Do you calibrate your monitor?

[bbailey]

I'm toying with the idea of getting a gretag macbeth eye one 2 and was curious if anyone out there calibrates thier monitor, and if so, with what.

Thanks,
Ben

[TexIndian]

I use Monaco Optix to calibrate mine. I was having problems printing the same thing I saw on the screen - mainly a brightness thing. My printer was already profiled with Monaco EZColor, so I tried the monitor, and that fixed the problem.

Just from my experience with an Epson 2200, I'd say to profile your printer first. At least that's where I saw the most dramatic improvement.

[mattchow]

i just bought the pantone colorplus from buy.com for 90$. havent installed it yet though.

[jeffkohn]

At the very least I would recommend using a software calibrator like Adobe Gamma, WYZWIG, etc. Hardware calibration yields great results. I use the Eye One Photo system to calibrate my monitors and create custom printer profiles. It makes a huge difference in the consistency of output from capture to post-processing and viewing to printing.

[Chris Anderson]

Without a doubt!!! Sony Artsian

[Hogleg 44]

I use the Optical Spyder Pro system now, which is not reputed to be the best available, but was relatively cheap, with a rebate from Fry's, when I bought it. When I calibrated my 17" IBM flat screen trinitron with it I couldn't really see much change from my previous software calibration settings. Both seems pretty accurate with the test settings I found. Both ways permitted seeing all of the different shades from black to white. And the gamma is real close to 2.2, tho not quite spot on.

[Hogleg 44]

A good website on monitor calibration.
http://www.ltlimagery.com/monitor_calibration.html

[Abel]

I also use the Pantone Colorplus, i bought mine for $99 locally at a CompUSA...

works great...

[Bill Huber]

I have had real good luck with it, I have an older 20 Mitsubishi monitor and it really helped with it. I noticed the the most difference in the grays, after the calibration the grays were much grayer and the whites were whiter.

What gets me is when people don't do anything and then wonder why there images look bad and the colors are off.

[CJ Max]

I went through this exercise last year and decided on the Monaco Optix XR - glad I did! It has the latest generation optical device (puck, spyder, etc.). It's easy to use and the results are gratifying.

If you have a monitor that's over 1 year old or if you intend to keep your monitor once it gets beyond 1 year old, the Monaco calibrates these CRT's best.

Good luck.

Cliff.

P.S.: Calibrate your monitor first. You may not need to calibrate your printer. If you do need to calibrate your printer, check out Cathy's.

[jhom]

I've been using Optix XR with my Samsung 710N LCD. It does an excellent job. After calibrating my monitor, the available printer profiles from Ilford for my Canon i960 work great. No additional printer tweaking has been needed.