Kept Light » Computer

Munki See, Munki Do: Display Calibration

A. Cemal Ekin — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 00:48:35 +0000

X-Rite ColorMunki Photo

I am amazed that many photographers, far too many of them work on a monitor with no calibration, no profiling and get surprised when they do not achieve the expected colors from their prints. I have made quite a few presentations on digital workflow, and have been preaching the importance of color management starting with the display monitor calibration and profiling. The importance of a calibrated and properly profiled display monitor cannot be overemphasized. It is a must, period. The rest of the color-manged workflow depends on it.

I have been using a Monaco Optix-XR display calibration device that I acquired about 8-9 years ago; it was one of the better devices then. It served me well over the years until I upgraded my computer about a month ago, and its OS to Windows 7. The old software, which had not been updated for many years after X-Rite acquired Monaco, did not install on Windows 7 64-Bit OS. A replacement was clearly necessary, not for compatibility reasons only but also the availability of newer and better technology.

I sought advice from Brenda, the knowledgeable and helpful rep of X-Rite as to which one of their products would suit my needs the best. X-Rite makes close to 10 different models with a wide range of capabilities and prices and I considered i1Display series and the ColorMunki. She recommended X-Rite ColorMunki Photo (yes, it sounds a bit hokey to me too) and demoed one on my computer. I was sold on the spot. The process could not be simpler, it’s so simple a Munki can do it (sorry for the pun!)

Install the software first; it will probably take longer than the actual display calibration. Then plug in the CM (no more Munki-ing around with the long names) to an available USB port, which will trigger the installation of the hardware device driver. After it says your hardware is ready to use, start the Photo software. From this point on, it is a matter of following the on-screen instructions which even show a picture of the device with the correct dial setting and informs the user when it is set correctly or incorrectly. (There is one part that is not so foolproof as this fool was tripped by it. You need to open the sliding sensor cover at the bottom otherwise you will go through the entire process only to end up with an error message. I wish there was a hardware or software indicator that the cover was closed. But it is a very, very minor issue and I will most likely not make that mistake again.)

During the initial phases of the calibration process you will need access to the brightness and contrast controls of your display, acquaint yourself with those buttons; they are usually very hard to find and their labels are practically impossible to read. At least my monitor’s controls are. While making the adjustment on contrast or brightness as instructed by your loyal Munki software, go in small steps as it takes it a moment or two to read the new levels. After these are done, it will go through displaying and reading a series of colors on the screen and tell you that it is finished. At this point, you need to save the created profile. It suggests a name, which is fine to use. I prefer to add my monitor brand and the date of calibration to the file name so my profile names look like:

Ekin_Samsung_100704

but any name will do. I’m from the old school of computing and try to put as much information in to the file name as I can within reason. It’s a habit I developed in the days of CP/M and MS-DOS! (What do you mean you don’t know what they are?)

The next step is a visual comparison of Before-After with noticeably better After view. You will be pleased when you see the results. I have not yet even mentioned that it can profile substrates for printers with ease and is a color picker from any surface that you can touch with this Munki’s foot. Other utilities included in the package will be quite useful to people who need to decide on color combinations like on a Web site, or a magazine layout. On their Web site they offer training materials, brochures, and other information that will help the user get the most out of this product.

I love this Munki and highly recommend that you get one at your earliest convenience. They are easy to train, once you learn how to remove their “eye-patch!”

A New Computer

A. Cemal Ekin — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 04:13:02 +0000

Having had my computer for close to 4 years, I decided that the summer time was a good time to replace it. I wanted the new one to have the latest Intel 6-core CPU, 12 GB RAM, and 64-bit Windows 7. While searching for options and trying to make build or buy decisions I came across a great deal on the HP site. They had a computer with everything I wanted and with a $400 instant rebate. The price of the computer came lower than the parts I could purchase. So, I bought one. Mistake number 1! Shipping was a disaster, I specifically wanted to receive it after a certain date as I would be out of town and not be able to receive the product. The sales person assured me that they were not that ahead of schedule. So, I believed him. Mistake number 2.

After an adventurous delivery to a neighbor’s house, I picked it up after returning home. That was a chore with the large and heavy package; I ended up using a luggage cart and took it upstairs a little at a time. It was a diminutive computer in their HPE series. It seemed to work fine, but at one point I needed tech support. Then, things started getting really bad. I will spare you the details but summarize the experience by quoting the support person. He said as a response to my questions almost repeatedly “I cannot tell you that,” or “search our Web site.” Two hours later, I was talking to a case manager at HP corporate level and after reporting everything I told him that I had obtained an RMA and the computer was on its way back. The customer service totally destroyed the sale.

CyberPower built computer interior

The search continued and I decided to buy the parts and build it myself as I had been doing for the last 20+ years. NewEgg.com was my choice for parts and I built a shopping list from the case to the CPU cooler and everything necessary. Then I stumbled upon CyberPower.com somehow, I don’t quite know why I went there. I noticed that they were offering computers using exactly the same components for a little more than the parts cost. I decided to save some time for myself and ordered the computer from them. It took about 2 weeks but I got exactly what I expected, with full documentation unlike the HP computer. The workmanship was, and still is top notch. Take a look at the photograph (click to enlarge) of the interior of the box, it looks almost empty!

