X-Rite ColorMunki - Review

X-Rite ColorMunki Photo - Review
Colour management made easy? - The ColorMunki Photo
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The X-Rite ColorMunki has just been announced [X-Rite], and since we've been
helping with some of the testing we've got a short review of some of its main
features.
Do note that this article is not based on final production software, so we
will be adding a more comprehensive review and also a look at the ColorMunki Design, when it
is shipping.
The (approx. $500) ColorMunki device and software allows you to profile your
monitor and printers (and data projectors too). You can also make spot colour
measurements.
The ColorMunki range (Mac and PC) is firmly aimed at the large majority of users
who might find some of the kit I've reviewed elsewhere a little daunting for their
own requirements.
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Topics
Colour management
What do you get
Monitor calibration
Projector profiling
Printer profiling
Spot colour measurement
Conclusions
Summary
More info
The What's New Page gives a quick overview of the
hundreds of pages of articles and picture on this site.
Ads by Google Eye One Photo ICC Profiles HP Printers X Rite Optix
This page is part of the Reviews feature in our
Articles and info section
The Language of Color,
Appearance and Light
Workshop one day
seminar by Konica Minolta
se.konicaminolta.us
Xrite On Sale
Densitometers,
Spectrophotometers Xrite,
i1(eye-one), Ihara
www.baypressservices.com
Calibration Software
High quality Calibration
Software found here for
affordable prices.
huge-discounts.biz
HUE & GRAY - ICC Color
Ask. Learn. Buy. X-Rite
Gretagmacbeth color tools.
www.hueandgray.com/
Northlight Images prides itself on its
independence when giving advice. We do
not sell hardware or software and have no
direct commercial links with any of the
software or hardware vendors that may be
mentioned here. See our Review Policy
for more information.
Colour management for
everyone?
If you take pictures and get them printed
(by yourself or by a lab) then the first thing
you need to sort out is getting your
monitor calibrated.
After that, if you do your own printing, then custom icc printer profiles will usually improve your print quality.
(If you move your mouse over the box image above, you'll see the contents...)
I sometimes see people on forums say it's not really needed. If you value the quality (and consistency) of your
final results then this is just plain wrong.
What's not quite so obvious for me
(who writes and teaches about the
subject) is that a lot of people find
colour management really tricky. [It's
not! just some people try and make it
Full Color Post Card
Read Everything You Need
To Know Then Compare &
Buy Here
rated-top.com

sound a lot more complex than it needs
to be]
X-Rite have looked at this large
market, and in the first big new development since their take over of Gretagmacbeth, have produced a new
'all-in-one' device, the ColorMunki.
This is a multipurpose spectrophotometer, based on i1 technology (see the links at the end of this piece, for
all our reviews of all the various i1 options.
Note for more technical readers ;-) ... It is a UV Cut version of the spectrophotometer, with the light
source based on the iSis
It is aimed squarely at all those, who in the past, perhaps found the idea of colour management just a bit too
much.
BTW, Just in case you are still wondering just what this 'Colour management' stuff is, I've a very short
guide to colour management page that might be of help - it includes links to other articles on this site
and elsewhere. There are also links to further information at the end of this article.
I'm limiting this discussion/review to the basic
functionality of the ColorMunki Photo, since I'm
looking at early software.
Whilst I have some opinions (as you'd expect ;-)
on the precise choices available, I'll leave them
for a more detailed look at the device and its
software.
There is more information available from X-Rite
(warning - turn down the sound on your computer first!
;-)
What do you get
The ColorMunki is available in two versions.
One, the 'ColorMunki Photo', is what I'm looking at here, and is primarily aimed at photographers
(particularly the social market and advanced amateurs).
That's the 'black' version.
The white ColorMunki Design is more for graphics designers. It's the same device, but in a white case.
The USB powered measuring device comes with a soft case and software.
There is also the ColorMunki Create package available, which is a monitor calibrator similar to the i1 Display
LT, but with all new software (this is included in the features comparison chart in the summary at the end of
this review) We hope to cover this further, when the device is available.

The measurement part of the device is in the central rotating part.
The white bar is set to a particular position depending
on what you want to do with the device.
The image to the right shows it set for measuring
projectors. the sensor looks out through the clear
plastic part of the case.
If you point it straight up, then you can see the small
diffuser 'bump' used when measuring ambient light.
An important part of the measurement cycle with a
device like this is calibration.
My own i1 spectrophotometer comes with its own
white tile in a calibration base unit.
With the ColorMunki, the tile is built inside the unit
and accessed by pointing the bar down 45 degrees.
Move your mouse pointer over the image to see what
I mean.
The images below, show (left to right) the device set for calibration, ambient lighting and projector profiling.
Monitor calibration
The device needs to go inside its soft

