calibration photometer for lcd monitors pricelist

The LCD sensor analyzes color contrast and brightness in no time and with the highest accuracy. It also automates ambient light measurements in combination with Barco’s QAWeb for DIN 6868-157 software version. The optical system supports displays with all current and emerging backlight technologies, including LED.

The colorimeter’s intuitive and compact design makes it very easy to use with any Barco medical display. The Barco LCD sensor comes with a standard 2-year warranty.

ColorVision"s Spyder 2 Pro product is the one that we eventually settled on for in-house use here at Imaging Resource. It consistently did a good job calibrating the monitors we tried it with, seemed less prone to getting lost in the weeds with difficult-to-calibrate monitors, and also provides a good capability for matching multiple monitors to a common standard. No product is ever perfect, but we found the Spyder2PRO to be better than most and it offers a flexibility found in few other monitor calibration solutions. (It"s worth noting though, that we found it almost impossible to precisely match CRTs to LCDs with any of the solutions we tried, and the Spyder2PRO ran with the rest of the pack in that respect.)

Our "reviews" of monitor calibration systems aren"t reviews in quite the same sense that our camera reviews are. This is because, by their nature, we have no objective, absolute way to evaluate the quality of the calibrations the calibrators generate. All we can do is make subjective comparisons between how the screens look. While that has a little value, we"re more than a bit leery of advising our readers based on purely subjective data. We"ll make some references to calibration quality at the end of each review, but suggest that you take these comments with a large grain of salt. Unless we say that a calibrator is just out-and-out unsuitable, we recommend that you base your purchase decisions more on the features you need, what you can discern about ease of use from our write-ups, and on price.

ProfilingWith the display producing smooth tones and neutral greys, the software can create a color profile describing the display"s color characteristics. Programs like Adobe Photoshop can use display profiles to compensate for the known quirks of a display device, and insure accurate color rendering.

The review below goes into quite a lot of detail on the calibration process, and our observations about it. Reading all that, you might come to the conclusion that monitor calibration is a long, involved process. Nothing could be further from the truth, it"s actually quite straightforward, and takes only about 10 minutes for a full calibration. We hope to bring you a video soon, showing the process so you can see how easy it is.

When calibrating a CRT screen, the Spyder2PRO is just stuck to the screen face via its attached suction cups. For LCD monitors, a baffle/filter assembly is attached to the front of the device. This presents soft felt pads to the face of the LCD, rather than suction cups, and the filter helps the sensor measure the colors from LCD panels more accurately. The photo above shows the underside of the sensor, with the LCD baffle/filter next to it.

One of the the Spyder2PRO"s must-have features for us was that it can calibrate multiple monitors connected to the same computer. Some lower-end calibrators can only handle single monitor per computer, the one carrying the menu bar on a Mac, or the one with the Start menu on it in Windows. No such worries with the Spyder2PRO. (Note though, that under Windows, you must have a separate video card for each monitor you want to calibrate. While they support multiple monitors, dual-head video cards generally won"t let you associate a separate profile with each monitor.)

If the selected monitor was previously calibrated with the Spyder2PRO, the software will display the last settings used, the date of calibration, the name of the profile, and the settings for Gamma, white point color temperature, Luminance Mode (more on this later), and the targeted Black and White Luminance values. It will also show whether you performed a Grey Balanced calibration or not, and whether you have the Ambient Light Compensation enabled. (More on these later as well.)

You can choose whether to continue with the previous settings, or to change them first. If you"re just doing your weekly/monthly/whatever recalibration check, you"d leave these settings the same. For the sake of illustration here though, we"ll suppose that we want to change the settings, so we can step through all the option screens.

Different display types have different adjustment options, and also place different demands on the calibration software. This screen is where you tell the software what type of display you"re working with. (Note that the Spyder2PRO can handle projectors, as well as LCDs and CRTs.)

Note that calibrating LCDs is one area that really separates the different calibration systems from each other. Thanks to years of standardization, the phosphor colors used in CRT monitors are quite consistent from manufacturer to manufacturer. (There are a small number of different "standard" phosphor sets used, but within a given phosphor type, the color spectra tend to be very consistent.) For whatever reason, the color sets of LCDs were never standardized to the same degree. This means that accurate color calibration of LCDs requires much more detailed measurements of the color spectra of the red, green, and blue pixels. Low-end calibrators have only three sensors (red, green, and blue), and so are less able to measure and characterize subtle color differences between different LCD panels. The Spyder2PRO uses a 7-channel "spectrocolorimeter" that measures display performance in seven different color bands. This greatly improves its accuracy when calibrating LCD displays.

The Grey Balanced Calibration checkbox is really only relevant for calibrating projectors, as some projectors will yield better results if you have this turned off. For LCDs and CRTs though, you"ll definitely want this enabled to provide the most accurate and color-neutral greyscale.

This screen basically tells the software what you want your monitor calibrated to. A number of presets are available, but if you"re like the vast majority of users, the "2.2-6500" preset is the one you"ll want to use. These are the gamma and white point values for the sRGB color standard. (Note: Don"t use the "sRGB" preset though, as that preset limits white luminance (brightness) to only 80 cd/m2, which would give you a rather dim screen.)

Real expert users can elect to create their own target setup, varying the gamma, tone curve (you can even edit the tone curves manually for each color channel, which might be helpful in matching the display to the characteristics of a non-color-managed photographic output device), white point (in either degrees Kelvin or actual CIE color coordinates), enable ambient light compensation, select luminance modes (measured or visual) and plug in specific values for white and black luminance if you"re using measured mode.

Since we"re going to be calibrating to a white point of 6500 Kelvin (a pretty good approximation of mid-day sunlight), you"ll want to check and see if your monitor has any controls that might affect white point. Many monitors have a range of preset white point options available in their menus. If this is the case with your display, look for a setting that says 6500 Kelvin, as that"ll at least get the monitor somewhere close to where you want it to end up. With smaller changes for the calibrator to make, you"ll be that much more likely to get nice, smooth tonal rendition from the calibrated monitor.

