Colour Management

The process where colour is maintained and controlled on digital devices from input, (cameras and scanners), to screen, and then to output, (printers).

Calibrating your computer monitor to a known standard is the first place to start. As a viewing device it is the only way you can tell whether the images from your camera are colour accurate and if not, it provides the means to correct them accurately. You will need a monitor calibrator to do this procedure. Once your monitor is sorted you can move onto making icc profiles for your camera and printer or use manufactures icc profiles.

Best Monitor and Calibrator Package

For Image professionals there are only two brands of monitor up to the task. They are the top of the line NEC and Eizo monitors.

At Prolab we use NEC monitors with the Spectraview direct hardware calibration software. The direct hardware software is a must with these monitors and it makes calibrating your monitor easy for those new to the world of colour management.

Presently I think NEC offers the best value in price and quality. If I were to purchase a new NEC monitor today I would look at the PA241w 24Inch with the Spectraview software which will set you back around $2100.00.

The Spectraview software has drivers for all the popular monitor calibrators. All you have to do is plug the calibrator in and off you go. However some of these calibrators can't calibrate wide gamut monitors properly.  The calibrators that will work best are the Eye 1 Pro, Colour Munki and the custom NEC colourimeter (a recalibrated Eye one display 2 for NEC wide gamut monitors).  The NEC calibrator is the cheapest and best option to go for if you only need to calibrate your monitor. But for some reason you cannot buy it in Australia. You can however, get one online from B&H in New York for $200 + postage.

With these three items ( NEC Monitor, Spectraview software and NEC custom monitor calibrator) colour should never be a problem again.

For further information regarding the calibration of NEC monitor with Spectraview software, please call 08 8333 2166 or email prolabim@bipond.net.au

X-Rite introduces new I1 Display Pro

This little tool has just come onto the market and has been designed to calibrate all modern displays and projectors including LED and wide gamut LCDs. Wide gamut monitor have been a problem to calibrate with most of the calibrators on the market, with the exception of the rather expensive I1 Pro Spectrometer, middle of the range Colour Munki, and the NEC custom calibrator, (for NEC monitors only and not available in Australia), all made by X-rite.

This tool looks like it will be available locally for around $320 and is a must have if you want to purchase a wide gamut monitor in the future and don't own the other three devices mentioned in this article. It should be supported by Spectraview software and the Eizo equivalent software in the future as well.

We only use x-rite products at Prolab Imaging. They are just the best at colour measurement.