Finally software is available.
Xrite just released a Beta update of their EyeOne Display profiling software which works with OS X Lion; until now you had to use Snow Leopard or earlier to get the software to work – a royal pain if you had upgraded to Lion, necessitating keeping a bootable copy of the older OS available. No more. You can download it here.
You can read more about the excellent EyeOne Display2 colorimeter for profiling displays here.
The new software is free regardless of when you bought your EyeOne – a wise choice contrary to Xrite’s earlier threats to charge older users. There are some bugs which they honestly disclose – I got stuck at the red screen but waited it out – 3 minutes – and the app commenced working. I was also unable to get ambient light measurement to yield a proper profile, though it was an overcast day when I ran the profiles for my three Dell 2209WA displays, so I’ll report back when profiling in more normal lighting. In the meanwhile I used the D65 lighting profile – meaning 6500K daylight temperature. This presumes that your prints will be viewed in like lighting; I prefer to profile to ambient light because that’s what they will be most often viewed in.
The process takes 8 minutes per display once you get the hang of it and, unlike its predecessor, the app no longer asks you to adjust display colors, doing it through software. All you have to do is match the display’s brightness to your preferred setting. I use 120 Cd/m. The klieglicht ultrabright settings with which modern displays ship are of no use to photographers desiring color matched prints.
The colorimeter measures 132 color patches in all and the profile, once generated, is saved at the click of a mouse. One new feature is that all three displays in my Hackintosh setup are displayed and clicking on any one switches the app to the display selected. Nice.
Matching between displays is as close as ever, meaning it’s excellent. The EyeOne Display2 remains a quality choice for the advanced amateur and professional requiring a well profiled display, and having castigated Xrite for dragging its feet on releasing the Lion version it’s only fair to compliment them on the new app and on their coming to their senses on pricing.
All three displays are selectable. As a display is selected, the app switches to it.
The brightness adjustment screen.
The profile reminder screen – choices remain at 1, 2 or 4 weeks.
A new and very useful feature is Trending – the app saves a graphical trend of profiles so you can judge drift over time.
Trending.
Here’s the location of the three profiles on my system.
If you cannot find the Username->Library directory, hold down the option key while clicking Finder->Go.
I tried the Beta software on a new MacBook Air that came loaded with Lion. The first problem was that I could not match the brightness. The brightest setting on the MBA was said by the new software to measure only 104, and that was far brighter than anything I would use. The profile it came up with made everything look horribly pink, so I reverted to the laptop default, and ran the Apple calibration utility. Since I use the laptop on-site only to judge composition and focus, this is really no big deal. I can live just fine with the display as is. I am using Snow Leopard on a desktop with an Epson 3800 printer, for which the i1 Display 2 works fine. It is the only program that is preventing me from upgrading to Lion, but I can’t rationalize the cost of a new Display Pro. Oh well, I will try again when the software leaves Beta.