This is a feature that seems to be sweeping the monitor calibration world of late, but it"s one I don"t personally favor. The idea is to have the Spyder"s sensor look at the ambient light in the room, after which the software will make recommendations for how to change your target settings so the display will look right to your eyes, given all the light bouncing around the room. I guess that"s OK if you have no options available for controlling the light levels in your work area, but if you"re doing critical color work, it"s crazy not to try to control the ambient lighting. Ideally, you want lighting that"s on the dim side of normal relative to typical office illumination, and that approximates the 6500 Kelvin of your monitor screen. That will help you see the full tonal range of the images, and avoid having your color perception skewed by an overall color cast in the room lighting. My strong advice is to leave the Ambient Light Compensation option disabled, and to just make sure that you have a reasonable light level in your workplace.

Your options here are Measured or Visual. If you"re concerned about matching multiple monitors to each other, you"ll want to use Measured, as it lets you set the black and white brightness levels of all your displays to the same values. If you"re just working with a single screen, select Visual, as this will let you crank up the brightness of your display to whatever it"s capable of (or whatever is reasonable for your working environment, see the sidebar above right).

(Sorry, I missed grabbing a screenshot for this one.) If you"re matching multiple monitors, this is where you"d plug in the white and black luminance values you"re aiming for. In this case, we"ll leave them blank, since I"m not going to actually go into the details of multiple-monitor matching in this overview.

Here, the goal is to set the white luminance (overall brightness) to the highest level at which you can still see four white squares below the numbers. My Cinema Display tends to wash out the brightest highlights, regardless of the backlight setting, so there are only three distinct white levels visible on it at this stage anyway. I therefore just set the brightness to a level that"s comfortable for my office environment. (Actually, I set it to a level that"s comfortable, but that also can be matched by the old CRT that"s the middle of my three displays.) If we were actually going through the full multi-monitor calibration workflow, this would just be a coarse adjustment that would be refined later through actual measurements by the Spyder2. If you"re not matching specific luminance levels with other displays though, this is the last point at which you"ll actually adjust the luminance.

It"s important to note that ColorVision recommends leaving your display"s controls at the manufacturer"s default settings unless you need to correct an obvious problem. I"ve found this doubly true with LCD panels: At least with lower-end screens, if I fiddle too much with the controls at this stage of the calibration process, the display can end up operating so far from its nominal condition that it can be very hard to establish a good calibration for it.

Since suction cups won"t work on most LCD screens, the Spyder2 needs some other means of holding the sensor at the right position on the screen. Like a number of other calibrators, the Spyder2 comes with a small counterweight attached to its cable. On the Spyder, this weight is permanently attached, surrounding the cable, and slides up and down with moderate force. (I"d strongly recommend grabbing the cable next to the weight when you"re sliding it, so as to not put excess force on the cable"s attachment to the sensor puck or USB connector.) I liked this arrangement better than ones where the weight can be removed, as I found those harder to slide without pulling the weight loose. (This way, the weight will never get lost, either.)

Alright, we"re ready to calibrate! As noted above, if you"re calibrating an LCD, make sure the LCD filter is attached to the sensor head, drape the weight down the back of the screen, and position the sensor head on the screen where indicated. A useful tip: Tilt your LCD screen so it"s angled back at the top a little bit. This will help ensure good contact between the sensor and the face of the display.

For CRTs, you"ll use the sensor head without the LCD baffle, and just stick its suction cups to the screen face. You"ll want to make sure that they"re clean, as any dust on the suction cups can cause them to lose their grip in the middle of the calibration sequence. Unlike some other devices we tested though, the Spyder"s suction cups hold well if they"re even moderately clean.

16) Reading black and white points, multiple color swatches.The software will now start the calibration process, beginning with measurement of the black and white points, followed by a series of color swatches across the full range of brightness levels.

I"m actually calibrating an LCD that has no color controls, but the photo above shows you the screen you"ll get if you tell the Spyder2 that your display has separate R, G, and B adjustments. On most LCDs, you"ll do best to avoid these, but on high-end LCD monitors and CRTs, the RGB adjustments shown here let you set the white point very precisely, leaving less work for the calibrator to do, which generally results in a better profile.

It probably goes without saying, but for the calibration to remain valid, you need to leave the display controls at their current settings. DON"T use other apps like Adobe Gamma to fiddle with the video card settings, as that will invalidate the calibration you just did. Repeat calibrations periodically, to insure that your displays are always accurate. There"s some debate about how frequently you should recalibrate. Some obsessive types insist on recalibrating every day, other people go months between calibrations. The most effective approach is probably somewhere between these extremes, perhaps once/week for CRT displays, once/month for LCDs.

As noted at the outset, the ColorVision Spyder2PRO is the calibration solution that we settled on for use here at Imaging Resource after looking at a wide variety of solutions. We found that it did an excellent job of calibrating our monitors, handled multiple screens well, allowed us to calibrate multiple monitors on the same computer to a common standard, and seemed somewhat less prone to generating "wacky" calibrations when faced with difficult monitors. (Particularly with lower-end LCDs, some systems we tested would occasionally produce obviously wild-looking results with a given monitor, but then come back and generate a decent-looking calibration on the next run.) We also found the Spyder2PRO to be the most consistent from run to run, when we performed multiple calibrations on the same monitor. This gave us greater confidence in the accuracy of its calibrations. Bottom line, the ColorVision Spyder2PRO is a convenient, flexible and consistent system for display calibration, a solid answer for monitor calibration.

Imaging Resource has set up a deal for our readers with ColorVision, letting you buy a ColorVision Spyder2PRO at reduced prices. Your purchases through this link help support this site.

If you can afford it, the ColorVision Spyder2PRO gives the most flexibility and bang for the buck, and is what we use here. If you only use a single monitor, and don"t expect to add a second (or third), the Spyder2 Suite would be a good choice. The Spyder2 Express is very inexpensive, but we frankly think that most of our readers would be happier with at least the Suite version.

Of course, if you"re content with the limitations of the Spyder2 Express, we certainly won"t stand in your way. Here are PriceGrabber shopping links for the Spyder2 Express and Spyder2 Suite. Even the Spyder2 Express will be immeasurably better than trying to work with an uncalibrated monitor!

