I have just purchased the ColorMunki Design for my graphic design and illustration work, but it won't create a profile on my iMac monitor. IMac is dual core intel. Does anyone else have this problem and perhaps a solution?
I would appreciate any input on the ColorMunki Design software, thanks,😕
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.5), MBpro 10.7 intel core
Do you mean it won't save the profile? If so, that's because of a change in Lion and later that prevents easy access to the /Library/Profiles/ folder.
Note that this is the root Library. Not the Library folder within the System folder, or your user account. Navigate to:
/Library/ColorSync/
You should see the Profiles folder, and one called Scripts, which is an alias. Highlight the Profiles folder by clicking on it once and pressing Command+I, or choose Get Info from the top menu bar. You should see something like this:
If you don't see what's at the bottom, click on the expansion arrow next to "Sharing & Permissions". Click the lock to allow you (as the admin account) to make changes. The above is from Mavericks. I don't recall if Lion allows you to do it quite this way. But after unlocking the folder permissions, I clicked the plus button and added myself as Read & Write access (the one with (Me) as part of the name). If Lion doesn't allow you to add your admin account with full access, then just change all Privilege levels to Read & Write, then close the box.
You will now be able to save your profiles to the main /Library/Profiles/ folder. Note that if you couldn't add yourself as Read & Write, then running Repair Permissions with Disk Utility will put the folder permissions back where they were. You then have to manually put them back as Read & Write for all entries.
Do you mean it won't save the profile? If so, that's because of a change in Lion and later that prevents easy access to the /Library/Profiles/ folder.
Note that this is the root Library. Not the Library folder within the System folder, or your user account. Navigate to:
/Library/ColorSync/
You should see the Profiles folder, and one called Scripts, which is an alias. Highlight the Profiles folder by clicking on it once and pressing Command+I, or choose Get Info from the top menu bar. You should see something like this:
If you don't see what's at the bottom, click on the expansion arrow next to "Sharing & Permissions". Click the lock to allow you (as the admin account) to make changes. The above is from Mavericks. I don't recall if Lion allows you to do it quite this way. But after unlocking the folder permissions, I clicked the plus button and added myself as Read & Write access (the one with (Me) as part of the name). If Lion doesn't allow you to add your admin account with full access, then just change all Privilege levels to Read & Write, then close the box.
You will now be able to save your profiles to the main /Library/Profiles/ folder. Note that if you couldn't add yourself as Read & Write, then running Repair Permissions with Disk Utility will put the folder permissions back where they were. You then have to manually put them back as Read & Write for all entries.
thanks, Kurt, but the ColorMunki program won't even respond. When I click the "profile my monitor" button, with everything correctly in place, nothing happens. Seems like the software is just not responding, and I read on some review that the ColorMunki Design has failed on Macs. So this is my quest, to see if anyone else has had this problem with this particular software in Lion.
(I am saving your answer for future library issues, however! It is great!)
Not sure about the ColorMunki with Lion. I used to have one, but having much better hardware and software for both monitor and printer profiles, the only thing we really used the ColorMunki for was reading spot values. Like to get an RGB value of a red swatch of cloth.
It's always been a bit of an odd duck of in X-Rite's lineup. The ColorMunki hardware itself scores very well as an accurate spectrophotometer, especially at the low price for that type of hardware, but the bundled software isn't very good.
It's not cheap, but if you want a much, much better package that will do monitor, projector and printer profiles, get the i1 Basic Pro 2. It's not much fun doing printer profiles with one of these (you have to hand read strips of color patches a row at a time), but to greatly speed up the process for printer profiles, you'd have to invest in the rather expensive i1 iSis.
Pretty much anywhere you look, the lowest price is $1149. The bad part of this package is that there is no method for doing spot color readings. At least, not included with the item. The only current software X-Rite has which will work for that with this unit is the discontinued PerfectPalette. But it does work, even in Mavericks (does require installing a runtime version of Java 6, which it will do itself).
After all that, it's probably the last thing you wanted to hear as you just bought the ColorMunki. If you check the downloads page, the last time the software even got an update was to 1.1.1 in November of 2009. It's sold as a current product, but doesn't get much attention compared to other items in their lineup.
I think I was afraid of just what you are saying - I was hoping to learn about color management with this ColorMnki set-up, realizing that I will eventually have to spend at least twice as much to get the right stuff. For now, though, your info is helpful in letting me know exactly what it is I have.
The distrubutor I bought this system from is saying there may be a problem with my particular device and to return it for a replacement....in the meantime, I have contacted X-Rite with these concerns and wait to hear what they say. I may have to give up on this one.
The ColorMunki Design version I have is 1.1 (1280), so may be that I have to up grade to 1.1.1?
Thanks, Kurt, for your informed answers, very helpful!
Color management is one of those subjects that's really confusing until it clicks. And then you wonder why it seemed so difficult before that.
Upgrading to the 1.1.1 software and installing it may help. Can't hurt to try since the download is free.
We were never impressed with the monitor profiling results of the ColorMunki. An older Spyder 2 colorimeter did a better job (we use the i1 Pro 2 for that now). Printer profiling with the ColorMunki is weak. Better than nothing I suppose, but not very good. We've always had an auto reading spectrophotometer for that. First a DTP-41, then a DTP-70, and now an i1 iSis. But just for the heck of it, I tried the ColorMunki to see how well it would do against these much pricier units. Not even close. Grays didn't even neutralize on the paper we were doing the profile on. Quite a few other colors weren't even close to the target hue.
