Calibrating new 27 inch IMAC

[limasphoto]

Hello Everyone, I have been reading for days and there is so much out there to take in, I decided to just ask, as I am ready to get started. i am starting to read in circles.

I have a 27 inch IMac, and an Epson R1800 that does not get along with it. I convinced the other half that I needed a new printer and an Epson R3880 will be here soon. Then I started reading and figured out that the R1800 may just work with my IMac, that maybe some calibrating will fix my problem. I must have done a pretty god job of eyeballing the old G5 and 22 inch View Sonic, as I was able to match my monitor to printer very closely.

So my question is which is the calibrating tool for the 27 inch IMac? I also use GE Daylight bulbs in the ceiling light fixture my the office. Is that good or bad?

[PhilipCummins]

Hello,

These days if you're keen to profile both printer & monitor you'd want either a ColorMunki, Spyder3Studio SR or i1 Xtreme (though this is has just been deprecated in favour of i1 Publish (i1 Profiler) - best to wait until it's out there). A good source of reviews of the hardware is on Keith Cooper's site, Northlight Images. If you like to tinker with large printer patch sets probably the Spyder3Studio SR is the better bet over the ColorMunki at this point in time until the i1 Publish is released to see how that compares to Spyder3Studio SR. You can also buy Spyder3Print SR which doesn't include monitor calibration.

Philip

[digitaldog]

There’s nothing inherently problematic with an iMac and an R1800 or for that matter 3880. Calibration of the display to produce a visual match is the most important first step, using good ICC paper profiles (meaning try the canned profiles that ship with the printer and the Epson associated papers first). Now if you find you just have to build paper profiles, my advise would be to go for the ColorMunki as an entry level package.

[shewhorn]

I also use GE Daylight bulbs in the ceiling light fixture my the office. Is that good or bad?

The iMacs have glossy screens. The blackest black your screen can (in theory... in reality it's not quite this black due to light leaking through the pixels) get would be what you see when your computer is off. If you have a light on a dimmer switch, turn that dimmer down and noticed how things get [SPINAL_TAP]more blacker[/SPINAL_TAP]. The problem with the iMac is that it has a glossy screen and it picks up every little reflection in the room. If you have a white wall behind you and light is reflecting off of that, that will impact how your screen operates. Everyone needs to be aware of these things but it's a lot more critical with glossy screens. You want to make sure that those overhead ceiling lights aren't being reflected in that screen. Ideally you want non-direct low ambient light in your editing environment (you do not want it completely dark).

The other thing worth mentioning is that store bought bulbs, while they may be close to a "daylight" color temp (which BTW varies considerably from the time the sun rises to the time the sun sets), are not full spectrum and therefor won't give you an accurate screen-to-print match because those lights typically feature a lot of peaks and dips in their spectrum.

As for which tool to use with the iMac, I would recommend the Spyder 3, ColorMunki or Eye One Pro (the last option being overkill for most people). The current iMacs use white LED backlights and my personal experience has been that colorimeters like the DTP-94 (which BTW is an awesome colorimeter if you're not profiling a wide gamut screen or a screen with white LEDs) and Eye One Display 2 produce inconsistent results from profile to profile. YMMV. Not everyone agrees with me on that point.

Cheers, Joe