The Calibrite ColorChecker Display is an excellent device, either for new users who are looking into getting their monitors calibrated for the first time or seasoned color management nerds. It offers the same sensor as the more expensive Calibrite ColorChecker Display Pro model, but with capped measurement speed and simpler software.

Calibrate is a spin off company created to market X-Rite solutions for the photo, video and content creation markets. X-Rite still handles all the product development and core technologies, while the new company will be responsive for distribution and marketing of those product lines.

During this transition, keep in mind that some good deals can be had on the remaining stock of X-Rite branded colorimeters. I"ll link the latest Amazon prices for both versions below.

Be it photography, video production, illustration or design, having access to a color accurate monitor can improve the quality of your work and help you to deliver more professional results for clients.

When I worked with print design, 20 years ago, having access to a calibrated monitor was one of the factors that allowed me to prepare print-ready files and bypass the prepress bureau on the local offset printing company. That meant better prices, faster turnaround for clients and more profit for me.

Arguably, purchasing a monitor calibration tool is a worthwhile investment even for general computer usage. Think of it as a relatively inexpensive monitor upgrade that can extract the most quality from your existing display, or get close color response between two different monitors.

Based on my tests, modern monitors drift very little over time, so it’s safe to rent a colorimeter or maybe even share the cost of one among a group of friends.

Instead of just spreading magical marketing fairy dust into the world, our focus here is to explore who is this product for and set realistic expectations on what to expect from it and color management in general.

The Calibrite ColorChecker Display is an excellent device, either for new users who are looking into getting their monitors calibrated for the first time or seasoned color management nerds thanks to the excellent support from DisplayCAL, a free and open source monitor calibration software with very advanced capabilities.

Compared to the more popular and similarly priced Datacolor SpyderX Pro, the Calibrite ColorChecker Display has better third-party support in DisplayCAL and offers slightly better sensor quality, specially when measuring dark tones. Both are pretty close in terms of quality, but I"d still pick the Calibrite ColorChecker Display for those reasons.

The Calibrite ColorChecker Display is a color measurement device called colorimeter. It can precisely measure colors on monitors and projectors and compare them to a known value. The difference between measured color and original is used to create a color profile describing how that particular monitor behaves.

In a nutshell, a color profile can be used in all color managed apps and operating systems to compensate for the monitor response and deliver accurate color. That includes MacOS, Windows 10, Lightroom, Photoshop, Adobe Creative Suite apps, most web browsers, video editing programs, etc.

Keep in mind that this device can measure and calibrate only monitors and projectors, but not printers. Check out the Calibrite ColorChecker Studio / X-Rite i1Studio (without Display in the name) model instead if you"re doing your own fine art printing or delivering design proofs.

Calibrating your display alone goes a long way towards getting a good match between printer and screen, specially with how good canned manufacturer profiles for most high-end printers are nowadays.

X-Rite and Datacolor are the two main companies selling affordable color measurement devices for the amateur and prosumer market. Both seem to make an effort to name their product lineup in the most confusing way possible.

Calibrite ColorChecker Display uses the ccStudio software and is their entry level monitor calibration tool. Colorimeter. Monitor and projector calibration only. Previously called i1Display Studio and Colormunki Display.

Calibrite ColorChecker Display Plus is very similar in terms of hardware and uses the same ccProfiler software, but has slightly better measurement performance for darker tones and can calibrate HDR displays up to 2000 nits of max brightness. Colorimeter. Monitor and projector calibration only.

Calibrite ColorChecker Studio is an entry level spectrophotometer capable of calibrating printers, monitors, projectors and scanners (with an optional target). It"s less accurate than an i1Display for monitor calibration, though, specially on darker tones. Previously called i1Studio and Colormunki Photo.

Printer calibration works very well with this unit and it can also be paired with Argyll CMS for more demanding printer calibration workflows, at the expense of ease of use.

X-Rite i1Photo Pro 3 is a professional monitor and printer calibration solution based on the i1Pro 3 spectrophotometer. Uses the i1Profiler software for both monitor and printer calibration.

There"s also an X-Rite i1Photo Pro 3 Plus model with an improved spectrophotometer and additional packages for CMYK+ printer profiling and other professional uses.

The lower priced Studio model has a simplified software package. It"s designed to guide new users, step by step, trough the calibration process and hide most of the complexity behind it.

There are fewer target options available, but all the most popular settings for photography, print, video and general computer usage are well covered.

The only real hardware difference between Studio and Pro models is measurement speed. The Studio version is artificially capped in firmware to half the measurement speed offered by its more expensive siblings. Pro models can do a full calibration in about 3 minutes, while the Studio takes close to 6 minutes using the same number of measurements.

Something to keep in mind is that only the Pro models are licensed by Calibrite to work on third-party applications, such as those used with high-end displays for true hardware calibration.

If you have a high-end display from NEC, BenQ, Dell, Eizo or Asus ProArt, make sure to check the compatibility list for their respective software before purchasing this unit.

Datacolor SpyderX is the most popular product for monitor calibration and judging by the number of Amazon reviews it clearly dominates the mindshare for this market.

SpyderX Elite can also calibrate digital projectors and offers additional tools to check the quality of your display, more advanced calibration targets for video standards and tools to help match multiple displays in a studio environment. Same hardware and profile quality as the less expensive Pro model.

Datacolor still sells the SpyderPRINT model for printer calibration. It"s offered standalone or bundled in the SpyderX Studio package. Don"t waste your money. It"s an old product that does a bad job at printer calibration and is much inferior to the similarly priced ColorChecker Studio. I had one years ago.

When I reviewed the Datacolor SpyderX Pro I compared it to a Toyota Corolla, so maybe the ColorChecker Display is, errrr... a Honda Civic... Both are predictable and dependable, if not a bit boring, which are excellent qualities to have on a monitor calibration device.

The base model uses a smaller 118 patch set for calibration, while the Pro models can choose from 118 to 461 patches using the included ccProfiler software.

