Calibrating my monitor.

[ignatiusjk]

I have a HP 2009m monitor and a Epson 3800 printer and I need to calibrate the two.What's the easiest way to do it? I've never calibrated a monitor before so I need to keep it simple. Where do I start?

[Larry Gebhardt]

You should get a color calibration device for the monitor. There are many of them out there. I'm not up on which is best any more. I use the one that came with my NEC monitor, which I think is the same as an i1 Display Pro. It works very well. I also have one of the original eye-one i1 Displays that worked well for me (it's for sale - PM me if you wish to buy it).

You can probably get by with using the printer profiles from the paper manufacturers. I've made profiles, and when comparing them to the factory profiles from Epson and Canson found very little difference with the 3880. With the Epson 2200 making your own profile was much more important since the printers had more variation between them.

[Preston]

Larry's suggestions are right on. I use the NEC-branded sensor and Spectraview for my NEC monitor. Note that this colorimeter and software is not compatible with your HP monitor. Take a look here (http://www.xrite.com/i1basic-pro-2) for some info on the latest from X-Rite regarding the i1 Basic Pro-2.

Try the printer profiles from the paper manufacturers for your specific paper(s). These profiles are getting better, so it's worth a look-see. If they don't work for you, you can have a someone make a profile for you.

--P

[Peter De Smidt]

If your monitor had a related profile device, such as the Eizo or NEC monitor, then you should use those. But since you don't have that, then a datacolor Spyder 4 would be a good choice for calibrating your monitor. I've used their products for years, and they've worked really well, including the software. If you look at reviews of other profiling options, you often run into complaints about buggy software. For your printer, it depends a lot on what you're doing. Are you using manufacture inks? Do the paper you use have good profiles? If "no" is the answer to those questions, then you would benefit from something like a printfixpro profiling device.