In the past three years the field of monitor calibration has become very competitive and in the end it is the consumers that are benefiting from the advancements being brought to market as the top colour management companies fight for that number one spot.
GretagMacbeth recently upgraded the Eye-One Display monitor calibration software and hardware to version 3 to suppress some of the negative issues in the previous version. With this upgrade have come a number of necessary improvements.
To reduce any possible confusion about this upgrade I’d like to go over a few areas of potential misunderstanding. The new product is called Eye-one Display 2. The Eye-One Display 2 is shipping with version 3 of the Eye-One Match software. The product can be called the i1 or the Eye-One. Lastly, GretagMacbeth is also adding a new acronym to their name: GMB.
What’s New in Version 3:
Automatic hardware control for DDC/CI interface – if you are using a DDC cable the software will automatically adjust the white point, brightness and contrast.
- User definable luminance settings have been added for a closer visual match between different monitors.
- Optimized gray balance for more neutral and better grays.
- A profile reminder to help you remember to re-profile at a set interval.
- Ambient light check procedure to assist you in setting up the optimum lighting conditions in your workspace.
Target Market:
Digital photographers, creative directors, publishers, and designers working in ad agencies and corporations.
Usage:
The best part about this software is anyone can use it without having a degree in colour science. The interface walks you through a step-by-step procedure prompting you to perform certain actions to optimize the hardware settings of your monitor. After going through the calibration procedure the software measures a series of swatches to build the ICC profile component. Once the profile is built the new version displays a profile summary report for post profile analysis.
The calibration and profile on my Powerbook was excellent. If you are creating a profile for a laptop or a Powerbook be sure to read the PDF in the Tools folder on the CD. This file will walk you through what settings to use and also requires you to copy a special text file into you applications folder.
I have tested the new version on the Cinema Display as well as various CRT’s and found the results on par with other leading monitor profiling software.
Calibrating the display is always the first step to creating an accurate profile. In Eye-One this is easily accomplished. All you have to do is select the appropriate settings in the pull down menus.
Once the calibration is completed the software will measure all the colours required to create a monitor profile. This profile is used by ICC aware applications to adjust the signals from the video card so you see an accurate representation of the file
I often question why anyone would consider doing colour work for a living and not invest the $400.00 to ensure that he or she see is seeing an accurate representation of the file. I would give this new version 4.5 stars out of 5.