All the monitors used in my tests are reasonably well behaved and were set up the best way possible. This means that the correction matrices generated in the form of each profile are smoother. In comparison, a bad quality display would require steeper correction in order to conform to the calibration target.

The simplified user interface on the ccStudio software does a great job of reducing the complexity for new users while still offering access to the most common calibration settings for most use cases.

It has presets for video (DCI P3, Rec.709, NTSC, PAL SECAM and Rec.2020, each with preset target luminance and gamma curves) and Photo (D65 / 6500K, 120cd/m2 and 2.2 gamma).

There are options for generic, CCFL (fluorescent), Wide Gamut CCFL, White LED (most newer displays, including Apple MacBooks and iMac), RGB LED, OLED, Plasma, BG-LED, Projector and PFS Phosphor.

Colorimeters, like the Calibrite ColorChecker devices or the Datacolor SpyderX models, need to be corrected in software for each different type of backlight in order to be able to measure accurate color values.

While the ColorChecker Display correctly identified all the five different monitors I tried, it"s important to know that this detection process is not perfect. Always check the spec sheet of your monitor to know what kind of backlight it has and also the expected color gamut. That will be important in order to verify the resulting profile later on.

One of the reasons I recommend the ColorChecker Display is the fact that it can be updated to new display types in software, unlike the SpyderX Pro which have those corrections baked in firmware. It also comes with support for more monitor types out of the box. The SpyderX doesn"t support OLED displays, for example.

That opens up a world of possibilities for the color nerds like myself. For example, with DisplayCAL it is possible to create 100% custom monitor corrections for each monitor model using a spectrophotometer. And those corrections can be shared with or downloaded from other users with the same display.

My main display is a Dell 30" wide gamut using a CCFL backlight and for that specific case there was no benefit with a custom correction using an ColorChecker Studio / i1Studio spectrophotometer compared to the built in preset.

More importantly, being able to update those correction matrices contributes for the device longevity. I"ve been using an X-Rite i1Display Pro for over 9 years now and several new types of backlight were introduced by the manufacturer in that period.

First and more importantly, be aware that a $150 colorimeter is made to a price point and there is some unit to unit variance. This is true for all models under USD 500.

I only have one unit to test here, but Dry Creek Photo tested 13 units and found a max dE variance of 1.6. ChromaPure, a company that develops video calibration software, compared 15 units with several types of display and found larger differences for some backlight types.

Using DisplayCAL instead of the included software showed the same results. To confirm my findings, I fired a white point measurement using a ColorChecker Studio spectrophotometer. Despite the similar name, that is a different type of device, a spectrophotometer that can calibrate monitors and also printers.

The spectrophotometer is less susceptible to white balance errors due to the way it measures colors. Spectrophotometers measure the whole color spectrum instead of using color filters that match how our eyes see color. Think of it as absolute color vs. relative color. X-Rite has a good article about this topic.

Scientifically I cannot state that any of those devices is perfect and should be used as a reference, not even the spectro. But anecdotally I can attest that my i1Display Pro unit and the ColorChecker Studio spectrophotometer agreed exactly, while the Datacolor SpyderX was very close and the i1Display Studio subject of this review was the most distant from the correct white point.

And also keep in mind that this unit to unit variance is also present on all other similarly priced monitor calibration tools, be it from X-Rite or a Datacolor SpyderX.

As much as a like fiddling around with my calibrators, that"s a big selling point for some users and something that can easily justify the extra investment on the Pro model or choosing a SpyderX Pro instead.

ColorChecker Display with the included ccStudio software took 5 minutes and 20 seconds to perform a full calibration using 118 patches, which is the only option available.

The same number of patches with a ColorChecker Display Pro took just 2 minutes and 55 seconds. If we switch to the more comprehensive 461 patches, the Pro model took 12 minutes and 6 seconds for the whole process.

The SpyderX Pro is in a totally different league in terms of speed, taking just 1 minute and 12 seconds to generate a full profile from zero. Speed is a usability factor and the faster the process, the more inclined users will be to perform it more often and keep their monitors calibrated.

On the other hand, the faster and simpler strategy used by the SpyderX for profiling resulted in profiles with a little more banding than the X-Rite products. That is a symptom of too few points used on the calculation.

It provides much more advanced and flexible options than the bundled software and can be used in a variety of use cases from the most common calibration targets to complex video 3D LUTs or calibration targets specific for video and color grading. The possibilities are almost endless.

This also contributes for the longevity of this device. The hardware itself is proven and seems to age gracefully, with little deviation after years of use.

Generally speaking, the limitation is in the software itself and for how long the manufacturer is going to provide updates or add corrections for new types of displays.

With open source, like DisplayCAL and the underlying Argyll CMS library, we can safely say that this device will be well supported and useful for a long time, instead of becoming e-waste.

The only limitation is calibration speed. The less expensive Studio model takes double the time to measure and generate the same profile, no matter the software used.

It"s also super fast, taking just 1 minute and 12 seconds for a full calibration in my tests, while the Calibrite ColorChecker Display takes 5 minutes and 20 seconds for the same process.

On the other hand, the ColorChecker Display still has an edge in terms of profile quality. Compared directly, it shows better shadow detail and less noticeable banding in all monitors I tested.

Another advantage of the X-Rite model is having support for more types of monitors and being upgradeable in software for new types of backlights. The SpyderX has those corrections baked in firmware and so far no updates were released for it.

For those reasons, the Calibrite ColorChecker Display is usually a better purchase for most users, with the exception of use cases that require faster measurement speed, like agencies and large studios with dozens of displays.

If you find a good deal on a SpyderX Pro, go for it. Here in Brazil, for example, we can usually find it for 30% less than an ColorChecker Display and the real world difference in quality between both devices is small.

I wouldn"t hesitate using a SpyderX for professional work, specially if paired with DisplayCAL. Just be aware of the differences and make an informed decision.

Actual sensor quality is the same, but the extra features sometimes can make a difference in the end result, as the Pro model can user larger patch sets for potentially better profiles in monitors that stray further from the calibration target.

Having access to the more feature rich ccProfiler software in the Pro model also opens up new calibration targets, like extra video standards and less common gamma curves.

