Thunderbolt Calibration

[libertyranger10]

I posted this in the photography section but don't think that forum gets a lot of traffic...

Hello,

I am curious to find out if anyone here on MR has calibrated their thunderbolt display. I recently bought a Canon Pixma Pro9000 printer but my prints are not coming out as my display shows them. I googled to find out about this and many sites state that I should calibrate my display. Well that got me thinking...

I am on the verge of pulling the trigger and buying a Thunderbolt Display. Can these be calibrated well enough so that I get decent accuracy with my prints. I primarily use Lightroom 3 for edits and don't see the get quite the accuracy with my current external monitor.

So, has anyone had any luck getting the Thunderbolt monitor calibrated to fit their prints?

 

[convergent]

Modern displays are calibrated in software, not by manual controls. There are zero controls on the TBD... not even a power switch or brightness... nada. That's actually a good thing, meaning if you calibrate it, then you don't need to worry about anyone messing it up. The calibration occurs by creating profiles for your devices. To do it correctly, you need to calibrate your displays, your printers, and anything else like scanners and possibly your cameras. I have not done any of this yet because my Spyder2 doesn't work with Lion. So, I'm curious what devices are recommended for the TBD here. The answer to your one question is, yes, you can absolutely calibrate the TBD, but you need to realize if you want display to match print, you need to plan on calibrating at least your printer as well. Printer calibration needs to be done for each type of paper you are using also.

Now, I'm curious also what calibration devices people recommend for the TBD.

 

[minifridge1138]

As mentioned, the only calibration will be in the display settings within OSX.

Lots of monitor manufacturers do include ways of calibrating the monitor itself, but Apple isn't one of them.

 

[libertyranger10]

Modern displays are calibrated in software, not by manual controls. There are zero controls on the TBD... not even a power switch or brightness... nada. That's actually a good thing, meaning if you calibrate it, then you don't need to worry about anyone messing it up. The calibration occurs by creating profiles for your devices. To do it correctly, you need to calibrate your displays, your printers, and anything else like scanners and possibly your cameras. I have not done any of this yet because my Spyder2 doesn't work with Lion. So, I'm curious what devices are recommended for the TBD here. The answer to your one question is, yes, you can absolutely calibrate the TBD, but you need to realize if you want display to match print, you need to plan on calibrating at least your printer as well. Printer calibration needs to be done for each type of paper you are using also.

Now, I'm curious also what calibration devices people recommend for the TBD.

Excellent information, thank you!

I knew I would be buying a calibration system of some sort such as the Sypder one you mentioned. I know their is one called the ColorMunki(Sp?) that calibrates your monitor and printer. I may go with this one.

I know the calibraiton tools create a monitor profile. I suppose I just go into the Display Calibration settings and load up the profile that is generated by the calibration tool, i.e. Sypder 2/Colormunki?

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As mentioned, the only calibration will be in the display settings within OSX.

Lots of monitor manufacturers do include ways of calibrating the monitor itself, but Apple isn't one of them.

Gotcha, so I would load the profile that is given by the calibraiton tool in OSX?

 

[convergent]

Sorry, I didn't see this right away.

To manage your profiles in OSX, you use the ColorSync utility (in Utilities folder). It will show you all your registered devices and the profiles in use. For something like a scanner or printer you can have numerous profiles. Each paper type in a printer should be separately calibrated.