case for this.
The long weighted strap (which seems
to have some sand in it) is taken to its
full length and used to counter balance
the weight of the sensor.
The device is hung over your monitor so
that the sensor (bar pointing towards
the screen) can measure what colours
your screen produces.
It's by knowing what colour the screen
should be and comparing this with what
is measured that is used to make a
profile to give you better colour.
There is a small protective shutter in the soft case, which needs to be opened for taking any measurements.
The software allows for fairly limited
choices of settings since it just isn't
aimed at the likes of me who like to
tinker with things ;-)
The default settings will calibrate your
monitor to 6500K and a gamma of 2.2.
Advanced mode offers various settings
in relation to whitepoint, gamma,
ambient compensation and
pre-calibration.
However, that's far more information
than the target audience wants to
know, so lets just say 'it will calibrate
your monitor for you'...
Since calibrating your monitor is not a
'one off' process, there is a reminder you can set to tell you when to repeat the process.
I usually check my monitor every few weeks, but unless someone has changed any of your monitor settings,
then once a month should be more than adequate for many users. Do remember though, that if you (or your
kids for example) change -any- monitor settings then you should re-check.
A personal opinion... I sometimes get people ask me to quote for coming round to calibrate their
monitor for them. This is a service I absolutely refuse to provide - do it yourself! In fact I generally
consider any business that does charge money for coming round to do this, as unethical at best. There
is also the fact to consider that many people providing such services are violating the licensing terms
that the software/hardware is sold with. Since the ColorMunki is aimed at a mass market, expect
some people to try and make a quick buck - tell them where to go ;-)
The view below shows the ColorMunki in place ready to check my screen.

Projector Profiling
By pointing the sensor through the clear plastic band, you can calibrate projectors with the software.
The sensor needs to be taken out of its bag for this and aimed to the centre of the screen. The measurement
sensor can be rotated to point out of different parts of the clear window to make it easier to aim.
It's suggested that the ColorMunki should be placed at about the width of the screen away from the screen for
optimum results.
Whilst I've only briefly tried this with the pre-release software, the process is not dissimilar to using the i1
Beamer attachment I recently reviewed.
Printer profiling
The principle of making a custom printer profile is pretty easy.
First you print out a test chart with lots of colours on it. Then you measure these colours and use the
difference between measured colours and what was sent to the printer to produce a set of corrections.
These 'corrections' are essentially what goes into an icc printer profile.
When I make profiles for myself, I may use thousands of colour patches and some fancy (and expensive)
hardware to make the measurements (see my i1 iSis review for more info).
The ColorMunki takes a far simpler approach.
Print out a sheet of 50 colours and measure them (after allowing the sheet to dry thoroughly) by sliding the
device over the sheet.
Different types of paper take different times to dry to an acceptable degree, and there is even a timer in the
software that counts down for you, for the more impatient user ;-)
The image above shows how you slide the ColorMunki along a sheet of paper to measure a strip.

The software prompts you during the measurement process and tells you if a strip is not correctly read in.
Afterwards the software thinks to itself for a minute or two and creates a second set of coloured patches to
'fill in' information for problem areas with your printer/paper/ink/settings.
You print out and read this second set of colours as before (using exactly the same printer settings).
Now the software goes away and creates an icc profile for you (it supports both RGB and CMYK printer).
The software also allows the option of setting various applications on your computer (Photoshop CS for
example) to use this profile by default.
A further refinement is that you can get
the software to measure all the colours
in an arbitrary image (skin tones for
example) and create a further set of
test patches for you to print and read.
After printing and reading these
additional patches, the software
creates an updated profile aimed at
improving rendition of the colours in the
image you used.
Spot colour measurement
The ColorMunki also has the ability to
make 'spot' measurements of colours
and allows you to make use of these
measurements in building up palettes
and colour schemes.
The picture to the right shows the
underside of the device.
You can see the plastic strips that help
the device slide over test sheets and
the hole in the centre that leads to the
actual sensor.
For spot measurements, a small guide flips out if you press the locking button.
If you move your mouse over the image, you can see what happens.
The central part of the device with the three bumps on it is the button you press for making measurements.
The picture below shows me making a spot measurement of the colour of the roof of my Lamborghini.

Note the way the guide helps get the correct place (mouse over the image to see more).
Software
The ColorMunki Photo software allows you to set up printers, monitors and projectors.
The Photo Color Picker application allows you to create custom palettes, make spot measurements and a
whole host of other features I'll have to look at when I'm checking out the production software :-)
Drag-drop colour and image files from the Finder onto projects to import.
Create palettes by dragging colours to any palette.
View related colours and add them to palettes with drag n' drop.
View colors from an image.
Double-click an image to open the image and select colours.
Search for colors on the web and throughout your palettes.
Click the colour swatch in Colour Info inspector to modify your colour
Rename palettes by double-clicking them in the source list.
Click the loupe icon in order to open a palette in a HUD.
View colours in different lighting conditions.
Snap a palette to a spot library or CMYK
Colour managed printing
Auto-sync palettes to Adobe and Quark applications.
One interesting feature is its ability to take an image and extract samples of all the key colours present. It
also allows you to see which colours you have in a palette are 'print safe', i.e. which ones can't be printed by
certain print setups.
There is also the Digital Pouch application which is designed to allow you to send
images to a client/coworker in a digital 'wrapper' that will alert them if they look
at the image on a non colour managed system, or one where the colour
management is not set up correctly.
The application generates a self executing file which you can send.
Conclusions
Remember, this is from using
pre-release software
I've calibrated several monitors with
the ColorMunki and the profiles looked
fine. The method of attachment for
monitor calibration feels a bit odd with
the weighted strap, but once again it

