General Question

anartist's avatar

Are software monitor calibrators as good [or nearly as good] as hardware monitor calibrators?

Asked by anartist (14808points) November 17th, 2011

And, if they are, are freeware/shareware programs as good [or nearly as good] as costly programs? I have a modest design business, both print and web, and have new uncalibrated machines now..

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3 Answers

jerv's avatar

Software monitor calibrators are nowhere near comparable. At best, they are as accurate as your eyeball… and often because they rely heavily on your color perception.

Your choices are hardware calibration or nothing useful. Sorry :(

anartist's avatar

well @jerv what do you recommend that is reasonable?

dabbler's avatar

At the NY Audobon camera club meeting recently (topic: Digital Photo Workflow) the presenter recommended the EyeOne. I haven’t got one yet but probably will.

I used to have a Spyder and that made a big difference on one of my monitors. Something that surprised me is how much more capable a better quality monitor is of achieving good color, esp blue/magenta. My cheaper/older LCD could only get close. A relatively new Samsung hi-def hits the marks.

And @jerv is right, the software calibrators are approximately worthless, unless you have a really bad monitor and that might help you get within barking distance of correct.

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