Colormunki Photo Update
Both my MacPro and non-retina iMac used to be on Mountain Lion, or OSX 10.8, and nope, I never updated to Mavericks as I’d heard so many horror stories, and I basically couldn’t be bothered – hey, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it!
But, I wanted to install CapOne Pro on the iMac for the live-view capabilities – studio product shot lighting training being the biggest draw on that score.
So I downloaded the 60 day free trial, and whadyaknow, I can’t install it on anything lower than OSX 10.9!
Bummer thinks I – and I upgrade the iMac to OSX 10.10 – YOSEMITE.
Now I was quite impressed with the upgrade and I had no problems in the aftermath of the Yosemite installation; so after a week or so muggins here decided to do the very same upgrade to his late 2009 Mac Pro.
OHHHHHHH DEARY ME – what a pigs ear of a move that turned out to be!
Needless to say, I ended up making a Yosemite boot installer and setting up on a fresh HDD. After re-installing all the necessary software like Lightroom and Photoshop, iShowU HD Pro and all the other crap I use, the final task arrived of sorting colour management out and profiling the monitors.
So off we trundle to X-Rite and download the Colormunki Photo software – v1.2.1. I then proceeded to profile the 2 monitors I have attached to the Mac Pro.
Once the colour measurement stage got underway I started to think that it was all looking a little different and perhaps a bit more comprehensive than it did before. Anyway, once the magic had been done and the profile saved I realised that I had no way of checking the new profile against the old one – t’was on the old hard drive!
So I go to the iMac and bring up the Colormunki software version number – 1.1.1 – so I tell the software to check for updates – “non available” came the reply.
Colormunki software downloads
Colormunki v1.2.1 for Yosemite
So I download 1.2.1, remove the 1.1.1 software and restart the iMac as per X-Rites instructions, and then install said 1.2.1 software.
Once installation was finished I profiled the iMac and found something quite remarkable!
Check out the screen grab below:
iMac screen profile comparisons. You need to click this to open full size in a new tab.
On the left is a profile comparison done in the ColourThink 2-D grapher, and on the right one done in the iMacs own ColourSynch Utility.
In the left image the RED gamut projection is the new Colormunki v1.2.1 profile. This also corresponds to the white mesh grid in the Colour Synch image.
Now the smaller WHITE gamut projection was produced with an i1Pro 2 using the maximum number of calibration colours; this corresponds to the coloured projection in the Coloursynch window image.
The GREEN gamut projection is the supplied iMac system monitor profile – which is slightly “pants” due to its obvious smaller size.
What’s astonished me is that the Colormunki Photo with the new software v1.2.1 has produced a larger gamut for the display than the i1 Pro 2 did under Mountain Lion OSX 10.8
I’ve only done a couple of test prints via softproofing in Lightroom, but so far the new monitor profile has led to a small improvement in screen-to-print matching of the some subtle yellow-green and green-blue mixes, aswell as those yellowish browns which I often found tricky to match when printing from the iMac.
So, my advice is this, if you own a Colormunki Photo and have upgraded your iMac to Yosemite CHECK your X-Rite software version number. Checking for updates doesn’t always work, and the new 1.2.1 Mac version is well worth the trouble to install.
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When print profiling, since 1.2.1, have you had any issues with the print test chart? I just can’t get it to print correctly. The chart is squashed to the bottom left hand ide of the page with a number of the color patches falling off the bottom edge. Also the fifth column of colour patches is missing from the side of the page (I can just see the edge of the colour patches on the left edge of the paper. Did you experience this at all?
Hi James
I’ve not come across that one James. My first response would be to check paper size and page setup in the driver.
Got to ask though – what printer/paper are you trying to custom profile?
If it’s Permajet media and a fairly up to date printer then I’d use the APJ ‘canned profile’ before a custom profile done with a ColorMunki Photo.
The device does not render anywhere near enough colours in the test chart for modern printers and inks.
Thanks for this discussion – tremendously valuable. I currently have a non-retina Imac and forked out over $200 for the I1 display Pro – images look great on screen, but the prints with Epson R3000 come out too magenta/red in the skin tones. Would you recommend selling the I1 and getting the Colormunki photo for it’s print scanning capabilities? Thanks, Joe
Hi Joe, I don’t own an i1DP, but as far as I’m aware the colourimeter inside it is the same as the ColorMunki Display. The ColorMunki Photo is a slightly different beast, using a spectrometer, but I have to say that I would not recommend it any more when it comes to calibrating modern-day printers – they don’t print anywhere near enough test patches.
But your printer faults have NOTHING to do with your monitor profile, or the device that’s made it. They are down to either bad soft-proofing, an incorrect printer profile selection when sending the image to the print driver, or a really poor .icc printer profile.
What printer, paper, and ink set are you using Joe?
