The Spyder 2, an affordable colorimeter (page 1: Introduction)

Introduction

With factory settings monitors usually display very approximate colors. This is the case for all CRTs and LCDs, general public or professional products. Once the monitor is unpacked, there are two choices available to you.

The most common is a long and patient manual adjustment. You need to have a good eye, be used to display parameters and understand contrast, brightness, gamma, and color temperatures…

The other option, in principle obligatory for all image professionals, is to calibrate the monitor using a tool (called a colorimeter) and the whole procedure is automatic. If you compare colors before and after calibration, it’s often completely different, as our last survey should have convinced you. For example, here are the differences in color measured with the Fujitsu Siemens P19-2 with standard parameters (left) and the same monitor after calibration (right).

How to interpret the graph DeltaE is a measure between the color requested and the one really displayed on the monitor. The result obtained is also counter-balanced for human color sensitivity.

When Delta E > 3 the desired colors is noticeably different from the one on the screen.
When 1 < Delta E < 2 colors are accurate. When Delta E < 1, the result is perfect.

The problem is that colorimeters are expensive, usually $300 for basic versions and over $1000 for a “Pro”. The only exception is the Spider Pro version 2 at “only” $299. The question is, will companies and demanding users benefit from this product? It is a non- negligible additional cost but partly compensated by LCD monitor price cuts, especially in larger sizes.