Afordable calibration of a printer and screen?

[Espen Sortland]

I've recently bought and finished watching the Camera to Print tutorial, and learned alot watching it.

Biggest lessons is the need for calibration and softproofing, so when looking for calibration gear, I'm a little confused.

Calibration gear costs from ~$150 to $5000... For amateur / hobby based use, and not least on a fairly tight budget, what parts do you recommend?

My equipment is:
Dell 3007WFP and a HP 9180

"Datacolor Spyder 3 Studio Print & Monitor" is a kit for both printer and monitor calibration for ~$900 (4590 NOK in Norway).

Is this the cheapest alternative out there?

While I see the usefulness of the calibration, for my use it doesn't seem cost effective... (?)

[David Sutton]

Yes, it's expensive, but near so much as you've already spent to get nice prints. I bought the Spyder 2 and Printfix pro and immediately saw the difference on my Dell monitor (once I worked out how to get the brightness down in the software) and on the prints. Bought it on ebay and had it shipped to New Zealand for a fraction of the cost of buying locally.
I just searched "printfix pro" on ebay.com and found it packaged as a suite with the Spyder 2 for US395 plus shipping overseas. Perhaps if you're patient and wait a while the Spyder 3 suite may come available on ebay or similar before too long. Best wishes, David

[DarkPenguin]

There are lots of good B9180 profiles out there.  With its built in calibration the profiles made for one B9180 will tend to work with another.  So I wouldn't bother with getting printer calibration tools.

For the monitor something as simple as a huey would help.

For reference ...

Lots of B9180  profiles are available here ...

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/hp9100Series/

And most paper manufactures provide their own.  Just google their web sites.

[Nat Coalson]

For display calibration I highly recommend the i1Display2 from X-Rite.

X-Rite Web site

With last year's purchase of Gretag-Macbeth by X-Rite, they are the only game in town when it comes to quality color measurement products.

The Spyder has repeatedly proven inaccurate and not suitable for professional-level work.

The Huey is also inaccurate and often adds strong color tints.

I agree that you probably don't need a printer profiling kit. Paper manufacturers distribute profiles for their papers on a wide variety of printers, amd most of the premade profiles out there are quite good.

[Espen Sortland]

For display calibration I highly recommend the i1Display2 from X-Rite.

X-Rite Web site

With last year's purchase of Gretag-Macbeth by X-Rite, they are the only game in town when it comes to quality color measurement products.

The Spyder has repeatedly proven inaccurate and not suitable for professional-level work.

The Huey is also inaccurate and often adds strong color tints.

I agree that you probably don't need a printer profiling kit. Paper manufacturers distribute profiles for their papers on a wide variety of printers, amd most of the premade profiles out there are quite good.
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Thank you for the reply. I've been looking around and this seems to be more more suited to my requirements. Because of the holiday season, its alot of time reading and not really ordering yet.

I noticed in the i1Display2 pdf file on their site that they mention checking the website for a list of supported monitor models for "pushbutton calibration", and they list: Eizo, LaCie, Sony, NEC, Mitsubishi. (Complete list on the website xrite.com) but I can't find the list. Is this something in addition (easier?) to the normal calibration?

DarkPenguin: thank you for the tip on the profile group. Registered.

Will do some more research before buying.

[Nat Coalson]

I couldn't find the complete list either. Don't worry about it though, you can use all the core calibration features of the i1 with any monitor.