subscribe 0330 333 1113 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I 16 May 2020
I TESTEDtheX-Ritei1DisplayStudiowitha
widerangeof devices,successfullyprofiling
twoWindows 10 laptops,a Samsung
Androidtablet,andtwosmartphones,one
eachfromAppleandHuawei.I foundit was
easytouseandgeneratedconsistently
accurateprofiles,givingmeimpressively
well-matchedcoloursacrossfivevery
differentscreens.In otherwords,it does
whatit’ssupposedtodo.Thebiggest
irritationis theAndroidapp’soccasional
refusaltoopencertainimagesforno
obviousreason.
Ata similarpricepoint,themain
alternativeis Datacolor’sSpyderXPro,which
costs£159.Thisis considerablyquickerat
profilingcomputerscreens,butdoesn’twork
withmobiledevices.Bothsystemsgenerate
similarlyaccuratemonitorprofiles,soit’sjust
a questionof decidingwhereyourpriorities
lie.Butif you’relookingfora simple,
straightforwardandaffordablecolour-
managementsystemthatwillworkyour
tabletandphoneaswellasyourcomputer,
X-Ritei1DisplayStudiois a greatchoice.Our verdict
Recommended
+Simple,easy-to-usesoftware
+Consistentlyreliableresults
+Workswithsmartdevices
ÐAndroidappis buggyFor and against
X-Rite’s colorimeter range
i1Display Studio is the most affordable of a family of three products,
and is designed for enthusiast and professional photographers
looking for an easy colour-management solution. The next step up
is the i1Display Pro (£178), which promises faster profi ling and an
expert software mode with additional features. Meanwhile high-end
users working with super-bright HDR displays may need the
i1Display Pro Plus (£260). Confusingly, X-Rite also offers the
similarly named i1 Studio, which employs completely different
hardware capable of both calibrating displays and generating paper
profi les for printing, and costs £349.
falling off. The software takes you through the
process step-by-step, with detailed help shown
in a panel on the left side of the screen. Initially
the system spends 20 to 30 seconds on a
basic contrast measurement, after which it will
prompt you to adjust your screen’s
brightness to the recommended
level. It’ll then proceed to
measure 118 different colour
targets, which can take anything
up to about six minutes, depending
on the speed of your computer.
Once this process is complete,
you’ll be prompted to save the resultant colour
profi le, and it’s a good idea to give this a
recognisable fi lename, rather than use the
computer-generated version. It’s possible to
view a before-and-after comparison of your
monitor’s colour rendition, along with RGB
calibration curves and a colour gamut graph.
Unfortunately though, these don’t display very
well on high-resolution Windows monitors. You
can also set up a reminder to re-profi le after a
specifi c time, from one to four weeks, which is
good practice for maintaining colour accuracy.
Profi ling mobile devices
One neat feature that you won’t fi nd elsewhere
is the ability to profi le your mobile devices’
screens using the free ColorTRUE app. This
works with both Android and iOS, although not
necessarily with older devices. The main caveat
is that you have to view your images
within the app to see the correct
colours, unlike on computers where the
monitor profi le is applied system-wide.
Profi ling an Android device is a pretty
straightforward process: simply open the
ColorTRUE app, and then plug the colorimeter
into the USB port using the requisite adapter.
With iOS devices it’s a little more complicated;
you need to have the colorimeter plugged in
to a computer running i1Studio, that’s also
connected to the same Wi-Fi network as your
phone or tablet. In both cases ColorTRUE will
automatically detect the i1Display device, then
show an outline of where to position it on the
screen. It’s easiest to lay your phone or tablet
down fl at on a table and place the colorimeter
on top, and then let the app get on with it. I
found the process took six or seven minutes on
Android, but less than half that time on iOS.
Once the calibration is complete, you can
then select images from your camera roll or
gallery, and view them in the ColorTRUE app.
It’s possible to compare them with or without
colour calibration, and even simulate how they
might look in print, using a range of built-in
CMYK profi les. This all works perfectly well on
iOS, but I found the Android app (version 1.2.0
at the time of writing) to be a little buggy. It has
a bad habit of refusing to open some perfectly
normal JPEG images for no readily discernible
reason, occasionally crashing on the spot. This
is frustrating, as the idea of being able to show
off your images in a colour-managed
environment is obviously very appealing.The colorimeter device is
designed to hang over
your screen like thisX-Rite’s more
expensive i1 Studio
kit can be used to
profile printers as
well as monitorsThe device plugs into the
USB ports of Android phones