If you have a higher end monitor with true hardware calibration capabilities, keep in mind that the Studio version is not compatible with any of the OEM software packages from Dell, BenQ, NEC, Eizo, etc.

Generally speaking, the ColorChecker Display Pro is compatible with all those programs, but always make sure to check the updated compatibility lists before purchasing a calibrator, if your monitor offers true hardware calibration.

As for the Calibrite ColorChecker Display Plus model, it has a revised sensor with better measurement performance in darker tones and the ability to profile HDR monitors with a higher maximum brightness up to 2000 nits or cd/m2. This ability can be important for videographer or colorists running a HDR workflow, or users with OLED monitors that can achieve lower black levels.

The Calibrite ColorChecker Studio model, without the "Display" in the name, is a spectrophotometer that can also calibrate printers. It uses the same ccStudio software but unlocks the printer profiling section in it. Formerly known as i1Studio and Colormunki Photo.

For monitor calibration, the ColorChecker Studio spectrophotometer has some difficulty measuring darker tones and generally speaking will deliver worse calibration quality compared to the i1Display model.

It has an inherent advantage of being a spectrophotometer, which is being able to measure any type of monitor backlight without needing a correction matrix. You can read more about colorimeters vs. spectrophotometers here.

For printer profiling, it works surprisingly well. It"s a very simple process and can deliver a printer profile 80% as good as a professional-grade equipment in most cases. It certainly did the job with a few printers I have here, including an Epson 3800 that is suitable for fine art reproductions.

One key advantage the ColorChecker Display / i1Studio spectrophotometer has is full compatibility with Argyll CMS. This open source package can be used for the most demanding calibration cases and opens up a world of possibilities even with a lower priced equipment like the i1Studio spectro. But keep in mind that it"s a command line only package and there"s a steep learning curve involved.

Also consider that printer profiling isn"t always necessary. Most current fine art inkjet printers come with very good canned profiles for the most common types of papers and usually drift little over time.

The Calibrite ColorChecker Display offers excellent value and is the best monitor calibration tool available in the $150 range, specially if paired with DisplayCAL.

Degradation over time is not an issue with this hardware. User Czornyj on the Luminous Landscape forum tested 7 units manufactured from 2011 to 2017 and found very little variance, all under 1.5 dE.

Great third-party support from DisplayCAL and software upgradeable correction matrices for newer display types are an insurance against programmed obsolescence.

No monitor calibration device can save a bad display. TN or VA panels are not really suitable for color accurate work due to color shifts depending on the view angle.

Video editors or colorists using HDR monitors would be better served by the ColorChecker Display Plus model, which can handle measurements over 1000 nits in brightness. This can be an important factor in terms of product life expectancy as those displays get more popular over time.

My main calibration device is an X-Rite i1Display Pro model purchased in 2012 and it still works flawlessly almost 10 years after. I bet true HDR monitors will be very popular by 2030 and the extra $150 for a ColorChecker Display Plus model can be a wise investment if you"re a pro video user.

Finally, if speed matters, the Pro model can save 3 minutes by calibration while the Datacolor SpyderX Pro is even faster, performing the complete process in just over 1 minute. This difference can add up quickly in a studio environment.

In SpectraView, de-select the "Calibration On" checkbox. You can also check your user manual for directions to unlock the controls without using SpectraView.

The SVII-KIT has been discontinued as of February 2009 and has been replaced with the SVII-PRO-KIT. All LCD3090W-BK-SV (LCD3090WQXi SpectraView bundle), LCD2490W2-BK-SV (LCD2490WUXi2 SpectraView bundle), LCD2690W2-BK-SV (LCD2690WUXi2 SpectraView bundle), P221W-BK-SV (P221W SpectraView bundle) include the new SVII-PRO-KIT with the new MDSVSENSOR2. Other bundle models created before February 2009 may include the SVII-KIT, but all bundle models created after this date include the new SVII-PRO-KIT.

The -SV series are the bundles of a display monitor with the SVII-PRO-KIT (color sensor and SpectraViewII software). The naming consists of the monitor model name (LCD2690W2 is an LCD2690WUXi2), followed by "-BK" to indicate the color is black (for models available in colors other than black). Lastly the "-SV" indicates it is the SpectraViewII series bundle.

Yes. Free updates are available for download for customers who have purchased SpectraView. The license key from your original purchase will be required to install and use the software.

Unfortunately no. Before purchasing please be sure to carefully check the latest compatibility information for your system in the README file for the latest version of SpectraView.

For detailed questions regarding SpectraView please use the online feedback form. Support is also available for SpectraView and all other issues by contacting NEC.

The number of letters visible will depend on the calibration settings and viewing environment. In some cases it may be very difficult to make out the "...NTROL", especially with high levels of ambient light.

See the User"s Guide and README file included with the software and on the NEC website for further information about any specific incompatibilities or issues.

2) Confirm that your model of display monitor is supported by SpectraView. See the README file included with the latest version for a complete list of supported models.

Why are the Spyder color sensors not recommended for use with wide color gamut displays such as the LCD2690WUXi, LCD2690WUXi2, LCD3090WQXi, P221W, PA241W, PA271W and PA301W models?

Our evaluation of these devices has determined that the accuracy of measurements when used with wide color gamut displays could lead to large color errors. Therefore we do not recommend using this device on wide color gamut displays.

Spectraview software is specifically designed to work hand in hand with NEC Displays. The software works seamlessly with a compatible display and supported calibrator for color-critical applications, such as photography, video editing, animation and medical imaging. Using our software will ensure you"re getting the most out of your display.

No. The hoods for many models are available as a separate option in the accessories section, or can be purchased from online retailers who sell NEC Professional displays. The part number for the hoods are listed on the corresponding display product page.

Yes. Starting with SpectraView version 1.1.00 all Target files are cross platform between Mac, Windows, and Linux. This means it"s possible to send Target files to other users on different machines.

If you are using analog (VGa or DVI-a) video then this is not recommended because there can be variances between the analog video signal levels on different machines that can impact the calibration.

