Finally after a weak of negotiations with local customs and passing metrology we received our ColorVision Spyder2 PRO package. It’s tiny compared to what I expected. All these troubles with government institutions must have made it larger in my eyes.

Thr decision to buy was greatly influenced by the fact that Kate, and she is a graphics designer, works with color for years, but no matter how hard she does, the color never matches exactly what clients see. There simply is no standard preset for every monitor that gives exactly the same picture in any possible combination of ambient light, brightness, contrast, color temperature, screen type and whole lot of other parameters.

To make it even more dramatic, imagine that there’s only one right way to see the color — the way it is in the real life. Everything else is a deviation. If you, as a person “making” color, have it wrong and I, as a person “perceiving” it, have it wrong, we both see something absolutely, completely, entirely different. It’s certainly not the end of the world, millions can attest. However, I tend to think that it’s still better to remove as many variables as possible and make the sky blue, grass — green and the red ball — red.

The results of monitors calibration session were unexpectedly impressive. Four months ago Kate made several shots of our basketball team. We wore some pale orange t-shirts — extremely pleasant color indeed. Back then, when I saw images on the screen, I didn’t know what to think. The colors were slightly off and the uniform appeared… well, acidic. Yesterday I took the archives off the shelf and to my greatest amuzement, they were EXACTLY as I saw them in real. It’s just unbelievable!

We have some minor troubles calibrating iBook laptop screen though. We tried it twice and every time got consitent results, but what we see is obviously a bit off and doesn’t match the CRT Sony Trinitron G220 we use for color proof. If anyone has an idea what to try and why it can be, you are welcome to share it with us.

Comments from the past

R00KIE Says: October 22nd, 2007 at 4:41 pm

Hey, hello. That notebook calibration problem …. maybe due to differences in lightning. LCDs have that problem, the lighting isn’t the same across all the screen … maybe it’s something else.

Aleksey Gureev Says: October 29th, 2007 at 8:45 am

Maybe, but the color is relatively the same cross the screen. The problem is that it’s not consistent with the Sony CRT display a bit. We’ll get back to it once we catch our breath after our vacation in north Africa. :)