Hi Andrew – thank you so much for responding. I am using a 2013 Imac (pre-5k), epson R3000 and usually ilford galleria papers of canson baryta. for a while, I was having success matching prints to screen by doing random calibrations on top of other calibrations, but since I started doing them based on the imac base profile, my prints come out way too red in the skin tones, even though I1 DP says it succeeded in hitting the calibration mark. I just want something that works and for those darn skin tones to be nice. I wish you could rent the colormunki’s in canada as I would try that first.
What are your thoughts on using the colormunki photo on the epson r3000?
Hi Joe
Your last question first – NO, I would NOT use a CMP to write a custom profile for an Epson 3000 printer; under any circumstances.
Why?
Because the CMP does not print enough test patches to make anything like a near-accurate profile of such a comparatively wide-gamut printer. Back in the old days a DT printer such as the Epson 1900 would profile pretty well using the CMP. But an R3000 is a different beast altogether IMO, capable of producing many more colours than its older cousins. The whole process of printer profiling with a CMP is far too long-winded and consumptive in terms of time, paper and ink; and the thought of trying to profile an R3000 accurately with the CMP fills me with dread because of the number of profile modifications I know I’d have to do just to come up with a profile as good as I could do with 1 sheet of paper using an i1pro2.
The problem there though is the shear cost of the i1Pro2.
Ilford and Canson produce superb ‘canned profiles’ for the R3000, and assuming your R3000 is in perfect working order – the printer head hasn’t dropped any nozzles and is perfectly clean – these should work just fine Joe.
What you need to do is get your display profile sorted out, but before we start that I want to make sure of a couple of things:
1. On your iMac go System Preferences/Display and you’ll see a Brightness slider, does it look like this:
Ensure that “auto brightness adjustment” is turned OFF (unchecked).
2. When you begin the calibration process with your i1DP I do so hope that you are NOT telling the device to measure ambient light:
Let me know Joe.
Many, many thanks, Andrew. I’ll hold off selling the IDP and getting a CMP, and I will try to do some more profiling. It is almost accurate, except the reds. So I can make it work but reducing the reds about 30% before I print, but I was just hoping after all the money I put in, that what I see is what I get. I will try again. Reassuring to hear the canned profiles are very good. All the best, Jovan
Hi Joe – what you describe makes me wonder if you are actually missing a step – SOFT PROOFING the image to the correct printer profile and using the optimum rendering intent while doing so. Are you printing from Photoshop or Lightroom?
I definitely do soft proofing – using LIghtroom. I adjust for brightness so my prints are pretty close to the screen for bright/dark. And in fact all the colours are close, except the red. I will try recalibrating with I1 display for now, and not get CMP.
Hi Joe
Your printer does not contain Red ink, so if your reds are wrong then the fault lies in the mix/ratio of yellow and magenta ink – equal parts Yellow and Magenta make red! So, if the Magenta is off, then it’s not making the correct Blues, and if Yellow is out of kilter then it’s not making Greens correctly either. If the printer is 100% fully functional then all your problems are down to your soft-proofing and/or paper choice (read tint of paper white) and/or colour rendering intent setup; or indeed your work environment – see post here
It is possible that you have a nozzle problem on your print head – in which case none of this would be your fault Joe! So print a nozzle check pattern and examine it closely.
Hi Andy,
Hope this email finds you well. Anyway, thank you for this wonderful blog. I have been searching for months for an answer regarding Monitor Calibration, (late 2012) MacBook Pro Retina & (Late 2010) iMac. You see, I run on OS X El Capitan and I have calibrated both computers using ColorMunki Photo with the latest 1.2.1 software. However, when I export both out of LR & PS in jpg with sRGB setting, and then iMessage the photo to my iPhone, the photo that shows on my iPhone seems desaturated and flat.
My question for you is, do your exported images on your computer look the same as when you send them to your other iOS devices like the iPhone or iPad? If so, what am I doing wrong?
I have done so much research and have done everything I could switching preference settings on ColorMunki and my computers. Any insight or help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
Cheers,
Bryan Geli
Hi Bryan
Firstly, many thanks for your appreciation of the blog !
Secondly, apologies for the late reply…..
Thirdly, your question..mmmmmm
I’ve got some serious reservations about processing on Retina displays – they do tend to be a bit bright on contrasty – hence they are good for viewing!
But what’s good for viewing can lead you to turn the contrast down a bit too far and make your images a bit too flat and generally dull – Retinas demand a bit of extra care.
A couple of things that might help you:
When you look at a ‘finished image’ in Lightroom, right click on the ‘grey’ background of the view space and switch it alternately to black and then white.
On black it will look perceivably punchier and bright, and on white it’ll look flatter and a bit dull – sound familiar?
Try doing this and tweaking the processing to get the best average – processing permanently on the ‘grey’ default isn’t always the best way of working.
When I put images on my mobile devices I use iTunes – it’s always done a good job, and ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ is my attitude.
Be careful there isn’t any compression being added by iMessage.
Have a play with iTunes and see if it makes a difference and also try switching your process BG in Lr.
Let me know if you still have problems.
All the best
Andy