When used with the SpectraView software, NEC display monitors store all of the necessary color adjustments internally, including the 10- or 12-bit Look Up Tables. The ColorSync utility switches the display color settings by changing the Look Up Tables in the video graphics adapter. The ColorSync profiles generated by SpectraView contain linear Look Up Tables for the video graphics adapter. Because of this, SpectraView must be used to update the display monitor.

No. SpectraView will automatically regenerate the correct ICC/ColorSync profile for the current calibrated Target settings and install it on your system.

No. SpectraView is targeted specifically at providing the best possible color performance and calibration with the supported NEC displays using hardware calibration. Other displays can be profiled but not calibrated in SpectraView.

For Delta-E values of less than 2 there is almost certainly no need to recalibrate. For values higher than 3 it is important to understand what the cause is and whether it"s significant.

The calibration and adjustment process has inherent variability due to many factors such as the repeatability of color sensor measurements, and changes within the display as it is adjusted. The basic accuracy and repeatability specifications for most sensors are +/- 0.002 or higher for CIE xy, and +/- 2% for luminance. These variances alone can give rise to Delta-E values of up to 2 or 3.

When a specific Intensity value is being used for the calibration, the Delta-E value is comprised of the luminance and color differences. Differences in color are much more critical than a difference in relative luminance. Look at the results of the calibration shown in the Information window to determine if the high Delta-E value is caused mainly by a shift in color or in luminance.

High Delta-E values can also occur if a specific Intensity value is being used for the calibration and the display is not capable of achieving the specified Intensity value. The calibration will always aim to achieve the specified White Point, even if the Intensity value could not be reached. If the display can not be calibrated to achieve the specified Intensity value modify the value accordingly.

In some situations, the display Intensity will drift slightly for several minutes after it is adjusted. Since the measured value used to calculate the final Delta-E result is taken up to one or two minutes after the display was adjusted, a higher Delta-E value may be shown, even though the calibration process achieved the specified Target values during the calibration process. Selecting the Extended luminance stabilization time option in the Preferences can be used to try and minimize this effect.

The Delta-E result values shown in SpectraView are higher than those shown in other display calibration applications. Does that mean they are better at calibrating the display than SpectraView?

No. SpectraView calculates the Delta-E values using both the luminance and color differences for more realistic and accurate values. Other applications may calculate Delta-E differently.

After calibration I manually adjusted some of the monitor controls to get a better color match for my particular application. What happens the next time I calibrate the monitor?

The manual adjustments will be reset by the calibration process. We recommend that you avoid manually adjusting the monitor after calibration for this reason.

If you feel it is necessary to tweak the display after calibration, create a new Target file based from the measurements of the display after it has been manually adjusted. Then the monitor will be automatically calibrated to that particular set of characteristics the next time it"s calibrated. Use the Custom White Point tool to measure and set the white point and Intensity values.

These graphs will only show data when the monitor is calibrated to a Target that uses the DICOM response curve. DICOM is normally only used for medical imaging applications.

SpectraView will automatically install the device drivers for the iOne Display color sensor. However it is assumed that if you are using a third-party sensor, then the software that came with it will have already installed the drivers for the device. If you did not install the third-party software then the device drivers will need to be manually installed.

Drivers for all sensors are available on the SpectraViewII CD-ROM or in the \Program Files\Sharp NEC Display Solutions\SpectraViewII\Drivers folder after installing SpectraView (on 64 bit versions of Windows the folder location is \Program Files (x86)\Sharp NEC Display Solutions\SpectraViewII\Drivers).

Yes. The "in the box" video drivers included with Windows 7 do not contain the necessary support for communicating with the display monitor that SpectraView relies on. If you receive a "No communications" error, obtain and install the full drivers directly from the video graphics adapter vendor.

Unfortunately in some cases it may not be possible to calibrate the display directly using SpectraView due to compatibility issues with certain versions of Mac OS or Mac hardware. Such issues are normally out of our control, but we are always working closely with apple to resolve these kinds of issues as soon as possible. In the interim time, the following solutions may be considered:

1) If possible, calibrate the display on another Mac or PC that is supported. Since the display is hardware calibrated it can be moved to another machine and the calibration will remain valid. Be sure to also copy and associate the ColorSync profile of the display.

4) Calibrate using a non-hardware based 3rd party calibration package. Such software may have been included with your color sensor or available from the manufacturer"s website.

I would like to share the calibration results and graphs in SpectraView. Is there an easy way to access this information or make screenshots of the graphs?

Yes. In the "Information" window, right click within any of the tabs and select "Copy." This will either copy the graph as an image, or calibration information as text, into the clipboard. This can then be pasted into other applications.

In general a spectrophotometer provides more accurate color measurements than a "generic" colorimeter does when measuring most displays. However a colorimeter can be specifically calibrated against a lab grade instrument to match a particular type of display, and thus provide extremely accurate color measurements. This approach was taken with the new custom-calibrated X-Rite iOne Display V2 included in the Display Calibration Bundle.

A spectrophotometer can suffer from drift and low luminance noise issues that can cause problems—specifically when measuring and calibrating near black. In general colorimeters provide superior low luminance measurements than spectrophotometer.

The LCD panels used in the SpectraView displays have excellent color linearity characteristics and can be characterized using the much simpler shaper/matrix profiles. accurate 3D LUT profiles require a minimum of around one hundred measurements (and up to several hundred) to generate the necessary data and offer very little advantage despite the large increase in measurement time. additionally there are some compatibility issues with various software applications when using 3D LUT type display profiles.

At this time SpectraViewII is only available for purchase within the US and Canada. In Europe please contact your regional NEC sales office for information on what calibration options are available. In Japan SpectraViewII is sold under the SpectraNavi name.

Yes. The SpectraViewII calibration system is developed by NEC and optionally includes an NEC branded X-Rite iOne Display V2 color sensor. SpectraViewII can be used with any supported display model and is sold both as a complete kit bundled with a display, and as an add-on product.

In Europe SpectraView Profiler includes a display monitor with hood, custom calibration software developed by basICColor, and each display is individually certified. It is not possible to purchase and use the SpectraView Profiler software with a non-SpectraView Profiler display.

