Calibrating and Profiling Monitors and Printers

[voyager]

While I have been printing my photos for display for years, I have never gone beyond simply doing a basic monitor visual calibration with the old PS Gamma utillity.
My printers have been an Epson 1270, an Epson 1280 and then an Epson 1400, all dye based ink printers.

I have just purchased an Epson P400, my 1st pigment ink printer.
I am so struck by the increase in the quality of the prints that I am now thinking of picking up a calibration instrument to calibrate my monitors and then calibrating/profiling the new printer.
I have dual Dell U2412M monitors.
After looking around a bit, I'm thinking the ColorMunki Display will be best suited to my monitors and pocketbook.
My understanding is that the monitors are calibrated first, then the printer is tuned.

Can anyone give me an explanation, or point me to a good easily understood explanation of how this is all accomplished?

 

[jtoolman]

If you are a visual sort of learner, please look at my video channel and look for the Color Management Play list.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLy-ZTSBwqckYTTy5dkJ7Cz_HWfNU1b94_
You should be able to find out everything you will need there.

Joe

 

[Roy Sletcher]

I endorse everything Joe says above, but with the caveat, "Proceed with caution".

Colour management is one of the most misunderstood segments of image reproduction.

My advice read a lot and don't spend your money until you feel you have a good understanding of the subject, and what are reasonable expectations. Just buying a spectrophotometer or a colourimeter and following the screen prompts does not give you a colour managed workflow.

Not trying to be negative, I am a firm believer and dedicated practitioner.

Just be aware of the many false statements you will encounter, such as "AdobeRBG has MORE colours than sRGB". For the record it doesn't - it has different colours which in visual terms shows more saturated or brighter colours, especially in the greens and blues.

have fun - it is a worth while endeavour if you take your images seriously.

rs

 

[martin0reg]

This subject really might be a "bottomless pit", so only two points:

If you want to profile your printer a colormunki display won't do it, you need a colormunki photo. A printer profile actually is one profile for each combination of printer-ink-paper

...
My understanding is that the monitors are calibrated first, then the printer is tuned.
...

It doesn't matter which is profiled first, because both are output devices. And they don't depend on each other technically. A monitor profile does not affect the printer output (at least not directly....but it will affect your photo editing using this monitor) neither does a printer profile affect the monitor output.*

* just to add to the last point: .. except you are using a printer/paper profile for "soft proofing" on the monitor ... and there you are in complex color management.
And while I use my colormunki for profiling papers and inks very often - however the profiling of my monitor seems to be insignificant compared to adjusting manually "by eyes"