8. Pantone Huey For Monitor Calibration

by Ed Tittel

Anyone who's worked around printing, pre-press, and production knows about the Pantone color matching system. Long before digital color was all the rage, Pantone provided color swatches and matching designations, as well as precise blends of primary ink colors. This allowed designers and printers to share a common frame of color reference, so that the same color showed up on the printed page. While keeping one foot firmly planted in design and printing, Pantone has moved strongly into digital color as well. The Pantone Huey - "Huey" comes from the color term "hue" - represents the company's consumer-oriented, entry-level tool for calibrating CRT or LCD monitors so that the colors on the screen match colors produced by other devices such as cameras, printers and scanners.

Upon a first look, the Pantone Huey looks more like a microphone than a color calibration device, but instead of an audio pickup, this round wand sits in front of your monitor and registers color values, brightness, and ambient light conditions. You can use it to correct and monitor the color your display device produces, so that what you see on screen in digital photos and designs matches what you get from a photo finishing service or color printer, in much the same way that the Pantone color matching system creates a common vocabulary for color.

The Pantone Huey is a compact, easy-to-use USB attached device that adjusts color output from your LCD or CRT monitor.

The Pantone Huey works with Windows 2000, XP, and Vista, and also with Mac OS X 10.3 or higher-numbered versions. The basic version is for PC and Mac users of all stripes, and is a snap to set up and use. Simply install the drivers, plug the device into a USB port, and follow the simply instructions on how to properly position it in front of your monitor. After that, the Huey takes over and adjusts color levels and brightness for you automatically. Though the product lists at $89, it's available at discounts as low as $70. It's sure to be a pleaser for Dads and grads alike, especially photo buffs, or anybody involved with creating or producing digital images or artwork of any kind.