Pantone ColorMunki Design
by Pantone
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Category: CE
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Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: PantonePlatform: No Operating System
Model: MEU115
Color: White
Product features:
- Create and name unlimited custom color palettes with Palette Creation software
- Select colors from Pantone, other built-in libraries, and dynamically associated Harmony, Variation, and Similar colors
- Preview your colors before you go to production with unique verification tools
- Communicate effortlessly--Automatically synchronize palettes to Adobe Photoshop, InDesign and QuarkXpress, or export to your favorite photo and design applications
- All-in-one true spectral device with built-in white calibration tile calibrates LCD and laptop displays, RGB and CMYK printers, and digital projectors
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Pantone ColorMunki Design
Customer Review: It works well, is easy and quick to use, and is Windows 7 compatible
Summary: 5 Stars
First off, the software installation limit has been lifted. Check their website. They got complaints, they responded, not an issue. So to be clear, you can install the software on, and calibrate as many machines as you need to.
I've been in graphic design for many years. I've used many Fiery RIPs, I've used densitometers for calibrating them, and I've used the Spyder product. The problem, most tools only calibrate either the monitor or the printer. Only a few do the obvious thing of calibrating BOTH. And those that do tend to be very expensive. That's what makes this product so special, it does BOTH, and does it well, for a very reasonable price. Here's our situation...
We purchased a mid-range ($15k) color printer and didn't want to pay for the Fiery option. Output was relatively accurate, but certain colors, particularly blues shifting to purple were a problem on the output. And of course there was the challenge of making the monitor look remotely like the output... or the double challenge of having two monitors, making them match each other, and having those screens, match the printer output...
In short, Color Munki fixed everything, and made everything match. Given that monitors are RGB and emitting light, and prints are generally CMYK and reflecting light, it's impossible to truly match, but it got as close as I could have hoped for.
I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate, 64bit. The Color Munki support people insisted that it doesn't work in windows 7. Well... it does. It works just fine. Just download and install the Windows Vista 64bit version. The only problem was, when you plug in the device, windows thought it was some other type of device. I had to manually click the "update driver" button, and show it where the driver was in the install folder. Aside from that, it was a non issue.
The device is very well designed, such that there are only 3 pieces. The cord, the pouch that holds it on the monitor and protects it, and the device. Not much there to it. It will self calibrate from an internal target. It works on any monitor, projector, and printed output to calibrate everything together.
Calibrating the monitor takes about 1-2 minutes. Calibrating the printer takes 2 prints, and any drying time that might be needed for inkjet output. If your printer has problem colors, you can sample those from everyday objects, or printed output that didn't look right, and update the printer profile to dial in those specific colors. I did this on my problem blues shifting to purple, and what was fixed 98% by the initial calibration, was fixed 100% after that.
I've successfully calibrated an RGB printer (that uses CMYK ink), a CMYK laser printer, and two monitors, one of which looked horrible until calibrated. I've also used the same device to calibrate those same printers to another Windows XP machine, and a Mac OSX laptop. No issues on any of them, output looks great on all of them.
This is a good and accurate calibration tool, but, it is simple. There is not a lot of extra tweaking and adjustment to be done here. If you really want to spend hours hand adjusting calibrations, this won't make you happy. If you are busy, and don't have time to spend hours every week, screwing with wonky colors, use this, it takes about 5 minutes every 4 weeks to update a calibration (if you want to or need to update) and everything always matches and looks good.
To sum it up: it works and works well, the software is simple (almost too much so), it is compact with no parts to lose, the device is easy to use, and works on multiple machines in your home or office. It works on projectors (I haven't tested that part yet), and any display screen be it LCD, Plasma, or CRT, and any printer output.
**FOR THOSE USING ADOBE APPLICATIONS, READ THIS, IT WILL SAVE YOU TIME AND HEADACHES:
In the beginning, I found color management very confusing, and had to learn and research what settings go where, so everyone, here are the untold dirty secrets of how to make color calibration work with the Adobe suite, if you've never done color management before, I'm saving you at least a few hours here:
In the Creative Suite application's "color settings", you define your color working space. This is confusing for new users, because they are tempted to pick their monitor or printer calibrations here. Don't. The monitor calibration is on the OS level, not the application level. And the printer profile is only for printing. Here (when using color munki) you are supposed to use the "North America Prepress 2" preset setting, which is a preset for "Adobe RGB" and "US Web Coated (SWOP)v2". When you open documents, adobe will often warn you that the color profile doesn't match. You can convert it to adobe RGB, or leave it as sRGB. It doesn't matter much. Adobe RGB can display a wider range of colors, so if you are generating original art and picking bright colors, you can print some colors that might not print if you were only using the sRGB profile. If you want to, stick with sRGB and "US Web Coated (SWOP)" you'll be a tiny bit limited on your color reproduction, but you won't have the annoying messages, and your color files will probably have less potential for colors changing send it to someone else. (I've been working in Adobe RGB, but in hind sight probably should have stayed in sRGB)
Now, to confuse things even more as referenced above, many photos and documents have embedded color profiles. The overwhelming standard used for cameras, scanners, and other devices is sRGB, that is why you will get that "profile mis-match" warning warning so often. This is generally ok. Don't worry about converting the embedded profiles unless you really want to. (I just turn off the warning)
When you PRINT in the Adobe Suite of products. Set the application to manage color, and choose the printer color profile you made with the printer you're sending the job to. **Turn off the option that says "preserve CMYK values" if it is present** (otherwise your output will be way way off). In the printer driver, turn off all color management, and make sure you always print to the same paper stock that you calibrated to, and use the same printer settings that you calibrated to.
Don't worry about the monitor calibration profiles in your day to day printing, you do not choose your monitor calibration from any of the options. This is done in the computer color management, and color munki set's the proper profile as the default for when you calibrate. In other words, you're *always* using your monitor profile (from the OS), and never have to choose it when printing... The printer profile tells your computer how to send the data to the printer so the output looks and prints correctly. The monitor profile tells your computer how to send data to the monitor so it looks and displays correctly. They are independent from each other. And neither the monitor nor the printer "know" that they have been calibrated.
This is a good product, and color management in general can be confusing at first. As long as you understand the basic concepts, it all makes a lot more sense. I hope this helps someone.
Description of Pantone ColorMunki Design
Your new best friend for professional color palette creation and color control. ColorMunki Design is a color creation and inspiration solution with robust color selection, verification, specification and sharing functionality. Select colors from Pantone® PMS and GoeTM libraries, image libraries or capture spot colors from just about any surface, plus preview out-of-gamut by paper type. Includes essential color control functions for calibrating displays, projectors and printers with spot color optimization with a fully integrated all-in-one device. Designed with powerful features and an easy-to-use, intuitive interface, you'll soon be calling ColorMunki Design your new best friend. Ideal for agencies, corporate in-house and freelance designers.Digital Cameras and Photo Categories
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