You can't hope to ever print the entire range of RGB values you see on screen to paper, but the ColorMunki generated profile was a disappointment compared to the result from any of the auto readers.
It is possible there's a problem with the unit. The software may not be able to connect to the ColorMunki, so essentially, nothing happens.
Essentially, your advice would be to save my pennies, get the good stuff? It sounds to me, from what you are saying and my own looking on line, that ColorMunki Design is an inferior product, for beginners, or for those not ready for prime time? ( like me!) Better than nothing? perhaps not.
Well, thank you for the time you have taken with this, and testing the ColorMunki, "for the heck of it," and I will look into the i1 iSis. BTW, grays are SO important in my artwork, so I much appreciate your input.
I am glad I visited this forum, it is always very good.
Kathleen
Essentially, your advice would be to save my pennies, get the good stuff?
I'm afraid so. Highly accurate results pretty much dictates the high end stuff. You can save some money if you're looking at the i1 iSis by skipping the i1 Pro 2 and getting a much less expensive unit for the monitor.
There's no real need to use a spectrophotometer for monitor profiles. We use one because it has the dual purpose of spot color readings. Otherwise, we'd invest in the i1 Display Pro. Don't get the very similar looking ColorMunki Display. It's slower and not as accurate as the i1 Display Pro. Avoid the ColorMunki Smile. It's a repackaged version of the i1 Display 2. A much older colorimeter that doesn't even work right with wide gamut displays.
Anyway, about $250 for the i1 Display Pro as opposed to $1149 for the i1 Pro 2.
I do have to say I've never tried testing a printer profile from the i1 Pro 2 against the i1 iSis. If it did as good a job, or at least close, then $1149 would be way cheaper to do both your monitor and printer profiles in one package rather than roughly $250 for the i1 Display Pro, and then add the eye popping price of about $2,900 for the i1 iSis.
Heck, I'm not sure if the i1 iSis even comes with the i1 Profiler software needed to generate your printer profiles. You can download it directly from X-Rite, but not sure how that would work. i1 Profiler will automatically detect the unit, so it should work for basic RGB and CMYK profiles. You need a USB dongle to activate advanced features such as multiple ink profiles (example: CMYK + Red, Blue, Green and Orange for Hexachrome profiles), and Device Linked profiles. Something to ask X-Rite if you lean toward the i1 iSis.
this looks like the perfect solution for now, I believe. Thanks, Kurt!
If I get a little time this week, I'll do a printer profile with the i1 Pro 2 and see how similar it comes out against one I've already made with the i1 iSis. I'll then let you know the results.
Great! and in mean time, I will look into the i1 Display as well.
Hi, Kurt, I've been struggling still, with the ColorMunkiDesign, because of all its features, really.
If I go to the i1 Display Pro for monitor profiling, what would I use to profile my papers and printers?
This is why I think I want to get the CMDesign to work...don't I really need my printers and my monitors to sync colors for my prints? I do fine art and digital art and print my own.
Right now, I am finding the CMDesign only works on my macbook pro and my iMac if I create another Administrator user....a workaround, but why should this need one??
😢
thanks for your help, Kurt,
Kathleen
If you get the i1 Display Pro, monitors is all it does. That's where the i1 iSis comes in. You'd use that to create your printer profiles.
With the i1 Pro 2, you'd be able to do both in one package. So the general cost difference is:
i1 Display Pro and i1 iSis - $3300
i1 Pro 2 - $1150
I think I'll have time today to test the i1 Pro 2 against the i1 iSis. I'll let you know how well they compare.
Thanks, Kurt,
the i1Pro 2 makes the best financial sense, but I am interested in how the two compare, so I appreciate this input.
Where can it be found for 1150, do you think? 🙂
Terribly sorry, it's not going to be quite that cheap. The basic i1 Pro 2 set only does press validation. It will not profile printers. Here's a chart on the different packages:
So you would need i1 Photo Pro 2 in order to do any printer which is considered an RGB device (most of them, especially ink jet printers at the consumer or prosumer level), and i1 Publish Pro 2 in order to do that and CMYK printers.
It's not a LOT more than the basic, and still quite a bit cheaper than the i1 iSis alone. $1500 for the RGB printer capable package, $1600 to add CMYK and multi channel (a.k.a., Hexechrome and similar) printer profiling.
As far as testing, I did a 1500 color patch set on a Xerox 7500 color laser printer. The results between the i1 iSis and the i1 Pro 2 were indistinguishable. I'm certain an RGB printer profile would match just as well.
Time start to finish using the i1 iSis was 10 minutes. For the i1 Pro 2, about 25 minutes. Don't let the time put you off too much on the less expensive option. Printer profiles are something you do once for each type of paper on each printer you have, and then do them again only when you notice your grays drifting away from neutral. Otherwise, the hardware just sits around most of the time unused. Otherwise, you pull it out once a month to redo your monitor profile to keep it balanced.
ColorMunki Design can't profile iMac OSX 10.7 monitor?
