iMac. But I have found that part of the trick is to make sure u go thru the printer dialog. For me, I have found that the default print setting from my iMac are off vs what I c from the printer.

I had to create a personal setting for the paper I used, make sure the paper type was correct and set the correct print quality. I am not using photoshop or LR, so I am not sure if this part is an issue under a adobe controlled environment.

Gary

Thank You Gary!… Daniel.

 

[robbeiflex]

I have a Spyder4 for my MacBook. I do two things when I calibrate the monitor:
1) let it heat up for half and hour, and
2) calibrate at three clicks below full brightness

So far this has been fine for the printing I have done for me, which is admittedly not so demanding and has the calibration at the printer in addition.

Cheers,
Rob

 

[sevo]

Spyder 2 support ended with Vista and OS X 10.5 or so - nothing to be done there, unless he can use some third party software that can make use of a Spyder2 head. Many of the calibration systems bundled with advanced monitors are probe agnostic, and have no forced obsolescence by OS version - but such a monitor will be more expensive than a new calibration tool.

The difference between systems is fairly marginal, at least as long as only screen calibration is concerned. I'd go for whatever currently has the best trade-in deal for the past device - there often are good deals around...

 

[Godfrey]

On the advice of friends working at Apple's display and graphics engineering departments, I bought the Eye One Display 2 in 2004 over the other display calibration and profiling tools available at the time. It proved to be a good choice, and is still working, but I'll replace it with the successor Xrite i1 Display Pro product this Spring.

(My display calibration targets are 110 CDm^2 Luminance, 1.8 gamma, and white point of 5600°K. My workspace is a 9x14 room with off-white walls illuminated by warm white fixtures at a decent reading illumination level ... Approximately ISO 100 @ f/2.8 @ 1/30 on my incident meter.)

Of course, all the calibration in the world might not solve your friend's printing problem. In fact, I find it rarely solves such printing problems ... they're usually caused by something I overlooked in the Photoshop setup or by an ink cartridge going bad ...

G

 

[Godfrey]

I wholehartedly agree. The Apple Cinema is not bad out of the box, but bad printer setup has really driven me nuts, especially with HP plotters.

Made a note to take a serious look at the Xrite i1 Display Pro. How do you compare it to the X-Rite ColorMunki? Worth the extra bucks I assume?

I can't remember what the difference was, specifically, when I looked at them. I bought the i1 Display Pro mostly because its software allowed me to do what my old Eye One Display 2 did, and I think the ColorMunki has a different feature set.

G

 

[danielsterno]

All:

Thank You! again for your input. Here is how the matter was resolved:
PROBLEM SOLVED! (and it wasn't the monitor calibration or the ink) Fortunately the folks at Epson are very helpful and thorough. Right off the bat I asked about ink life, and was told 'about 5 months.' Then I sat at the printer, cleaned the nozzles a few more times (until the test pattern was perfect.) Confirmed I had the most up-to-date driver. The problem, (in addition to clogged nozzels), turns out to be obscure settings in the driver dialog box. One of them is setting for color space (sRGB vs Adobe RGB - hidden in a secondary drop-down menu) Once done, my problem print came out near perfect. (Even though over half of the 8 ink cartridges are over a year old.) Thank you…..