Digital Photographer's Software Guide - Bertemes - Net

Address: Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group, 343 State Street, Rochester, NY 14650,
United States
www.graphics.kodak.com
ColorMunki Photo
Vendor: X-Rite
Purpose: Professional color-management solution for photographers
Chapter 29 ■ Color Management 331
Description
Aimed primarily at wedding and event photographers who need precise control over
color all the way from screen to print, ColorMunki Photo is an integrated hardware/software
kit that consists of a spectrophotometer, the ColorMunki profiling software, plus
color creation and communication tools. Among the latter is DigitalPouch, a tool for
ensuring that the client sees exactly the same colors, regardless of the device that reproduces
them.
ColorMunki’s Swiss-engineered spectrophotometer serves multiple purposes, calibrating
not only monitors but also projectors and printers. It measures and compensates for
ambient light, while also offering spot color measurements when you need to build
palettes or color schemes. The accompanying software takes you step-by-step through
each process, prompting with simple selection choices such as “match my printer to my
display.” There are also advanced modes that give experienced users greater control.
ColorMunki’s printer profiling technology lets you work in RGB or CMYK, and it also
has the ability to optimize specific colors, black and white shades, and flesh tones. The
kit handles printer profiling with ease, rapidly scanning test charts in less than a minute,
saving you the chore of reading individual color patches. It all comes with the necessary
power cord, start guide, and protective bag that doubles as an integrated monitor holder.
There are other ColorMunki solutions aimed at designers, including the low-cost
ColorMunki Create, which offers palette software and display profiling, but lacks the
printer profiling and communication facilities of ColorMunki Photo.
Comments
Extremely well thought-out, the key item in this kit is the all-in-one spectrophotometer,
which represents a significant advance over earlier instruments. Everything about it says
“precision.” If you want to make a spot color measurement of a real-world object, you
can release a guide, which flips down to ensure correct positioning. With the included
Photo Color Picker you can then create custom palettes that will exactly match the setup
you are shooting. The software alerts you if colors are outside gamut and unlikely to
print correctly. Another included application is Digital Pouch, which acts as a “digital
wrapper” when you send images to a client. This is a self-executable application that