I'm also of the "by eye" school. I think part of it may depend on your
knowledge of color/contrast/density corrections - if you have a good eye for
that you should be able to get your monitor fairly well calibrated.
Depending upon the printer you use (I use a 1280) and whether you're running
a mac or pc platform, there can be quite good color management software
setups. You may have to play a bit with them (I'm on a pc so the Adobe
Gamma - Epson CM software doesn't run QUITE as smoothly as a mac) - but once
you find "your way" you should be more or less set. I guess the best advice
I could give - other than getting a spyder (if you WANT to go that route and
there's one designed for your monitor) - is to spend a day doing tests: if
you're running photoshop, set up Adobe Gamma to calibrate your monitor and
then save that setting as your new preference in your profiles. I only know
the setup on Epson's - so if you DO have one, then use the color management
settings and select your newly-calibrated profile. That should be a good
starting point. The "testing" becomes taking it from a tungsten-lit room
into daylight, etc etc etc - unless your workspace is set up for "ideal
viewing conditions" you're going to have to play with the calibrations so
your prints look right when viewed in the "appropriate" conditions. Lastly,
there's all the different kinds of paper. If you have an Epson and are
using Epson ink and paper then their "paper type" options should keep colors
reasonably consistent. But if you switch to, say, the Fuji Crystal archival
paper mentioned in other conversations, then you're going to have to set a
new paper type and/or color profile to match that. So, take all the papers
you plan on using, stick to one brand of ink, and just spend the day
playing. I would also suggest making a note on the back of each final test
print of the settings used; I trusted my memory would handle it all, until
two weeks ago when I went to make a black & white print and suddenly
couldn't remember my exact settings, which meant another annoying round of
tests. Oh - and especially if you're using a CRT monitor, make sure you let
it warm up for at least an hour before doing calibrations - until they're
fully warmed-up they tend to shift slightly, so your corrections won't come
out right. Well Greg, I hope this helps you some if you're planning on
skipping on a Spyder. They're nice if you've got the right one (and the
"right" monitor to start with), but with a little effort you can certainly
calibrate it yourself.
~Rob
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