Digital BW, The Print

>I too am looking at a monitor purchase with the standard questions, flat vs:
>CRT, resolution, etc. (I hope this is not an "off-list" subject)
>TNX,
>Joe
>   -----Original Message[of Mark's]-----[snipped]

I'm in the same boat as Joe. But without Mark's $400 budget 
restriction. Only, I suspect, because I'm trying to live with my old 
computer for a while. And unless it's simply too bulky, I'm also 
going to try to live with my old monitor - as a Photoshop palette 
monitor - for a while. It's a 19-inch 4.5-year old Sony GDM F420 CRT 
and fading fast.

I've thought that for images, I'd ideally like to get the Sony 
Artisan Antonis mentioned. But it's bigger than I need because I 
haven't room for a table at which to mount and mat and frame prints 
of images larger than about 11 x 14.

So I think my best high-end option is probably EIZO's ColorEdge CG18 
LCD. I believe it's only a little small for me. And I think it is 
probably at least as good as the Artisan after being worked on a bit 
with GretagMacbeth's Eye-One Display (not Eye-One Photo because I 
think I'd rather have my printer profiles made for me by CHROMiX.com).

Cost including the colorimeter: nearly $2000. And the 21-inch 
ColorEdge would make it at least several hundred dollars more. Good 
as the EIZO ColorEdge is, would it reduce the amount of hard proofing 
enough to pay for itself? Before it wears out in, say, three years 
(despite it's warranty for five)? I don't see why not given the cost 
of the papers on which we print.

But would a lesser monitor reduce costs proportionately less? Maybe 
not; the quality of the images the monitors display seems to tend to 
converge as the monitors are calibrated and profiled. Witness Owen 
Evans' comments on his $520 22-inch ViewSonic P225f CRT and David 
Simons' comments on his LaCie.

They are still over Mark's $400 budget. But I assume a 19-inch 
ViewSonic or Samsung or Mitsubishi will get him under the wire if he 
already has something to calibrate and profile it with. I wish I had 
one of each and could recommend one.

As for me, if I had to buy tonight, I think I'd probably go with 
X-Rite's MonacoOptix XR colorimeter (instead of the Eye-One Display 
EIZO programs for) and the big ViewSonic instead of the ColorEdge. 
I'm sure the ColorEdge is better. But I doubt it's that much better. 
And if I don't get one, I'm going to try very hard never to look at 
one for at least, say, two years. 8)
--
Sam