How to share my colour calibration with someone else?

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Level 1

20 points

How to share my colour calibration with someone else?

I'm a graphic designer. I use a Pantone Huey to calibrate the colour settings on my Mac Pro. A business partner abroad has just bought a new iMac. Is there any way I can share my settings with him, so that I know he is seeing close enough to the exact colours that I see (accounting for different ambient light, eyesight etc) when I send him work? Is there a particular file(s) I can just send him, and if so, where would he place it?

Or does he have to go buy a calibration device too? And if so, how can we guarantee that what he sees is what I see?

Thanks.

Mac Pro 2.93Ghz, ATI Radeon HD 4870, 30, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 12GB RAM

Posted on May 16, 2014 12:55 AM

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Answer 1

benwiggy

Level 4

1,473 points

May 18, 2014 8:49 AM in response to Agasucci

Every monitor is different, to a degree, in its characteristics. You will be using some monitor on your Mac Pro that will have different characteristics from your boss's iMac screen. Consequently, they need different calibration profiles. (As you say, lighting, eyesight, "professional colour experience" and other factors will all play a part.)

The point of calibration is to "translate" the colour data in a document to the values needed for particular hardware. If you send him the profile from your Mac Pro, the chances are that his colour is going to be way off.

Having worked in print for many years, I still don't believe that complete colour accuracy is possible on a monitor, or indeed desirable, and you're better off working with CMYK values, or PMS for spot; or if you're doing web stuff to use RGB values. Controversial, but there we are.

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Answer 2

May 19, 2014 8:59 AM in response to Agasucci

Hi Agasucci

Calibrating with a colorimeter device is essential, given that our eyes are always interpreting the colors subjectively. The sensors of a calibration device instead are measuring the colors on an objective matter.

You can suggest any of these devices to your business partner, given that all of them calibrate to an universal standard of the ICC (International Colour Consortium). The best is to calibrate to the AdobeRGB(1998). It's the biggest color gamut that is wide spreaden.

My experience is with a Spyder4Elite that works fine for me. There are 3 versions of Spyder4 so Spyder4Pro could already be enough I think. (Spyder4Express hasn't got the ambient light compensation, essential when working on prints, contrasts have to be correct.)

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