Hi LL People. I am a print graphic designer with over 13 years experience, but for the past few years, I've been working rather piece-meal, from home. Point is, right now, I don't feel super knowledgeable about the technology, since my days have been filled more heavily with things other than computers and software, although I do what I can to stay up to date. Anyway...
Last year, it was time to upgrade my monitor. Costco had the Dell 3007 WFP-HC for $1,300, so I made the plunge thinking this was the only way I would be able to justify a 30", since the other I'd consider (Apple Cinema Display) was 500 bucks more. Well, two print jobs in, I'm leary about the color. The color is just too intense, too saturated. I've tried some basic calibrating within the Mac OS, but I'm still not sure I'm where I need to be.
It first came to my attention when I was working on a book with mostly solid teal cover. I had a damned time getting my color laser to come close to what I was trying to produce. Also, I was working in some areas with very low color coverage (for example 10% blue of some sort) that would print out basically greenish grey. Maybe that is just the nature of such low color percentages, though,
So, Im looking for a solution and I know so little about this. I never had this problem before when I was working for a corporation with Production Managers who handled the press side of things. I just did my design work on the in-house computers (which usually always looked "good enough") and the most of the print jobs came back looking fine colorwise.
So, I've considered keeping the Dell and just getting some sort of colorimeter or spectrometer device and color management software.
I've considered passing on the Dell 3007 to family and taking the plunge to some other monitor with a better reputation for color professionals, like the Lacie or the Eizo's, but in this scenario, I can't see that monitor being a 30" due to cost and that means I'd be replacing my 30" with something more like a 24" which bums me out a little... to have to physically downsize.
I've considered keeping the Dell and getting something much smaller to sit next to it, that has a great color management reputation.
Downside to any of the new monitor solutions, is I think I would STILL need to spend the money to get some kind of color management device and accompanying software.
Is there any sort of comparison chart anywhere, that compares color management hardware devices, monitors and color control software?
Do I need some software to hack into my video card to tune down the brilliance?
I need to decide what device to buy and what software to buy assuming I need that as well. Im willing to spend to get a right and reasonable solution, but Im hardly made of money.
Thanks so much in advance,
Kathryn
Im on an Intel Mac Tower (Quad-core) with NVIDIA card and a MacBook Pro 17" all purchased less than a year ago.