newb with MBP color calibration question

[Chip Young]

Hello all! I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of my 17" MBP SR, destined for arrival on Friday! This will be my first Mac after many years of PC.

I have a question about color calibration on my MBP (matte screen) How do I do it/ whats the best method? Do I hold something against the screen (like some Pantone thingee that I've seen) or does the Mac have some internal application/ web based applcation? This is for color management/ color printing in anticipation of Adobe CS applications (I've never done it before in the past, but now sounds like a good time to do it).

Please let me know!

Thanks in advance for your time and answers!!

 

[banjomamo]

one cool thing about macs and their displays is that apple does a good job of calibrating them before they come to you. in the system preferences there is a color calibration utility that helps you set up the color they way you want and create or use other profiles.

if matching pantone colors is really super important to you then i would suggest looking into the many color calibration tools on the market. they range from $50 to $1000 depending on your needs.

 

[jng]

one cool thing about macs and their displays is that apple does a good job of calibrating them before they come to you.

I disagree. I'm having problems with my MBP and CS3 and reminisce about the old days with my powerbook and PS7. See my thread here.

 

[banjomamo]

interesting. i have had great luck with my displays but the only recent laptop ive bought is a blackbook. i guess YMMV. however CS3 has its own color space. i havent used CS3 yet, but in CS2 you can change the working color space.

ill check your thread.

 

[Bern]

If you want to correctly calibrate your monitor the best way is with a screen calibrator such as Colorvision's Spyder2 Express or Spyder2 Pro

I disagree the monitor as calibrated from the factory is good enough.

 

[banjomamo]

every single apple flat panel display i have owned has needed only the slightest adjustment from the factory. they crank the brightness up too high by default. i havent bought one in 2 years though so maybe things have changed.