Digital BW, The Print

* -----Original Message-----
* From: Richard Cooke [mailto:rcooke@redmtnengr.com] 
* Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2003 9:17 AM
* To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
* Subject: [Digital BW] For Martin (somewhat OT?) Monaco didn't work
* 
* 
* Martin, 
* 
* In a message to Mark (I don't know his last name) you said:
* 
* "I tried Monaco was not happy with the results."
* 
* Could you elaborate on what results you got and why you weren't happy?
* 
* I do b&w and a bit of color and I am using the Monaco monitor 
* calibrator.  I'm not completely happy with my color prints 
* and maybe I'm chasing something that's not my fault.
* 
Richard,

This was 2+ years ago and I bought the Monaco basic package in an effort to
get my scanner, monitor and printer calibrated. It did not include a monitor
"spyder" or sensor. Since the monitor "calibration" was by eyeball it didn't
work out very well for me and the printer profiles really weren't usable.

I think for this type of application to provide a decent level of accuracy
you need an instrument(s) to measure the output. Scanners don't seem to be a
workable replacement for spectrophotometers. I wound up buying ColorVision's
OptiCal with the Spyder and ProfilerPro along with a Spectrocam
spectrophotometer to measure printer output. This all cost me about $2,500
which was actually pretty cheap as they were having a special package deal.
ColorVision now has a package that is about half that price but I have no
idea as to the quality of the "spectro-colorimeter" included. The bonus with
the ProfilerPro was that it could create profiles of grayscale ink sets
which the Monaco would not do at all at that time.

I don't recommend going with the ProfilerPro and Spectrocam unless you want
to make high quality color profiles yourself. You would probably be better
off having a few profiles made for you professionally with really high end
equipment at $100 to $200 each. OptiCal and the Spyder (or something similar
from another company, perhaps Monaco has something now) is in the $200 to
$300 range and worth the expense.

Martin Wesley
http://www.carolyn.cc/Guests/MartinWesley/pages/MW_01.html
http://www.borderless-photos.de/guests.html