Review by Eric Berkow

Oh, for the days when we didn’t need all this gadgetry! Way back in the day type was set by professional typesetters using giant machines, and color artwork was actually separated by taking several filtered pictures of the artwork to create actual film separations! Here in the digital age, accurate color reproduction is available to almost anyone with a computer! All you need are a few tools to make sure that your equipment is accurate.

If you are trying for accurate color reproduction, you need a good set of color management tools. The i1Photo XT is a good place to start for most photographers/designers. 

This color management package will calibrate and profile monitors, projectors, scanners, printers and digital cameras. Basically it can do everything a designer/photographer will need.

Let’s take a look at the package.

Monitor Calibration

I am going to skip the lecture on the importance of monitor calibration. I am assuming if you are reading this you know why it needs to be calibrated. 
The i1 Match software is well built. There is a unified interface throughout, which makes finding all of the information you need a snap.

One of the best parts of this software is it’s simplicity. On the left, you can see the number of steps, and where you are in the process. The center panel is the ‘work stage’, and on the right is the description and instructions for each step.

This last part is by far the best feature of this software. Other color management packages do not do a very good job of giving step by step instructions or explaining exactly what and why you are doing what you are doing.

This software really is design to help the color management newbies set their systems up correctly.

Monitor profiling and calibration is straightforward and consistent. The advanced mode will walk you trough adjusting the color and brightness of you monitor to insure the most accurate calibration.

Scanner
If you have never profiled a scanner, you are missing out. If you have an accurately profiled scanner, you should need no adjustments to get your scans to match your originals.

Scanner profiling is rather simple- scan a target, load the image into the software, then tell it what target you scanned and a profile will be built! 

It was in scanner profiling that I hit my first issue with the i1. The target that is provided for scanner profiling is not one of the standard scanner targets. The i1 seems to use it’s own target, which means it has to be measured before scanning. While this will insure a more accurate profile, measuring the many patches is time consuming and a bit of a pain.

One you have gone through the process of measuring every patch in the target, then it is simple to create the profile.

Printer
The printer module is as complicated as you need the image to be for your printer. The software is capable of creating profiles for both RGB and CMYK printers.

Before anyone gets too confused- all printers use the CMYK colors to print. However, not all printers have software that is designed to accept CMYK input. Many of the consumer grade inkjet printers will actually convert your CMYK image date to RGB, then back to their own CMYK space for printing! So make sure you know what you printer is capable of before printing.
 

Summary
The i1 Match software is user friendly, with a great interface and wonderful instructions for color management newbies. The i1 instrument itself is accurate and reliable. The only downside of the i1 as an instrument is that it is a pain to measure large targets. If you are planning on using the i1 to consistently calibrate printers using full on CMYK targets like the ECI2002 target, I would highly recommend purchasing the i1iO- and automated system for measuring your targets. If you are a photographer or designer, I would highly recommend this package as a necessary addition to the toolkit that keeps your studio humming and productive.

Advanced mode gives you quite a few more options and will help calibrate the monitor before profiling it. Starting out you have to input your monitor type, and then you can select the white point, gamma (contrast) and luminance you would like. There are industry standards you can find to match what goes on in a prepress department; it also has recommended settings you can choose from. The best part of this is as you change the settings, the monitor changes as well to show you the difference between a 5000K white point and a 6500K white point. There is also a small check box on the bottom for “Perform ambient light check”.  “Perform ambient light check” is a feature that I think is unique to the i1 Display 2. Since color perception is based on a host of factors, one of which being ambient light, you are technically supposed to only perform color correction work in rooms with minimal ambient light. In reality, most of us are working in offices with large windows, well lit home offices and studios. After all, who wants to work in the dark? This ambient light will change the appearance of you monitor, and the i1 Match software will check and correct for ambient light when creating your monitor profile!
 As you work your way through the steps, the software will help guide you through monitor calibration. It will help you adjust contrast and brightness to the optimal levels for profiling, and help you adjust the color controls as well. These parts are simple to use and easy to understand.
 As you finish the process, the display will allow you to switch between before and after views to let you see the effectiveness of profiling, as well as give you some information on what your monitor is currently displaying.
 Overall this is a great product. The only negative I found with the i1 Display 2 was a small annoying thing really. Since it is bad to stick suction cups to an LCD screen a weight is supplied that attaches to the cord. This is supposed to keep the i1 hanging in place while it reads you monitor. I can never get the cord weight to work right, and usually just find something heavy to sit on the cord- I used a scotch tape dispenser when I wrote this.