I had a question and called their tech support line. Within 5 minutes I was talking to Hien, a very knowledgeable person who pinpointed the problem and after a nice chat I told him that the CPU heat sink seemed non standard. He asked for a photo which I mailed to him. Within 30 minutes, he called me back (read again: he called me back!) to apologize for the incorrect cooler and a new one was on its way. After that, I spoke with Hien a couple of more times on other questions, again, within minutes my problems were solved and questions answered. I am now a satisfied customer of CyberPower.com and will certainly recommend them for your serious consideration. The computer works like a charm and support answers the phone and my questions.

No more HP for me, you should think twice too!

Configuration:

Intel Core- i7 980 Extreme 6-core CPU
12 GB Corsair Dominator RAM
GigaByte GA-X58A-UD3R
CoolerMaster 690 II Advanced Mid-Tower Gaming Case
ATI Radeon HD 5670 1GB GDDR5 16X PCIe Video Card
Corsair 750 Watts CMPSU-750TX Power Supply
1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD (Western Digital)
24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive
Microsoft® Windows® 7 Professional (64-bit Edition)
3-Year Limited Warranty Plus Life-Time Technical Support

Free Software

A. Cemal Ekin — Wed, 05 May 2010 20:02:38 +0000

One of the leading add-on software makers, onOne Software, has made some of their products available at no charge. If you want to download a copy of these, which have fewer presets than the paid versions, point your browser to onOne Software Web site page. The price is right!

Adobe Air and Application Install Problems

A. Cemal Ekin — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 04:24:33 +0000

I have written several posts on Adobe CS4 installation problems and how I finally managed to install the parts that I needed. At that time, the problem always happened as the installation software attempted to install Adobe Air and/or an Air application. One part of my solution was to skip installing Adobe Air. Since then, on multiple occasions I tried installing Air applications which always, without exception, ended up my computer being rebooted. Every so often I would get curious enough and would have enough time to spend on this issue and search, experiment, and fail again.

Today on Adobe forums I stumbled upon several posts that mentioned the application “Folder Lock” being a problem. I had that installed at one time on my computer, I had uninstalled it way before the CS4 installation problems. But I was able to find the file mentioned in the forums and removed it. That did not solve the problem. Then, I reinstalled Folder Lock and uninstalled it using its specific method once more. Lo and behold! I could install Air applications! Not that they are earth shatteringly necessary or useful, but it brought a sense of closure, at least at a personal level, to my ongoing battle with the Adobe installation problems.

Now, clearly Folder Lock appears to be an obstacle for Air applications to install. Shame on Folder Lock. That said, why on earth Air application installers, or Air program itself not designed, or corrected to trap this problem and give a meaningful error message instead of crashing the computer. Another point that is still very problematic is the advice given by Adobe tech support. They insisted that I should uninstall all Adobe products. Had I listened to them,uninstalling Adobe software would not help my problem. As guilty as Folder Lock, or similar software may be, Adobe and its tech support provide good company to it.

Customer orientation

A. Cemal Ekin — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:11:25 +0000

I have known Photodex since the early days of computer graphics. They had one of the best, and quickest image viewers going, Compupic. It was a mainstay of my tool box and I recommended that to my friends who adopted it as well. I no longer use Compupic but I have been using another great product they make, ProShow. It comes in Gold and Producer versions and I use them to create the slide shows like those of Hagia Sophia. As an active member of the Photographic Society of Rhode Island, I got many users there and have established good relations with Photodex. They support PSRI through discounts and door prizes and we list them as one of our sponsors and promote ProShow and train members on how to use the product. They are terrific products for this purpose, I heartily recommend them to anyone interested in creating highly polished presentations with animation, transitions, and sound.

All this well and good, but I want to narrate something else that is not easily visible unless you experience it. Last week, I created a screen saver using ProShow Producer which would not install into Windows XP. I called Photodex and the tech support person recommended a process by which I could provide information to help them trouble shoot the issue. I followed the instructions and added a little more of my empirical trouble shooting results. I downloaded the latest version of Producer and was able to create the screen saver with that which installed properly. The support person helped me try a few other things, including a screen saver he created for me to try. He then asked me to download the trial version of the latest release of Producer and try it. Since I had already tried it, I gave him the result which was positive and added I would probably eventually upgrade the software so that I could do this kind of work.

The next morning I received an e-mail from him with a license code that would activate the latest version of ProShow Producer. A totally unexpected surprise! My version was about two years old. He had no obligation to give me a free upgrade to the latest version, but realizing that there was an unexplained glitch in the software that prevented it from doing what it was supposed to do. Apparently that was unacceptable to him and to Photodex to offer that upgrade, which I consider to be very generous. He did not even know of my relationship with Photodex on behalf of PSRI.

Companies like Photodex, and the support people like the one I worked with often get unmentioned in the sea of support disasters; so, I thought it would be a refreshing change for many to hear an extremely positive experience.

Thank you Photodex, thank you Jeremy.