The new SVII-PRO-KIT includes the MDSVSENSOR2, an NEC branded X-Rite iOne Display V2 color sensor that is custom calibrated for increased measurement accuracy with our wide color gamut displays such as the LCD2690WUXi, LCD2690WUXi2, LCD3090WQXi, and P221W. It is backward-compatible with standard color gamut displays. The SVII-KIT included an NEC branded X-Rite iOne Display V2 but did not have any custom calibration.

I have two supported NEC display monitors that I would like to use in a dual monitor configuration on one machine. Do I need to buy two SpectraView licenses?

Yes, but it is currently limited to customers with large installations of NEC display monitors. To learn more, please submit a request using the online feedback form.

One of the most important procedures is a monitor calibration when it comes to image editing, watching and processing of digital images and of course for scanning reflective samples and film material. While big printing shops, agencies and pulishers have specialists for colour management and monitor calibration most people and photographers have never used more than pushing the "auto calibration button" or the "brightness/contrast buttons" at their home monitors.

Such simple calibrations which should be named "approximate adjustments" often provide the apparently best possible results but that has nothing to do with a correct representation of original colours on the monitor. And the final printer or photographic laboratory output is not necessarily what it was when shown at the monitor.

This website applies itself in detail to the subject of monitor calibration. It is very important for us to show unexperienced newcomers in the field of digital photography, scanning and image editing the significance of monitor calibration.

I want to start this subject with a typical user problem which always occurs periodically. Since we digitalize a lot of photos for our customers in line with our Scan-Service and also deliver many scanners sold in our Filmscanner-Shop we get a lot of feedback of problems related to a missing monitor calibration. Here some real-life examples:

A customer complains that our scans from his photos are much too dark. But if we look at our monitors the colours are bright enough and look natural. A simple correction of the customers monitor brightness solves this problem and the colours are now displayed correctly. However, the dull adjustment of the monitor was not arbitrary because for those who work with office documents tend to turn down the monitor brightness. We also have experienced a case in which the customers monitor was simply too old in order to display the colours in sufficient brightness. When the images were watched at a friends PC they looked like a dream.

One customer noticed a distinct red cast in all his images. A wrong adjustment in the scan software? No, he was using a two year old monitor which red channel was adjusted too strongly. Unfortunately this monitor did not has the option for a separate colour channel regulation. Only solution: a monitor exchange or a calibration software which detects and compensates the wrong performance of the monitor.

Even worse, if scans or images from camera are edited in that way that they look right and good at the uncalibrated monitor. If watched at another one the images suddenly appear to be brighter, too dull or have a colour fault. In that case you did not optimize the image but incorporated the "not-realised-monitor-calibration" in your picture which often results in a very effective and complete image destruction.

Then many customers complain that a digital image service only delivers images with wrong colours. There the opionions differ in a wide range. While one raves about his digital photos another one swears never to use a the scan service XY again. No question there are image services who do not adjust there machines correctly, but numerous wrong prints are caused by optimizing an image for a special screen which look catastrophic if watched at a calibrated one.

The list of real-life examples can be continued endlessly. Of course there are scanners and digital cameras who make images with colour faults but before making such a statement you should alsways check your own monitor. A lot of problems of newcomers in digital imaging result from wrong monitor adjustments. This problem however can be easily solved with the appropriate utilities and some knowhow seen in the following chapters.

Numerous problems from newcomers in the field of digital imaging are caused by a inaccurate monitor calibration. A well calibrated monitor is a precondition for quality scans, digital images, good image editing and prints.

Many users consider that they can adjust theyr monitor perfectly by comparing some photo samples with the digital versions on the monitor and regulating the colour monitor sliders in the way that they look equally. This procedure might work in some degree but with this method there is no calibration with an objective measurement possible. The human eye is unable to distinguish between minimal adjustments of the colour channels on monitors. If you adjust your screen for an optimal result of displaying a beach image other images taken in half-light could be displayed too dull.

There are test pictures that display selective single colours. However with that kind of pictures an exact calibration is not possible either. You need an objective method to check the displayed colours on the monitor. For that there is an utility necessary called colorimeter. A colorimter is able to measure colours. But that is still not enough. You will also need a colour reference for the measured colour and a software which adjusts the colours. There are several of those toolkits on the market. How these toolkits work will be described in the following.

Step 1: These kind of calibration tools always advise to set the monitor settings back to the manufacturers state. For example a monitor whose brightness slider is nearly at maximum is not capable of giving room for correct colour adjustments.

Step 2: There is no general usable standard adjustment which allows to calibrate all monitors of the world. Two factors determine the degree of calibration: the colour temperature and the gamma value. The colour temmerature determines the warmth-impression of an image (the water of a river can seem warm or cold) and the gamma value determines the brightness of the middle gray tones. There are quasi-standards: colour temperature = 6500K and gamma value = 2.2. In professional photography and image editing there is also often used a colour temperature of 5000K. Simple calibration tools work with those values. Even better tools enable the user to choose from different parameters. Professional tools are capable of working with any user value input desired.

Step 3: Some very good monitors have the option to adjust the colour temperature or the intensity of the colour channels (red, green and blue) directly in the screen menu. With some calibration softwares you can fine adjust those settings in order to get the most colour yield.

Step 4: Now comes the characteristic colour calibration part: A colorimeter is positioned on the screen surface. The corresponding software displays numerous colour tones in a window, for example a colour series of deep blue to white, a gray tone series of black to white and many more colour combinations.

The colorimter measures the displayed colours and sends the results back to the software. In order to do so the tool has to be connected to the PC with a USB cable. Then the software is capable of comparing the measured colour tone with the displayed one and can determine the difference. For instance the software displays a gray area with 50% black but the colorimter only measures a gray tone with 45% black. Then the software knows that colours with 50% black has to be displayed 5% higher in order to appear correctly at the monitor.

