Customer Reviews

ColorVision Spyder 2 Plus (Win/Mac)

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I am not entire fond of the Spyder 2, but it is much better than Adobe Gamma. One catch is that it doesn't take into account the ambient lighting like the Eye One Display products. It also requires manual adjustment of the monitor controls rather than using a common, nearly universla interface to do it programatically. And last, they are VERY slow with drivers and do not release any WHQL certified drivers; this is a big deal if you want to use the hardware with Windows Vista x64 (you can't).

If you own a Mac and use OX-X Tiger or later, this is NOT the device for you. It may be fine for a Windows/PC user. ColorVision phased the Plus edition out toward the end of 2004. Their support for it is quite limited here in the middle of 2006. Mac users with OS-X Tiger or later OSs will discover that synching a printer profile with their monitors cannot be done with the included software. There is also an annoyance in performing this synching even if you use a Widows-PC. In order to synch your monitor with your printer, you must scan in a color chart. Should you lack a scanner, or not have one available, again, you will not be able to create a printer profile and hence synch your monitor with you printer - which is the sufficient purpose of this device.

You will, however, be able to re-profile your monitor such that it will show colors consistent with some objective standard. This may come much closer to your printer/paper profile than the image presently displayed on your monitor. This device may be very useful to owners of older Mac OS operating systems (although while it is consistent with OS-X, I do not know how old or whether this software was created pre-Panther OS) and Windows PC users - should they have scanners on line. Apparently that's who the designers of this device had in mind. I have returned my Spyder2Plus in exchange for a Spyder2Pro, ColorVision's currently supported product, which I hope will allow me to competently profile both my monitor AND my printer. I look forward to favorably reviewing that purchase in the near future.

The Spyder 2 Plus is easy to use, directions are clear, and the results are amazing. If you have spent hours adjusting the controls on your monitor to obtain "correct" colors, you will enjoy the ease of use of the Spyder and the improvement in screen colors. It is also easy to calibrate your scanners and printers so that "what you see, is actually what you get."