60 PPMAG.COMthe software allows you to graph your mon-
itor’s color space against known standards.
It also shows other displays so you can bet-
ter understand the color, brightness, con-
trast, gamut, tone response, and white
point of your monitor. With SpyderX Elite,
you can check screen brightness and color
uniformity and display color accuracy.
The result was darn close to my previous
calibration with the i1Photo Pro. The warm
tones were warmer with the SpyderX Elite,
colors overall were slightly more saturat-
ed, and flesh tones, with the additional
warmth, looked slightly more pleasing.
And the SpyderX Elite accomplished this in
one-tenth the time.
You can leave the SpyderX Elite con-
nected to your computer to track changing
room light conditions if that’s a consider-
ation, calibrate multiple displays that usedifferent display technologies, calibrate
projectors, calibrate side-by-side monitors,
and create a target that’s sharable between
desktop and laptop to match the displays as
closely as possible. And you can soft proof
images from within the software, although
this is commonly available within your im-
aging software. The SpyderX Elite monitor
calibrator is definitely a winner.PRINTER PROFILING
The i1Photo Pro offers printer profiling that
I’ve found gives mixed results compared to
the manufacturer-provided profiles of my
Epson SureColor P7000. How does the Spy-
der Print compare?
The Spyder Print software downloads
along with the monitor calibration soft-
ware (and also has its dated look). But it’s
well designed and navigable step-by-step.THE GOODS
PRO REVIEW
The setup for reading the Spyder Print profilesAfter several false starts I was finally able to
complete the reading of the color and gray sheets.
My readings (the areas beneath the diagonals)
rarely came close to the calibration standards
(the areas above the diagonals).After entering information about your
printer, ink, and paper, you have options to
print targets that range from 225 patches
to 729 patches plus extended grays. I chose
the EZ High Quality Target plus Extended
Grays, which generated 225 color patches
and 338 gray patches.
The SpyderX Studio kit includes a patch
reader that you maneuver along a guide
over the patches. Therein lies the rub.
Datacolor recommends taping down the
sheet of patches vertically and pushing the
patch reader along the guide away from
you. This didn’t work for me. Too many
false readings, indicated by beeps too close
together or indicating I had finished a line
of patches before I actually had.
After trying various arrangements, I fin-
ally settled on taping the targets down hor-
izontally, sitting with my head close to the
table, watching carefully, and counting the
beeps as each patch was read to ensure that
I’d read all 15 or 17 in each row. Slow and un-
comfortable, but by the fifth or sixth failed
profile, I was achieving reasonable success.
The Spyder Print software shows you
on-screen the actual color of the patch and
what your reading has seen for each patch.
However, I found this virtually useless as
the befores and afters never bore much
correlation, even when done correctly. And
there’s no indication of whether a patch
was actually read; the beeps may or mayIMAGES ©STAN SHOLIK