ColorMunki, or what?

[JSR]

Does anyone here make their own printer profiles?

I've been fortunate to use a ColorMunki this week and it's been a serious case of "wow".

Thinking of getting one for myself now, but I just wondered what others use.

Thanks for any feedback.

[Ian]

Re: ColorMunki, or what?

It's pretty much essential to use custom profiles for fine art papers, either supplied by the paper supplier, or DIY ones. I use an i1 Pro spectrophotometer, which is getting on a bit, but still does the job.

I don't find I need to make custom profiles for Epson papers and Epson printers, but I often find that home made profiles for other printers, especially some HP printers, improves print quality remarkably.

Ian

[Patrick]

Re: ColorMunki, or what?

Does anyone here make their own printer profiles?

I've been fortunate to use a ColorMunki this week and it's been a serious case of "wow".

Thinking of getting one for myself now, but I just wondered what others use.

Thanks for any feedback.

I use the Spyder Print Fix Pro with great success, in fact just returned from a friend having written 3 profiles.
The club has a ColorMunki to hire out to members, I have tried it and was well impressed. I would probably buy one if I were in the market for a new profiler. The results were much the same as the Spyder Print Fix but the Colormunki is very much easier to use. One small down side unlike the Print Fix a profile cannot be modified after it is written, or at least I couldn't find away.
I was impressed by the fact its possible to profile a monitor as well as a printer with the same piece of kit.

Patrick

[JSR]

Re: ColorMunki, or what?

Thanks for the quick replies.

I do have a Spyder 2 for my monitor, but I've always been dissatisfied with what comes out of my printers. I use dye-sublimation ink, so I've always been at the mercy of the ink manufacturer until this week.

I'm just looking out for affordable options.

One small down side unlike the Print Fix a profile cannot be modified after it is written, or at least I couldn't find away.

As an aside, you can "optimise" a profile with the ColorMunki. You load up the original profile, then load up an image, and the software works out an optimised colour chart which you print and scan back in for a better profile.

I've tried it on an image that was mostly red with greyscale and I didn't see a huge improvement with the "optimisation" - but that's probably because the original profile it made did such a great job anyway.

[Patrick]

Re: ColorMunki, or what?

Thanks for the quick replies.

I do have a Spyder 2 for my monitor, but I've always been dissatisfied with what comes out of my printers. I use dye-sublimation ink, so I've always been at the mercy of the ink manufacturer until this week.

I'm just looking out for affordable options.


As an aside, you can "optimise" a profile with the ColorMunki. You load up the original profile, then load up an image, and the software works out an optimised colour chart which you print and scan back in for a better profile.

I've tried it on an image that was mostly red with greyscale and I didn't see a huge improvement with the "optimisation" - but that's probably because the original profile it made did such a great job anyway.

First I perhaps wasn't clear I have the Spyder Kit, There is the Spyder for the Monitor and then the other unit the spectrometer I think its called that reads the printed target to make the profile for paper/Ink combination.

As to the ColorMonki I know the optimization you are talking of, I didn't see any benefit either, but then the profile was damned good in the first place. The Spyder system allows you to manually modify any part of the profile any way you feel is correct or the produce specific profiles for particular types of image. For example a warm profile for healthy looking skin tones.

As I said earlier if I was going out tomorrow to by a kit its the Colormunki I would choose, not because its any better than the spyder they both do a first class job, but because its so much easier less fiddly and quicker than Spyder.

Patrick

[JSR]

Re: ColorMunki, or what?

As I said earlier if I was going out tomorrow to by a kit its the Colormunki I would choose, not because its any better than the spyder they both do a first class job, but because its so much easier less fiddly and quicker than Spyder.

That's a great recommendation, thank-you.

It'll be a little while before I have the funds to get a ColorMunki but I haven't yet heard a bad word about it, which is very promising. My own experience is just over a few days, of course.

Thanks again for your replies.