James Stephens

For the past year or so I have been using the Colorvision Spyder for my monitor calibration needs. It produced results that were better than not calibrating at all, or by eye, and I also noticed inconsistency in its profiling when run multiple times to test repeatability. As I have learnt more about color management I have come to desire more from a color management workflow.

In searching for a better alternative I came across this review of monitor calibration products and decided to give the ColorEyes Display software + Monaco XRite DTP-94 colorimeter a try. The review rates the ColorEyes Solution the best and the ColorVision Spyder the worst of 10 different solutions tested so I figured I was sure to do better …….

I purchased the ColorEyes solution from http://www.chromix.com.

After installing the ColorEyes software and rebooting I unboxed the sensor and went to work. I was immediately impressed by how flush it mounted on my Dell 21″ 2001FP LCD Display.

After starting the software I first chose the type of sensor (Instrument –> ColorEye –> ColorEye). I then took a look through the preferences, observing that the software uses the highest quality 16-bit LUT (look-up-table) based profiles by default. Gamut compression (a technique where colors are shifted to allow out of gamut colors to be viewed) is off by default.

The startup screen looks something like this:

Calibrate and Profile Setup

This walks you through a number of choices before proceeding with a calibration.

Firstly the software requests a calibration of the colorimeter. This must be done by placing it on black non-reflective surface. I turned off the lights and placed the sensor on the underside of my upturned mouse pad, which is matte black.

The next choice to make is the desired color temperature to which a calibration should be made. D50, D65 are possible choices, along with a custom color temperature and a choice denoted Chromacity Coordinates, which calibrates to the native white point of the display. For LCD displays the manual recommends calibrating to the native white point in order to maximize the tonal response of the display. My Dell 2001FP LCD display came out to 5782K.

The next choice to make is in the choice of gamma (1.8, 2.2, Custom or L*). L* is recommended since it provides a perceptually linear response by using different curves for the shadow, midtone and highlights. I chose L*.

The next choice to make is the desired Luminance Target. The first time it is recommended to choose the maximum value and decrease it later if necessary as a matter of personal taste. Many lCD’s exceed 200 cd/m^2. My Dell 2001FP LCD came out to 84 cd/m^2.

Now it is time for the calibration. Before starting this I reset the display to factory defaults from its on-screen menu and the clicked “Continue”. 75 targets are used for the calibration. These are mostly shades of gray with some color ones towards the end of the calibration. In my case the calibration took quite a long time .. maybe 20 minutes or so.

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