worked fine.
The printer profiling produced very
usable results on my standard
'awkward' test printer - an HP K80 with
third party inks, 3rd party photo paper
and using open source drivers on an
Apple Mac. Not exhibition quality stuff,
but if it can get a reasonable profile
from that lot then it shows promise.
X-Rite have told me that they are putting a lot of effort into providing training and user support for the
ColorMunki. There will be extensive training resources available, and I'll be looking at some of them for the full
review.
As a long time fan of colour management I can only welcome this effort to get it more widely adopted and
accepted.
Summary
One (minor) personal concern that I do have, is that with the large market this product is aimed at,
then an awful lot of clueless reviewers (both in print and on the web) are going to be writing about a
subject they know next to nothing about. Look out over the coming months for reviews that just
rearrange press releases rather than actually test what the device does ;-) :-)
A colour management solution aimed at a much larger market than other X-Rite products.
X-Rite ColorMunki Photo - Minimum System Requirements
Macintosh
Mac OS X 10.4 or higher
512 MB RAM
G4 processor or higher
300 MB of available hard disk space
Powered USB port
Monitor resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels or higher
Windows
Microsoft Windows XP or Microsoft Vista
512 MB RAM
Intel Pentium IV/AMD Athlon XP or better
300 MB of available hard disk space
Powered USB port
Monitor resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels or higher
X-Rite ColorMunki Photo Package Contents
ColorMunki Photo Spectrophotometer with built-in Calibration Plate and Optics
Protective Case which also works as a Monitor Holder
USB cable
Software CD – Printer/Display Profiling, Digital Pouch, 'Photo Color Picker', Diagnostics, Operational
Videos
Quick Start Guide
Twelve month limited warranty against defects in material and workmanship
The chart below (from X-Rite) shows a comparison between the ColorMunki Create, Design and Photo
packages.
Hardware
. ColorMunki Create ColorMunki Design ColorMunki Photo
ColorMunki calibrator
(white)
ColorMunki Design (white) ColorMunki Photo (black)
Est. Price 129 Euros ($149) 429 Euros ($499) 429 Euros ($499)
Typical user
Freelance designers
Small/mid size agencies
Freelance designers
Small/mid size agencies
Wedding, Social, Portrait
and event photographers.
Creatives in Larger Creatives in Larger
'Prosumer'
agencies
agencies
photographers
Corporate in house design Corporate in house design

Why would you be using
it?
Colour creation Colour creation Monitor to print match
Palettes software √ √ √
Measurement directly
into Palettes
X √ √
Display Profiling - Basic
DDC/CI support
√ √ √
Only 6500/2.2 available
Display Profiling - Basic
DDC/CI support
Whitepoint, Gamma,
'ambient compensation',
pre-calibration
X √ √
Projector profiling X √ √
RGB &CMYK printer
profiles
Iterative profiling (2
sheets of 50 patches)
X √ √
Has ability to further
refine profiles for spot
colour optimisation.
Application setter s/w
'AppSetter'
Auto configures
applications to use
correct printer profiles.
(CS3, Quark)
ColorMunki Tray utility
Quick access to software
Profile reminder
Access to application
setter.
X √ √
X X X
Digital Pouch X X √
Note that ColorMunki solutions are not designed to be upgraded. They are available only in single site or
limited multiple seat licenses – i.e., those with a maximum of three computers.
The X-Rite range of products (see below for our reviews of just about all of them...)

Disclosure of Interest
Northlight Images has been involved in testing the ColorMunki, but has no commercial connection with
X-Rite. Note that we do not sell hardware or software at all, and do not offer a custom profiling service.
The Language of Color,
Appearance and Light Workshop one
day seminar by Konica Minolta
Save on Eye-One Products
i1 Design, Photo, SG, Proof, XT Gretag
Authorized Distributor
More Info
i1 LT
i1 Design
i1 scanner profiling
i1 Camera profiling with the SG ColorChecker
i1 printer profiling
i1 profile editing
i1 iO automation of measurements
i1 iSis - advanced measuring device
i1 Display 2 Monitor calibration and profiling device from GretagMacbeth - also allows ambient light
measurement.
An Introduction to colour management article by Keith and collection of CM info.
Colour management links on this site
The Viewing page - basic monitor set-up
Spyder3Elite - monitor and projector profiling
Reviews - Other equipment and software reviews by Keith.
Why don't my prints match my screen?
A short article showing why there is more to getting your prints to match your screen, than just
calibrating your monitor. It's the vital first step, but you do need to consider some other factors for best
results.
We have a version of Google's Search engine, optimised for photography related items that may be of use in
finding more information...
Keith is always happy to discuss matters raised in his articles. You can contact Keith at the address below.
The views above represent those of Keith Cooper. Articles copyright ©2003-8 Keith Cooper.
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