glblanchard

I need a calibrator, and of course they come in all sizes and PRICES. I was wondering if anyone uses the X-Rite ColorMunki Smile, and if they believe it is suitable for photographs.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

There are calibration charts, programs for you graphics card that do the job quite well... aaaa, oh, oh, then you print and need to tweak, more green, lighter, or whatever. The (example) Spider calibrator is just a money hole for being able to brag about the fine equipment you own.

glblanchard

Thanks D.

jpendasulo Loc: TN

I use the ColorMunki. It does a great job of calibrating my monitors and creates good printer profiles. It has saved me a good deal of wasted paper and ink. I can usually get an acceptable print on the first try now.

The wasted hours of frustrating tweaking and reprinting are gone. I feel the cost of the ColorMunki was worth it for me. I bought it on Amazon as a warehouse deal, open box at a good discount.

I also use an ASUS wide gamut monitor that provides better capability of creating a good match between the screen and print. Monitor and print matching is never perfect because of the difference between the print's reflected light and the monitor's backlight but I am happy with the results.

glblanchard

Thanks, JP. That's helpful.

Lundberg02

I don't believe there is a Color Munki that calibrates printers. Prove it.

jdubu Loc: San Jose, CA

I have the ColorMunki also and I have created ICC profiles for the paper I use for my Epson printers.

It does not calibrate the printer, but creates a custom ICC profile by paper to a specific printer.

Not all monitor calibrators are capable of doing this, but the Colormunki Photo and Design versions do. I do not know if the Smile will.

jpendasulo Loc: TN

Read it.

http://www.amazon.com/X-Rite-CMUNPH-ColorMunki-Photo/dp/B00169N0BK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1432333582&sr=8-1&keywords=colormunki+photo

As I said, I have created good printer profiles using the ColorMunki software.

jpendasulo Loc: TN

I forgot to mention that I am using the ColorMunki Photo. The smile creates Monitor ICC profiles but not printer profiles. I bought it because my available photography time was limited and I wanted to be able to eliminate the printing problems. It's much more expensive but gets the job done. Time was limited before I retired so I bought it.

If you are not doing much printing I would recommend just a monitor profiler and the Smile should work for you. Are you already using the printer manufacturer's stock ICC profiles? There are people on the web that will create custom printer profiles at a reasonable price.

You might find this link interesting if your prints are coming out too dark or with color shifts. My biggest problem was not getting neutral enough grays in my prints.

http://www.colourprofiles.com/dark.htm

glblanchard

Thanks again. I do use the manufacturer's stock ICC profiles, and they get me in the ballpark, but not perfect.