Save Current Monitor Calibration as Default?

But I was advised by their techs that once I had run the calibrator, I would NOT be able to revert to my previous settings.

That's a bunch of baloney. Your previous calibration will still be on your Mac (unless you overwrite it with the same name) and it will be in the Displays menu of choices, just as it is now. You can go back to it anytime you want.

Since being setup for printing is your goal, use these monitor settings with the ColorMunki:

1. Color temperature - D50, or 5000K. They're the same, I'm just noting you may only see one or the other.

2. Gamma - 1.8.

3. Luminance - 80. This one's kind of up to you. You're going for a monitor that looks like reflected paper white. Though better a bit bright than too dim.

Calibration and profiling are two different steps. The above is calibration, and the ColorMunki will step your through these. It then sets the monitor color, luminance and gamma according to your settings. You may have to do the monitor brightness (for luminance) manually. Often, automatic doesn't work.

It then runs a series of color patches to measure how these pre-determined patches display according to your calibration. The final result is a profile that contains both the calibration LUT, and profile data.

DO NOT move the monitor brightness, contrast or anything else after completing the above. That also changes how color displays and will invalidate the profile. That is, the Mac thinks the monitor looks like xxx, but you moved the monitor settings so it no longer does.

The profiles stored in the /Library/ColorSync/Profiles/Displays/ folder are the ones pulled from the monitor itself (or the built-in panel of an iMac or MacBook). Manufacturers started doing this years ago so they could stop throwing in a disk with a default profile on it for every monitor sold. Which most people promptly lost or threw away. Both the Mac and Windows OS look for these and automatically copy them to the drive. When you're in the System Preferences, any profiles in that folder are listed above the line, such as the CG243W in the image below. Any you create with Apple's Calibrate function are also listed above the line.

If the Cinema HD profile you're seeing is above the line, it came from the monitor. If it's below the line, and you didn't create it, then it's just one of the many canned profiles installed by the OS.

What would be the best way to capture whatever my current settings are? I Would just give it a profile name that I could remember.

Whatever works for you. When the ColorMunki software is finished with all readings and asks you to give a name to the profile it's about to save, you could name it something like, 5000K 1.8G 10-23-18 . I like to give my profiles a date so I know how old they are. All monitors drift and should be re-profiled at least every couple of months.