Pantone ColorMunki Design
by Pantone
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Pantone ColorMunki Design
Customer Review: Excellent Performer
Summary: 5 Stars
After enduring years of dealing with mismatched colours between my monitor and printer I decided to spend the money on a Colormunki that was offset by a rebate and special price offer. Apart from some of the actual users' reviews, I have not read a bad review for this product. I have an XP system and did not experience any problems with either the installation or operation of the Colormunki device or the Design software. I followed the instructions and didn't change printer settings after profiling the printer.
The ability to define additional colours that can be fine tuned for the printer after the first profiling iteration is very useful. I was able to get even more accurate colour rendition between my monitor and printer.
If I have one complaint it is x-rite's refusal to allow users to switch between the Photo and Design editions of the software without buying the hardware all over again. The hardware is identical between the products and I prefer the layout of the Photo software. It is a silly attitude on x-rite's part and only mares one's impression of this very useful product.
Customer Review: Works great (so far) with some tweeking and guessing
Summary: 4 Stars
I was a bit anxious when I received my Colormunki Design - I had read some mixed reviews, a few of which were from professional photographers using Colormunki Photo, and those particular reviews had tended to be critical. I have been working on an illustrated book, and ordered the Colormunki after I had exhausted my attempts to print anything resembling my work as it appeared on my iMac. My printer is a Canon ip4500 - not a printer that is even addressed by the professional quality paper companies whose paper I was using (Hahnemuhle and Inkpress), nor one that I thought the makers of Colormunki had in mind when they designed their product. But I was desperate, and hopeful that the Colormunki would at least get me closer to producing a decent print.
The Colormunki Design arrived, complete with a Pantone GeoGuide that I hadn't expected and was pretty delighted to receive. Installation went smoothly, and I was able to calibrate my monitor with no problem. Then I dove right in to create a printer profile for my Inkpress Luster Duo paper. That's where I began to have problems.
For one thing, it was unclear to me how I was meant to, and if I had, turned off Color Management in the printer dialog box that pops up when you attempt to print the sample swatches from the Colormunki program. I was further confused by the fact that when I print from an Adobe program, like Photoshop, I could clearly turn off Color Management. My attempts to produce a color profile that produced a print that bore any resemblance to my monitor image was very mixed - the colors I was producing on my printer were wonderfully vibrant where before they had always been muddy. I saw, on the paper, the colors I hoped to see in my prints - only they usually weren't occurring where I wanted them - and overall the prints were too dark and oversaturated.
To make a very long story short, after lots of profile attempts, and of expensive ink and paper piling up in the scrap heap, I called Colormunki support. Mary at the support center was very friendly and interested in helping me figure out what was happening w/ my profiles (even though I'm sure I and my ip4500 wasn't the worst of Pantone's worries regarding the Colormunki). We had a number of conversations regarding the Color Management problem, I sent her a few screen shots of the various printer dialog boxes, and she was over in her office setting up Canon printers and doing experiments on her own, with some input from the tech guys who were wandering around working on much larger problems, no doubt having to do with unhappy professional photographers working on professional printers.
Things were gradually working out (we figured out how to turn off Color Management) but the real breakthrough came when Mary mentioned, kind of offhand, that perhaps the Colormunki wasn't recognizing the paper profile I had chosen; I was using, having made a guess from the suggested paper profiles on the Inkpress site, Hagaki as my media choice. Using a leftover sheet of Epson (sorry Canon!) Double-sided Matte Photo paper, I made a profile choosing Matte Photo paper as my media choice - and viola! The prints I made with that profile, using the Inkpress paper, were almost dead on!
I went on the make another profile w/ the Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Duo paper, and that too looked splendid, with the exception of the reds, which weren't rich enough. I solved that by printing my reds twice. Fine by me, and ostensibly I could "refine" my profile to address that problem.
So, for me the Colormunki Design was worth it, and I am excited to explore the color palettes that come with the device and on the software. Yes, it would have been great if there had been clearer instructions both in the software prompts and on the website for addressing the Color Management issue, and I can almost weep when I look at the paper and ink ($23 a cartridge! 5 cartridges!) I wasted because of that oversite on Pantone's part. Also, the program should be able to handle whatever media type my printer driver can handle, so that one doesn't have to second guess the results.
Given, though, the relatively friendly price of the Colormunki, the very ernest and responsive support I received (thanks Mary!) and that it did do the job with my consumer class printer, I'm happy. Weeping over the color of your prints? Buy a Colormunki (and maybe some extra ink.)
Customer Review: ColorMunki is a great tool
Summary: 4 Stars
ColorMunki was very easy to install, configure, and implement. I highly recommend this product to anyone that does extensive printing with high color projects.Customer Review: Still trying to get ColorMunki to create great prints
Summary: 3 Stars
I also recently purchased the ColorMunki as an attempt to get quality images out of my Nikon D300. Some how between my Nikon 300, Photoshop CS4 and an Epson i9900 printer this has not been an achievable goal. I purchased the ColorMunki to solve this problem. The ColorMunki is not only marketed as a calibrator for your monitor but also for your printer. Unlike your experience, installing and using ColorMunki was anything but easy. I had to do major upgrading of Windows XP and struggle to install Net Framework 3.5. After that I spent hours watching the help videos and trying to apply what I saw to the ColorMunki hardware and software. If found the experience to be anything but intuitive.
None the less, I now own the product and it has improved the appearance of my prints. However, I can only say they look better and given the lack of success I had before with color shifts and mismatching it's not saying much. My goal is still to get great looking prints. I have been working with the people at Experts Exchange that I subscribe to. Experts Exchange has successfully solved many of my computer & technical problems and is an extremely affordable solution for technical support. However (again), they are having problems considering the ColorMunki to be a satisfactory solution as a profiling spectrophotometer. The most recent post I received ran like this...
"after you install the software that came with your colormunki, you will have to print several color patches from the software. then you have to scan them with the profiler, and that will create your printer profile. after another similar procedure, involving multiple screens of color, you will have created the monitor profile. util this stage most color profilers works perfectly.
then software goes to work, and calibrates the monitor profile to match your printer. this is the stage where they fail. lots of trial and error is required in this stage."
Needless to say I was not thrilled by the statement "this is the stage where they fail. lots of trial and error is required in this stage". I will continue to work on this, but look forward to any thoughts any of you may have.
Jeff
Customer Review: munki business
Summary: 3 Stars
I have a problem getting my printer to match my monitor. I did what I was told. Set everything up according to spec. Still printing about 2-3 stops too dark. The only thing I can think of is that my print drivers must be out-dated. Anyone else have this problem? I have an Epson 3800 and using Microsoft 7.