Colour Confidence Studio XR review

Colour accuracy is important for anyone making visuals for use in print or online - which includes the majority of MacUser readers.

Colour Confidence has a product that aims to help; the Studio XR pack, which includes the MonacoOPTIX XR hardware calibration tool and associated software, the Color Management Check-Up Kit developed by Color Confidence with Kodak, which provides a set of seven photographic reference prints along with digital files on CD, and a sample pack of 'fine art' acid-free, mould-made inkjet paper.

The MonacoOPTIX XR device is the focus of this pack, of course; this is what aims to turn your display from so-so to spot-on. This is a regular puck-like device on a USB cable, with a counterweight to help prevent it from sliding down your display when you use it. It can calibrate CRT and LCD displays, and a small suction cup is also provided for CRT monitors in case the USB cable isn't long enough to hang down the back. Just don't use the suction cup on an LCD display as it may damage the pixels.

Once the software is installed (and registered - more on that later), you connect the device and launch the MonacoOPTIX utility. The software takes you through the process in easy-to-follow steps. The calibration process for the MonacoOPTIX XR is quite time-consuming... OK, 'thorough' is a better word. If your display has contrast and brightness controls you'll get the most from this product, and you'll spend the longest - it took over 20 minutes for our first calibration - setting things up. There is a real feeling of precision.

The main issue we had was the difficulty involved in positioning the MonacoOPTIX utility window, with its box where the calibration device has to be placed and the instructions and buttons, where it wouldn't be obscured by our monitor's hardware-based onscreen display controls. This was on a fairly large display, so this could be a serious problem even on a medium-sized monitor.

We weren't so keen on the way the software requires an activation code provided by email or US phone number, although we have to admit this is an effective way to prevent someone calibrating a whole studio with a single-user license. If the machine you want to calibrate isn't online, which can be the case in some professional and academic studios, you'll have to use the US-only phone number.

Unlike products such as the Pantone Huey, the MonacoOPTIX XR doesn't monitor ambient light and adjust the profile accordingly. If you want to adjust the display profile you'll have to do this yourself, and the time this takes could discourage you from doing that very often.

On the plus side, the software is actively aware of multiple monitor setups. It recognises this and instructs you on how to calibrate more than one display; drag the window to the appropriate screen and start the process afresh for each monitor. At the end of each profiling session, save the results as an ICC profile, and the monitor you just profiled is set to use that.

Results are certainly very good. If you've not calibrated your monitor before, and even if you've used the software-only calibration process built into OS X, be prepared for a pleasant shock. What you thought of as reasonable colour accuracy is probably more off-beam than you realised. After finishing, turn to the Color Management Check-Up Kit and compare the digital files to the reference prints. It isn't possible to get a 100% match, but you'll be amazed at how close you are with this kit.

If you want to delve further, you can inspect and edit profiles directly, but only if you upgrade to MonacoOPTIX Pro. You can use the inkjet paper to see how well your printer can reproduce your artwork and scan in the reference prints to see how well your scanner performs, but you need to invest in printer or scanner profiling tools to make specific improvements. Still, display calibration is a vital step, and the Studio XR pack is precise and affordable.