Apple picker Among graphic artists, designers and photographers, Apple computers have always been the obvious choice. One of the reasons was the emphasis on easy and reliable color management directly at the system level, which other platforms have not been able to provide for a long time. Not only that, it's always been much easier to achieve solid color fidelity on the Mac. The current demands for working with colors are naturally significantly higher, but on the other hand, there are finally available and perfectly functioning tools that allow virtually everyone to work with accurate colors. Let's take a brief look at some solutions suitable for the Apple platform, both for computers and mobile devices.
ColorMunki series
The successful ColorMunki series represented a breakthrough at the time of its introduction, as it brought to the market the first very easy-to-use and affordable spectrophotometer, suitable for calibrating and profiling both monitors and printers. Gradually, what was originally a single product has evolved into a whole product line that will satisfy wherever accurate colors are important, but the requirements for accuracy are not critical.
The ColorMunki Smile assembly is intended for basic calibration and creation of a monitor profile for normal use. The set includes a colorimeter for measuring colors on the display (for both LCD and LED monitors) and control software that guides the user step by step through monitor calibration without requiring any knowledge of color management. The application works with presets suitable for the most common ways of use, so it is not suitable for high demands and special conditions, which, on the other hand, makes it an ideal solution for all those who do not want to go through any principles of color management and simply want to do their normal work trust that they see the correct colors on the display.
The ColorMunki Display package will satisfy higher demands on both measurement accuracy and control application options. Here, the user receives a structurally higher model of the colorimeter, identical to the device in the i1Display Pro professional package (the only difference is the reduced measurement speed), suitable for all types of LCD and LED monitors, including monitors with a wide gamut. The application provides an extended menu of calibration parameters and a created monitor profile.
At the top of the line are the ColorMunki Photo and ColorMunki Design packages. Let's not be misled by the name, in this case the sets already contain a spectral photometer, and are thus suitable for calibrating and creating profiles not only of monitors, but also of printers. The difference between the Photo and Design versions is only software (in simple terms, the Design version enables the optimization of direct color rendering, the Photo version contains an application for transferring images to customers, including information about color profiles). ColorMunki Photo/Design is a set that easily satisfies medium and higher demands on color accuracy, whether you are a photographer or a designer or graphic designer. At the time of this writing, it is also possible to get the very useful GrafiLite lighting device for standardized illumination of the originals for free with ColorMunki Photo.
i1 Display Pro
A professional yet surprisingly affordable solution for monitor calibration and profiling, that's i1Display Pro. The set includes a precise colorimeter (see above) and an application that offers everything needed for professional calibrations in environments with particularly high demands on color accuracy; among other things, it is thus possible to precisely adapt the monitor display to the surrounding conditions, set non-standard display temperature values, etc.
i1Pro 2
i1Pro 2 stands at the top of the solutions discussed today. The successor to the bestseller i1Pro, without a doubt the most widely used spectrophotometer in the world, differs from its predecessor (with which it is backward compatible) by a number of design improvements and a fundamental innovation, the possibility of using M0, M1 and M2 illumination. Among other things, the new type of lighting makes it possible to effectively cope with the problem of optical brighteners. Spectrophotometer (or as it is commonly called "probe") The measuring instrument itself is supplied as part of several software packages, and is again identical in all sets. The most affordable is the i1Basic Pro 2 set, which enables calibration and creation of profiles for monitors and projectors. In the highest version, i1Publish Pro 2, it includes the ability to create monitor, projector, scanner, RGB and CMYK profiles, and multi-channel printers. The package also includes target ColorChecker and digital camera profiling software. Due to the wide distribution (various versions of the i1 probe have gradually become practically the standard in this category of devices), the probe is also supported by practically all suppliers of graphic applications where it is necessary to measure colors (typically RIPs).
ColorChecker
We certainly must not forget ColorChecker, an icon among tools for accurate colors in photography. The current series contains a total of 6 products. ColorChecker Passport is the perfect tool for the photographer in the field, because in a small and practical package it contains three separate targets for setting the white point, fine-tuning the color rendering and creating a color profile. ColorChecker Classic contains a traditional set of 24 specially designed shades that can be used to balance the color rendering of a photo and create a digital camera profile. If this version is not enough, you can use ColorChecker Digital SG, which also includes additional shades to refine profiling and expand the gamut. In addition to this trio, the offer also includes three neutral targets, among them the well-known ColorChecker Gray Balance with 18% gray.
ColorTrue for mobile platforms
The majority of users probably don't even think about it, but if you are a designer, graphic artist or photographer, the color accuracy of the display on the screen of a mobile phone or tablet can be essential for you. It is generally known that the displays of Apple mobile devices correspond fairly precisely to the sRGB space with their gamut and color presentation, however, larger or smaller differences between individual devices are inevitable, so for higher demands it is necessary to create a color profile for these devices as well (and we are not talking about mobile devices of other manufacturers). It is possible to use several procedures for profiling mobile devices, but X-Rite now offers a very simple procedure, based on the ColorTrue application, which is available for free on the App Store and Google Play. The application works with any of the supported X-Rite devices (for IOS they are ColorMunki Smile, ColorMunkiDesign, i1Display Pro and i1Photo Pro2). Simply place the device on the mobile device's display, the ColorTrue app will connect to the host computer via Wi-Fi upon launch and guide the user through the process of creating a profile. The application subsequently also takes care of the application of the profile when working with the device, among other things it allows you to choose between display temperatures, simulate print output for offset on the display, and so on. Therefore, it is no longer necessary to judge colors "with a margin", in many cases, depending on the quality of the device and a correctly performed calibration, a tablet or phone can also be used for more demanding previews of photos and graphics.
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