I have a 3-year old Dell LCD screen. The reason I mention that is it's got a 72% gamut unlike the new units.
What device would you recommend for calibrating this unit? The biggest gripe I have is that I can see shadow detail on the screen, but my Epson 4000 spits it out as mud on luster paper.
Get the best calibration device you can afford, despite the state of your current monitor. You calibration device should be usable for a long time. You won't want to buy a new calibration tool when your replace your monitor.
But even after you calibrate your monitor, you will still find that you have some muddy shadows. The best way to deal with this is to print a step wedge chart on your printer/paper combination and see where your printer is capable of [printing shadow detail. In Photoshop create a series of blocks. Fill block with with a an RGB value of 1,1,1. Fill block 2 with a value of 2,2,2,...
After printing the step wedge, look to see where you can differentiate the tone between 2 adjacent blocks. On my Epson 4800 this usually shappens between block 8 & 9 (depending on the paper).
Now that you know what you printer/paper combination is capable of, us that information when you print. In Photoshop, using Levels, set the output value for the shadows to the value determined above (in my case I set this to 8). If you do not do this then you can expect all shadow detail with an RGB value than you printer/paper threshold to be the same value of black and therefore will lack detail.
How about the Eye-One Display 2? It's currently $200. Do you I need to get something more advanced, is this overkill, or just about right?
That's what I use. It is well regarded. I have not followed this market for a couple of years, so I don't know what other competitors have popped up. But it used to be the device all others were compared to, so I think if that fits your budget then it would be a good choice.
The i1 Display 2 is still the best unit available. They are easy to use and inexpensive.
I have used products from Gretag (now Xrite) for many many years.
They are well made and usually outlast the competition. I have had my spectrolino for 10+ years and it still works perfectly.
new monitor and device technology are changing the situation by the week.
More info here-
http://www.on-sight.com/2008/12/08/u...tion-packages/
This very subject is being tossed about by the mensa dudes on the color sync list this very day...
Tyler
i assume people are aware that there are a number of LCD monitors out there today that can do 95 to 100% of the adobe RGB color space on screen. size, contrast, res, and gamut are in interesting specification space to optimize for individual needs
Tyler, can you tell me where the color sync is to be found?
here you go, a contentious bunch to be sure-
http://lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/colorsync-users
by the way, on all these lists you will find strong opinions about product lines, some to be trusted more than others. Hidden agendas abound...
Our list here is a wonderfully trustworthy bunch, one reason I'm here more these days, enjoying this company.
Tyler
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