Help in printer/display calibration

[filipep]

Good afternoon
I need help processing and printing photos.
My hardware is:
• Macbook Pro 13 "Intel Core 2 Duo with 4GB Ram 2:53 and running MacOSX 10.6.6
• Wacom Cintiq 21UX
• Canon Pixma iP4850.
I treatment of images in Adobe Lightroom 3; CINTIQ my main monitor, when I compare with the MACBOOK, the images are clearer in this and the printing is always similar to that presented by the MACBOOK. The most obvious option would be using it as primary monitor and guide me through it. But as I have the CINTIQ want to take advantage of it.
So, I ask:
• If someone uses the same hardware, what is the best configuration in terms of monitor calibration?
• What is the best choice of monitor and printer calibrator?

Thanks

 

[SlickSalmon]

You've had a lot of views but no replies, so I'll chime in, though I'm not an expert. The first thing to understand is that no printer can perfectly mimic what you see on your monitor, because the color methodology is different for each. The best you can do is a close approximation.

I've got a rig pretty similar to yours, except that my accessory monitor is a 21" Lenovo and my printer is an Epson 3880. If I follow the software calibration routine available under Apple/System Preferences/Displays, I get a pretty fair approximation of what comes out of my printer. Use the Expert Mode and follow the menus, using a gamma of 2.2 and a target white point of D65. Beyond that, make sure Edit/Color Settings is set to "Always Optimize for Printing". However, if I follow the exact same routine with my accessory monitor, I don't get acceptable results, so I've stopped using the monitor.

Another general issue is to chose whether your software manages the color or your printer manages the color. There's a soft switch buried in the menus that will allow you to make that choice. I use Photoshop and have Photoshop manage the color, rather than the printer. When I print, I go thru the print menus and make sure that Photoshop understands what printer and what paper I'm using. My software recognizes the 3880 and the Epson Premium Luster paper I use, so all is well.

However, the general opinion is that software calibration falls well short of optimal and some sort of hardware system is needed. Two are generally recommended -- either the X-Rite Eye-One Display 2 or the Datacolor Spyder 3 Pro. The Spyder system has several levels of sophistication and can include either display calibration, printer profiling or both. I have no personal experience with either, but both have received about an equal number of positive reviews from various sites. I hope this was helpful.

 

[KmH]

The i1display 2 is a colorimeter and can only profile your display, it cannot profile your printer. I do not recommend the Spyder Pro 3.

To profile your printer you need a spectrophotometer like the X-RITE ColorMunki. The ColorMunki can also be used on your displays so you only need the one device to do both.

 

[SlickSalmon]

Yes, just to tag onto KmH's comments... Spyder3 Pro cannot profile your printer; you need the Spyder3 Print for that. You can get both display and printer profiling along with RAW calibration in the Spyder3 Studio system. I can't comment on how it compares to X-RITE ColorMunki other than to note that the two appear to be more or less equivalent systems.

I guess one question I would have is whether you really need printer calibration if your editing software already contains profiles for your printer and paper combination.