Step 5: At the end of the measurement series the calibration software has determined a lot of differences between displayed and measured colour tones. This result is saved in an ICC-profile. It is an individual colour profile for the measured monitor. This profile is going to be loaded in the graphics card at the start of the operating system and with this procedure the monitor is calibrated. That means that the monitor now displays the brightness, contrast, colour temperature, etc. according to the desired adjustments that were made.

Nevertheless with that there is still no colour fidelity guaranteed. This happens with colour management capable software like for example Adobe® Photoshop®. Those programs analyze the ICC-profile and make the necssary corrections so that monitor colours are displayed true to original. A simple web browser is not capable of using colour management so he does not readout the ICC-profile.

The display of correct colours happens in two main steps: A first common calibration step and in a second profiling step. All application softwares benefit from the calibration including the web browser or simple image viewers. But only colour management capable programs like Photoshop® benefit from profiling.

The colour profile made by the calibration software and the colorimeter provides a correct display of colour tones at the screen according to specified values for colour temperature and gamma value.

A calibration process like described above is done in half an hour but should be repeated frequently for instance once a month. Professional users in image agencies and graphic art offices calibrate their monitors to some extent weekly. Very imprtant is the fact that the monitor buttons and sliders should not be modified once the calibration is done. For example if the screen menu is adjusted for DVD playback you will have to calibrate the monitor for the normal mode again afterwards.

So what are the advantages of calibrating his own monitor to standard values? Are all imaginable colour problems solved now? Are high quality prints from the inkjet printer guaranteed? Does the scanner provide better results than before?

Well, the typical problem that a series of digital photos looks different at the friends monitor than at the own is solved when both screens are calibrated to standard colour values. Also the ones who got more monitors can assure that images look the same on all his monitors. If you buy yourself a new monitor then you can also be assured that after a correct monitor calibration your images look the same than before on your screen.

The very big advantage of a colour calibration is during scanning or processing digital photos because you can be sure that the correct colours are displayed at the screen. If the colours do not look like desired you can make adjustments in the scanner or image editing software accordingly knowing that you are correcting the actual image and not editing the wrong monitor adjustments into the picture so as to destroying it.

What are the boundaries of monitor calibration? Current monitors let themselves calibrate at specific colour temperatures/gamma values with no problems. But some users have their 10 year old CRT displays working. There are products that display perfect images even if they are very old but there are also ones that are not able to display correct brightness or colours anymore. In those cases a colour calibration does not help very much. It could provide a little improvement but a correct display of colours on the basis of the entered values is not guaranteed.

Can you be sure that you get perfect prints from your printer or digital picture service if you have calibrated your monitor? NO!!! That are two absolute different matters. The monitor calibration ensures that the colours of an image are displayed correctly at the screen. A connected inkjet printer benefits from this because the user did not mess up the colours in the scan software or image editing software. But if a printer outputs a picture correctly depends on his quality.

And you might be already guessing: There are also calibration toolkits for printer (take a look at our page printer profiling) which work analogue to monitor calibration toolkits: A sample print with standard colours is being made, the actual colours are determined with a measurement instrument and with assistance of a software is an individual printer profile generated. However you can expect high quality pictures from such services when you have a calibrated monitor and the digital picture service has calibrated machines.

A further limitation of the monitor calibration is the two step process calibration - profiling: From the common calibration every programs benefits which generate outputs on the screen. But only colour management capable software which analyze ICC-profiles benefit from profiling. That are nearly every image editing softwares but no web browsers. That is why an image in Photoshop® can appear very differently than in a webbrowser.

Have you solved every colour problems of the world when bought a monitor calibration tool and done the 30 minutes long procedure successfully? Can you sell the colorimeter shortly after the successful calibration? The answer is a clear NO. Some reasons in detail:

Every computer monitor has colour fluctuations which vary from day to day or in addition to this even within a period of month or years. A monitor which is today calibrated 100% correctly could display colours only 98% exact at the next day. This fact does not annoy amateurs very much because external effects like the actual light condition have a bigger impact at the screen than the colour fluctuation. Professional graphic artists working under standard light conditions are calibrating their monitors at a daily basis to avoid colour faults.

The amateur or semiprofessional user is annoyed by the long term colur changes of the monitor. Because of this it is advisable to repeat the calibration process every month. Of course, when a new monitor or PC was bought you also should do a new calibration. And often enough the adjustments on the monitor itself are accidentally changed so that they no longer match the colour profile and adjustments of the earlier made calibration.

The acquisition of a monitor calibration tool is worthwhile and not very expensive if you consider the fact of working with real true and unaltered monitor colours for years or even decades.

Who once got accustomed to calibrated monitors with displaying accurate colours often wants to calibrate the other screens in his household. It is a pity when colours look brilliant and clear at the monitor but lack of those characteristics at the home TV screen or at a projector show with friends.

The calibration of TV screens is just as possible as the monitor calibration of PCs. You will need a special tool named Datacolor SpyderTV. It consists of a tool being also used for calibration computer screens and a special software DVD for the calibration process. Who already owns a Spyder-Tool for screen calibration can also buy the seperate software (Datacolor SpyderTV Upgrade) in order to calibrate his TV display additionally.

The advantage of a calibrated TV screen is the continuous display of correct colours at every calibrated screen. Also you enjoy watching your favourite films with the colours as the director intended to. Due to the fact that TV calibration is a popular subject we engaged ourselves in this matter in detail at our website about TV calibration.

When giving speeches, presenting photo shows or being together watching films nowadays more often projectors are being which project a large-scale image at a screen. Projectors als well have the characteristic to differ in colour reproduction depending on model or manufacturer. Those differences can only be cleared with a colour calibration.

This can also be realised with the Datacolor Spyder-Tools. However when calibrating a projector you have to distinguish between projector-computer and projector-DBV/BlueRay-Player connections. In both cases you need a PC for calibrating. Though in the first case you save a colour profile on the PC, in the second case you are adjusting the colours directly with the aid of the projector colour menus.

To calibrate a projector which is connected to a computer you need the tool mentioned below Datacolor SpyderElite. With this colorimeter both one or more PCs and projectors can be calibrated. If you have done the projector calibration you will get the same correct and accurate image colours at your projector screen as at the computer screen.

To calibrate a projector connect