Is it worth calibrating my 15"MacBook?

[sunshine1234]

I have 15" Macbook Pro and print from it on an Epson 3880. Is it worth buying a calibration device? If so, what are some of the more economical to midrange tools?

The reason I ask is because the array of calibration tools seems huge to me and some of them are, for me, quite expensive. Do they really make a difference?

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Looks like you are looking for a solution in search of a problem.

Do you have a problem? Do your prints look significantly different than the screen? Does it bother you if they do? How much of a perfectionist and control freak are you? If the answer to the above is "no," than you do not need it.

[Mark D Segal]

I wouldn't trust a laptop display for colour or tone critical work because every time you change the angle of view between your eyeballs and the screen your colour and tonal perception of the photograph differs. The easiest approach (and free) is to download a good printer test target which has images with "memory" colours on it. (Uwe Steinmueller's site has a good one, or Digitaldog's). Then before you start editing your photographs, call up this image and angle the combination of your screen and head such that the printer test page image looks right (and you are comfortable!). Then maintain that position for editing your photos. No devices required.

[Jeremy Roussak]

I wouldn't trust a laptop display for colour or tone critical work because every time you change the angle of view between your eyeballs and the screen your colour and tonal perception of the photograph differs. The easiest approach (and free) is to download a good printer test target which has images with "memory" colours on it. (Uwe Steinmueller's site has a good one, or Digitaldog's). Then before you start editing your photographs, call up this image and angle the combination of your screen and head such that the printer test page image looks right (and you are comfortable!). Then maintain that position for editing your photos. No devices required.

Apart from a head clamp, of course.

Jeremy

[sunshine1234]

Thanks for the reality check and suggestions…..I'm buying that head clamp today!

Seriously, for someone like me, who's just getting into printing my own work, all the info online etc. is a little overwhelming at times.

I'm not looking for problems, just excellent prints true to the way I want interpret a scene.

So far I'm impressed with the 3880 - the B&W prints I made straight out of the box were far beyond my expectations, however, the color prints need some fine tuning.

I thought calibration might be a good place to start.

My workspace also needs some attention re: illumination levels in the room.

[D Fosse]

I don't see how calibration could do any harm, as long as you're aware of the inherent limitations in a laptop screen. But the colors can only improve, and get you closer than you are.

And if you get a good one, it's there when you buy that new monitor. I'll recommend the i1 Display Pro for the sensor alone. It can be used with the packaged software as well as almost any calibration solution on the market, including the dedicated Eizo and NEC calibration software.

[Some Guy]

Calibration devices will probably help.  I have gone through a few of them.

I have a Colormunki Photo and it is fun to use and I can use one sheet if I downsize the image via the printer driver and scan against a ruler.  Problem with it is that some papers have optical brighteners and the head of it isn't suited well for those.  So I bought the i1 Photo Pro 2 which takes care of that matter, but also uses much more paper to get a profile made, sometimes 5 sheets with the optical brightener test chart too.

There are a few webinars on the xrite website by Joe Brady that are very good.  He has a Mac too and demonstrates its shortcomings in one of the webinars (e.g. Serious color temp and brightness variations around the Mac screen using the i1 head.).  To that end, he feeds it into some Eizo screen monitor which is a few thousand to buy too.

Regardless of all the effort you put into calibration, a screen and a print are two different animals.  Gamuts can be much different with inks, papers, and printers than what you see out of your backlit LCD screen.  I'm not an Apple guy and use a tweaker program for printing under Windows called "Qimage Ultimate."  Seems it helps a lot in areas like sharpness and tweaking some color a bit whereas other software or drivers just cannot do it.  The sharpening algorithm in QU is far better when I put a print made out of it side-by-side against some other print/editing software.

SG

[MirekElsner]

I have two usable calibration devices, ColorMunki Photo and i1 Display Pro. I tried to calibrate my MBP screen with the packaged software, with BasICColor, ColorEyes and DispCalGUI. I still think the default profile from Apple gives best results.

[Hans Kruse]

I have 15" Macbook Pro and print from it on an Epson 3880. Is it worth buying a calibration device? If so, what are some of the more economical to midrange tools?

The reason I ask is because the array of calibration tools seems huge to me and some of them are, for me, quite expensive. Do they really make a difference?

I find that the calibration gives a better rendition and less contrasty than the builtin profile. I'm referring to the MacBook 15" retina late 2013 model. The viewing angle as has been commented upon is not so critical with this display as typical laptop screens. My previous MacBook was the 2012 antiglare version and also here a calibration was an improvement. I have a Spyder 3 calibation unit.

[sunshine1234]

Thanks for sharing your experience - it gives me a sense of where to go from here.