X-Rite ColorMunki

You can get someone else to calibrate your printer for you.

They’ll supply you with instructions and untagged images for their calibration device and they can make a printer profile that’s specific to your printer. Only £20 around here – How many times are you going to calibrate a printer?…….not many – best to save the dosh if you already have a Spyder2.

Chris,

Never thought of that. Will investigate…

Thanks,
Ronald

ColorMunki is rather good but… The software is questionable. Caveat: it’s limited to activation in three machines. Andrew Rodney made (if I recall it all right) some remarks-reviews and Northlight images < http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/bw_printing /bw_print_colormunki.html> has something about it.

I have one (the ColorMunki design), I it use in a very limited way and I find it rather fast (strikingly fast), very easy to use and quite cheap for the job it does.

If the software gets any better (doable), I like it and I am happy with it. Though it’s no ‘professional’ tool, you could think about it as colour management for the masses.

Hope it helps

Posted from Spain

Gustavo,

Thank you very much for your comments. Really very much appreciated. One more question if I may.
I have read tons of reviews and articles all over the internet and it seems there are two camps as far as the printer profiles are concerned.
Some say the profiles are very good (although not 100% accurate) and some say they are worthless. In which camp are you?

Regards,

Ronald

Hello, Ronald,

First, you might be better served asking this question in the Color Management forum <http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?14@@.eea5b31>. People over there tend to be more color savvy than here in these matters (thought many are the same folks).

Second. I am a very low level user, so my opinion is not to be taken into a big account.

Third, as I said, I have used it in a very limited way. That was due to my job situation but, as well, to the limited activation issue I mentioned. I find that rather annoying.

That said, the couple of profiles I built were better than none’. The price of this solution (spectrophotometre + Software) is almost unbeatable, but… Its limitations are absolute: You profile with almost no options, you refine the profile a bit, period.

If you are interested in just building some profiles for some papers just for you, then, it’s ok. If you want something more, you may be better served for something in the next budget step. What? I don’t know.

Hope I have not caused more confusion.

Best regards

Hello Gustavo,

Very helpful explanation. Thank you again very much for your effort! I will follow your advice and head to the Color Management Forum.

Best regards,

Ronald

Ronald:

I built my own printer profiles for years, but found profiles from third-party suppliers to be as good or better. If you’re going to implement a color-managed workflow then you must have accurate printer profiles.

Sid,

Yesterday I have ordered some profiles with RH Designs (UK). I am curious if they will be (much) better than the profiles I made with the Spyder software…

Thank you for your comments. Much appreciated!