Color calibration kit

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uOpt

2[H]4U
Joined
Mar 29, 2006
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Back in 1998 I remember that some NVidia graphics card came with a color calibration kit. You'd have some high quality printed sheet with pure colors, and then you had instructions how to adjust your monitor (or was it preferences?) to match the colors exactly.

Now that I won the lottery with my HP LP2065 I'd like to give it the best treatment, but I don't know where to get a kit like that.

Any ideas?
 
One of the best calibrators I know of is the LaCie blue eye pro, but it's quite expensive, priced around $300. I wouldn't spend that much money on it unless I was rich (or close enough) or I was a graphic artist, photo editor, or some profession where I needed super accurate colors. Other wise, you'll barely notice the difference from this and a $100 calibrator.

For about $70 you can get the Colorvision Spyder2Express, which does a fine job if your profession doesn't rely on how accurate are the colors on your screen. If all you're going to do with your monitor is gaming, watching movies/video/anime and surfing the net, then this one will suit you just fine.
 
I just picked up the spider 2 express and it worked wonders for my 2405. I never noticed how red everything was until it fixed it. White looked blue to my eyes, at first,because I was so used to the red.
 
Hmmm.

I was rather hoping for a manual kit that comes with a color card for visual comparison and instructions to adjustments. I am on Linux, so a Windows solution won't easily do it.

I assume spider 2 express adjusts the preferences in the video card settings, right?

So I could calibrate the monitor under Windows and then write down the settings and manually enter them in Linux. How complicated are they, how many parameters are we talking about?

Problem is that if the card itself plays a role (hopefully unlikely with DVI), then I couldn't easily calibrate on my gaming machine and transport to my workstation.
 
uOpt said:
Hmmm.

I was rather hoping for a manual kit that comes with a color card for visual comparison and instructions to adjustments. I am on Linux, so a Windows solution won't easily do it.

I assume spider 2 express adjusts the preferences in the video card settings, right?

So I could calibrate the monitor under Windows and then write down the settings and manually enter them in Linux. How complicated are they, how many parameters are we talking about?

Problem is that if the card itself plays a role (hopefully unlikely with DVI), then I couldn't easily calibrate on my gaming machine and transport to my workstation.
Click to expand...
The Spyder2Express is not complicated at all, it's well, express. :p

You install the software, run the wizard, set all your monitor settings to factory defaults, attach the calibrator thingy to your monitor on the space you're indicated to, and then just wait for it to finish calibrating. The calibrator will create a custom profile for your monitor. It doesn't tell you what it changed or what are the RGB values now. It just makes an .icc file with the calibrated configuration. Oh, and it shows you a before and after picture so you can compare colors. I have no idea if it works with Linux, though.
 
uOpt said:
Hmmm.

I was rather hoping for a manual kit that comes with a color card for visual comparison and instructions to adjustments. I am on Linux, so a Windows solution won't easily do it.

I assume spider 2 express adjusts the preferences in the video card settings, right?

So I could calibrate the monitor under Windows and then write down the settings and manually enter them in Linux. How complicated are they, how many parameters are we talking about?

Problem is that if the card itself plays a role (hopefully unlikely with DVI), then I couldn't easily calibrate on my gaming machine and transport to my workstation.
Click to expand...
Try this for free http://www.majorgeeks.com/Monitor_Calibration_Wizard_d3912.html it will even let you create a color profile to load with windows if you get things the way you like it..

edit- oops...don't know if it will run under Linux
 
uOpt said:
I can probably transport the config from Windows to Linux, that not a problem.

But a free software doesn't give me the dead tree reference card.
Click to expand...
No, but if you can get it to work under Linux then it may help a bit until you can find what you're looking for...I used this before I got my Spyder2 Express and to be honest the hardware colorimater didn't make a dramatic difference but it did take the guesswork out of the process.
 
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