How to let color management know how things look?
Ideally, you’ll do two things – you’ll get your monitor as close to “normal” as possible so files that AREN’T color managed (most of the web and lower-end photo editing software, and more) look decent and you’ll also tell your printer EXACTLY what things looked like to you. Seem hard? Seem expensive? It was… Enter Pantone Huey The Pantone Huey by Gretag-Macbeth (well respected names in color) sits on your screen for about a minute measuring a test pattern. It then adjusts the monitor as close to the standards as possible and writes a file (an ICC profile) to tell printers and Photoshop EXACTLY what things look like to you. With a couple mouse clicks and almost no knowledge. If left connected, it will also attempt lightening the screen to compensate for room lighting. OK already, does the thing work? YES, with a minor reservation. Testing on a variety of Mac and Windows systems, it got the monitor color darn close to right on the first go. Things weren’t so fortunate on the computer I
