By Andy

Monitor Calibration sure isn't easy. Or rather, it wasn't. Along came Huey, from Pantone. I have used other Calibration devices, namely Gretag Macbeth's Eye-One. So, what's different? Well, for starters, the price. Huey goes for about $90, street. Most of the other calibration devices on out there are $150, $250, and more. But for $90, does it work? For many folks, this is a great starting point into the world of color calibration - and for the the advanced procrastinator, too, it's a great way to remove some of the mystery.

Why calibrate? It's so important to be sure you are getting great skin tones and to be sure that what you see on screen, matches what you print.

Open the box and install the disk. On a Mac, you simply drag the huey icon to your apps folder. Installation was a snap.

Huey is about 5" tall, and sits unobrusively in his own little dock.

You plug Huey into your USB port, launch the software, and Huey asks you to let him measure the room light, which takes about 15 seconds. Then, after telling Huey what kind of monitor you are calibrating, you get this screen, telling you to place Huey on your monitor. It's dead simple.

Here he is, on my Apple 23" Cinema Display. Huey then goes and measures the colors, the gamma, and generally does his own thing for about 2 minutes.

Calibration successful! Take Huey off, and put him in the dock.

Just at the end, you get a before / after toggle, to show you the difference between color corrected and uncorrected. It's very easy, and the difference will probably surprise you.

On a Mac, Huey lives in your System Preferences (lower left).

By the way, when browsing the web on your Mac, beware of browser color differences.

There are two areas of settings, one for the type of color work you are doing (gaming, photos, movies, low/high contrast, and warm / cool.

Here's a neat feature and something that the bigger more expensive units don't have. Huey will continously read the ambient room light and adjust your screen color to compensate.

Conclusion A fine tool, well made, the software is easy to use and understand. Installation is a breeze, and regular usage (critical for consistently accurate color) won't cause you to curl up in the fetal position and whimper at your moniotr. The calibration is accurate, as measured against my previous calibrations with the Eye-One. The added benefit of the room-light monitoring makes this unit a winner. What more could we ask for?

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