Color Calibration |
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Last Updated: December 28, 2007
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Today's Best Choice Under $75The Pantone huey is a software and hardware combination to calibrate your monitor to ensure the colors are accurate. This is really important for skin tones. It continually adjusts for the light condition in the room; lights on or off, daylight, nighttime, etc. You may need to update your video card driver. It works for both CRT and LCD monitors. Read a review from PC World (May 2006). Buy it online for $70. |
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Today's Best Choice Under $75The ColorVision datacolor Spyder2Express works well, but after using it a few times, people wish they could edit the advanced features. Compare the Spyder2 and Spyder3 products. Read a review from PC World (Nov 2006). Buy it online for $65. |
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Today's Best Choice Around $100The Pantone huey Pro claims to be more accurate than the huey and offers calibration for multiple monitors. My primary monitor's colors look great, but the secondary monitor has a yellow/green tint. This should make both monitors look great at the same time. Buy it online for $100. |
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Today's Best Choice Under $200The ColorVision datacolor Spyder3Pro advertises better color accuracy than the models above and has lots of advanced features. You are paying for the software. You can store profiles for several monitors, it adjusts for light in the room, and can calibrate twice as fast with the ReCAL option in the software. Buy it online for $170. |
Before and After Calibration
Before calibration (top half) and after calibration (bottom half). I was surprised at the difference. The bottom colors look better on a calibrated monitor.
Free Calibration
If you don't want to install any software, Bryce Alive Quick Guide to Monitor Calibration and Monitor Calibration by Thomas Niemann are a good place to start. The calibrators above will go a lot further by adjusting the gamma setting on your video card to calibrate brightness.
DisplayMate
DisplayMate is more about monitor diagnostic software than monitor calibration software. It helps improve the picture on a LCD monitor, CRT monitor or projector, but it doesn't perform any color matching.