ColorEyes Display--
Pro Monitor Profiling for a Consumer Price

Perhaps the only thing all color management gurus seem to agree on is that if you want to see your images accurately on your monior you need to profile it. A wide variety of tools have been invented to make this possible, ranging from $50 "eyeball-based" efforts including Adobe Gamma to $5000 combos like a Gretag Eye-One Pro with ProfileMaker.

To some extent you get what you pay for. The software only systems don't do a very good job and aren't really suitable for any precise color work. But the expensive systems have been beyond the reach of most photographers. In the middle have been products which sell for anywhere from $100-$300 and use inexpensive colorimeters (puck-like devices which have 3 sensors, much like your camera).

Up until now all of the inexpensive systems have suffered from trade-offs compared to the high-end tools. Some don't let you build different profiles for different viewing conditions and others don't do a great job of calibrating your monitor before profiling it. Until recently some didn't work with LCDs.

ColorEyes Display has changed all that. For less than $200 (just over $300 bundled with an XRite colorimeter) ColorEyes has all the features of the very expensive products and even throws in a few new ones. I used it to quickly and easily re-profile my NEC FP2141SB and was pleasantly surprised by how much brighter CE was able to make the monitor while maintaining the same color fidelity I had achieved with Profilemaker 4.1.5 (a tool which sells for 10 times as much--although it also does printer profiling).

Where CE goes beyond other software is in some well thought out extras. First and foremost they offer profile verification, so you can actually judge the quality of your profile. Second, they allow you to tweak your profile for the specific white balance of your viewing environment.

Obviously this isn't a thorough review, but we wanted to get you a quick heads up on a very innovative product well worth evaluating for anyone needing excellent monitor profiling software for an attractive price. ColorEyes Display is published by Integrated Color Corporation.

ColorEyes Display Features:

.Works with most devices including the Eye-One®. No need to buy additional hardware.

.Sophisticated adaptive gray balance profiling

."L*" technology for the smoothest tonal gradations from black to white.

.Lut and matrix based profiles.

.Full support for the Eizo ColorEdgeT monitor line.

.Award winning XRite DTP94 calibrator (included with full version)

.Profile validation, custom gray patch addition and white point adjustment tools.

.Match luminance across multiple monitors (crt or lcd)

.Use on up to three workstations

Integrated Color on ColorEyes Display:
(from their press release)

ColorEyes Display is designed for use with all CRT monitors and LCD displays. The product is sold with the X-Rite DTP-94 monitor calibrator, but also supports the EyeOne Pro, EyeOne Photo, EyeOne Monitor, Spectrolino, and EyeOne Display by GretagMacbeth, as well as the Monaco Optix, the X-Rite DTP-92USB and Spectrocam, the BasICColor Squid, and the Sony Artisan puck.

In announcing ColorEyes Display, Derrick Brown, President of Integrated Color Corporation, observed: "Virtually every manufacturer in the color management business focuses on making the best hardware, while Integrated Color Corporation concentrates on delivering the best software. Photographers and printers who do not have display calibration will find ColorEyes Display the perfect solution. Those who already have a good instrument can upgrade their software to the latest technology while protecting their hardware investment."

John Sweeney, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Integrated Color Solutions, discussing ColorEyes Display, commented: "Integrated Color Solutions is excited about bringing our sophisticated color management technology to the photo studio and printing industry through our partnership with industry leader Integrated Color Corporation. We share the vision of a color managed, digital workflow from digital camera to printing plate and press."