Color accuracy on an iMac

[dumainew]

Is a 3 year old iMac calibrated with a new ColorMunki capable of displaying an accurate version of a soft- proofed image ?
I'm trying to rule out every element in the soft-proof-to-print-process that might cause the dark areas to be too dark and the colors, especially red, to look a little washed out.
I use Mr. Schewe's fine book on the printing process as my guide.
Any and all help is much appreciated.
Richard

[mbaginy]

I don't see why not.  My iMac is roughly four years old and I don't have any major problems.

I did need to gather some experience properly adjusting during soft proofing (in LR5) and learning what is and what simply isn't possible with various papers.  That's one reason I like to stick to a limited number of paper types (mine are MOAB).

A number of people frown upon iMac displays.  Surely there are "better" but I'm quite satisfied with mine, and the printed results are fine.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... A number of people frown upon iMac displays.  Surely there are "better" but I'm quite satisfied with mine, and the printed results are fine.

+1

Mine is iMac 27, late 2012, profiled with a Colormunki Display. I usually do not even bother with soft proofing, as prints come out pretty close to the screen anyway. When I did try, differences between original and soft-proofed were so small that you can mimic them just by slightly varying the position of the printout to the light source, for instance.

Until the other day...

I was about to print a fairly saturated patch of red, against a dark background and dark, ink-blue sky, and I decided to check softproofing. And, ahmmm, it did show a pretty significant difference, but only in that red patch. It was more organgy-red than I would like. That's where the gamut warning was as well. But then again, I know that gamut warnings are not precise (i.e., it shows there will be a problem, but not exactly how significant the problem is), and I know (or I thought so) soft proofing is not that terribly precise either, so I decided to go ahead and print it anyway. And guess what? The printout looked exactly as the soft proofing! In other words, it is a testament to both the importance of soft proofing and accuracy of iMac displays.