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eviews<br />
ColorEdge CG220<br />
LCD monitor<br />
format Mac OS X 10.2/3, Windows 2000/XP<br />
price £3,189 plus VAT; Eye-One calibrator £177 plus VAT<br />
<strong>com</strong>pany Eizo, www.eizo.co.uk<br />
contact Eizo, 01483 719 500<br />
pros The best handling of colour available from an LCD monitor,<br />
and fantastic display quality. Good ergonomics and high-level of<br />
user control.<br />
cons Hugely expensive – a CRT could match it for quality at<br />
a fraction of the price, if you could buy one.<br />
<strong>Digit</strong> Rating ★★★★★<br />
W<br />
e’ve only seen one LCD monitor<br />
so far that could be said to truly<br />
challenge the colour ability of<br />
the CRT: Barco’s Coloris Calibrator.<br />
Unfortunately, that model was withdrawn<br />
in December 20<strong>04</strong> due to issues with the<br />
quality of <strong>com</strong>ponents, and with CRTs on<br />
their last legs, there’s a gap in the market<br />
for high-end displays for creatives.<br />
Now, Eizo is attempting to tackle the<br />
issue with its latest ColorEdge monitor for<br />
designers, the CG220. It offers the same<br />
focus on colour – being the first LCD<br />
monitor capable of displaying the whole<br />
gamut of the Adobe RGB colour space<br />
– and has an inevitably high price.<br />
For an LCD, the ColorEdge 220 is<br />
enormous – though it will still take up<br />
less of your desk space than a LaCie<br />
electron22blue, for example. The 22-inch<br />
screen is surrounded by a thick black<br />
bezel and supported by a tree-trunk of<br />
a base. Around the monitor sits a small<br />
hood for keeping ambient glare off the<br />
screen. Part of the hood slides off to<br />
allow a calibration device to hang without<br />
having to remove the whole thing.<br />
Eizo does it<br />
A calibration device is a must. Eizo ships<br />
the CG220 with its own ColorNavigator<br />
software, which is designed to work<br />
with GretagMacbeth’s Eye-One device.<br />
ColorNavigator works with both Macs<br />
and PCs. It’s simple to use and offers<br />
a wide level of control.<br />
After calibrating your monitor – and<br />
even before – the quality of the CG220<br />
is immediately obvious. Even to the<br />
naked eye, the level of colour accuracy<br />
and depth is better than LaCie’s<br />
90 d<br />
Colours visible to the<br />
human eye<br />
Colour space<br />
displayed on<br />
monitor<br />
Adobe RGB space<br />
Photon20vision II, which is currently<br />
the LCD of choice for designers.<br />
Assuming the rest of your workflow<br />
from input (camera, scanner) to output<br />
(proofer, press) is properly calibrated,<br />
there’s currently no better way of making<br />
sure that what you see is what you get.<br />
We examined the colour profile<br />
created by ColourNavigator and the<br />
Eye-One in Chromix ColorThink 2.1. The<br />
colour range available for output by the<br />
CG220 is the largest available on any<br />
LCD display we’ve seen by a wide margin<br />
– though it didn’t quite cover the Adobe<br />
RGB gamut (see diagram, above). It was<br />
also one of the most accurate we’ve seen.<br />
The 1,920-x-1,200 resolution allows a<br />
large amount of detailed information to<br />
be shown: an A4 spread – plus palettes<br />
– was perfectly readable in InDesign.<br />
Only the slow response rate of 37ms<br />
is a disappointment – but this monitor<br />
isn’t aimed at video professionals.<br />
The ColorEdge CG220 is a fantastic<br />
monitor but the price is going to be<br />
too high for the majority of designers<br />
– though you can reduce it a bit by<br />
going for the Colour Confidence<br />
DisplayProof System bundle from<br />
TypeMaker, which essentially bundles<br />
the Eye-One calibrator and a colour<br />
management guide for the same £3,189<br />
plus VAT price. TypeMaker also claim to<br />
check the monitor to a higher standard.<br />
You’re essentially paying over £3,000<br />
for a monitor created to match £700<br />
CRTs. However, if your clients require<br />
that level of colour accuracy (or you’re<br />
just rich), the CG220 is an exceptional<br />
product. Those on lower budgets may<br />
want to wait for LaCie’s forth<strong>com</strong>ing<br />
321 LCD Monitor, which claims to match<br />
CRTs for colour but is more affordable<br />
at just over £950 plus VAT.<br />
Neil Bennett<br />
specifications<br />
Viewable area: 22.2-inch Dot pitch: 0.294mm Native resolution:<br />
1,920-x-1,200 Connection: 2x DVI-I Response rate: 37ms Horizontal<br />
viewing angle: 170 degrees Vertical viewing angle: 170 degrees<br />
Brightness: 200cd/m2 Contrast ratio: 400:1 10-bit gamma correction: yes<br />
Dimensions (W-x-H-x-D): 565-x-452.5-x-272mm Weight (with base): 6.6kg<br />
Modes: 1 Speakers: no Ports: USB (for calibrator) Software:<br />
ColorNavigator Specified calibrator: GretagMacbeth Eye-One Hood: yes
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