Pantone ColorVision Spyder2 (PC - Mac) Description:

Pantone ColorVision Spyder2 (PC & Mac) review:
1 stars (Does not work with Adobe Photoshop CS2) - I bought the Spyder 2 Plus believing the Colorvision software would also install on Adobe Photoshop CS2, but it doesn't. I called their support desk and they walked me through the simple procedures unsuccessffully. The person with whom I spoke said that the installation disc was probably corrupted, and I was then directed to their website to download the latest Colorvision Profiler shown, which is dated August 2002. It is a bit behind the times, apparently, to work with CS2, because it also didin't work at all.

I don't know what the PlUS is all about, if its latest downloadable program is three years old, and it doesn't funcion with the latest Adobe Photoshop CS2. This important information is not posted anywhere.






1 stars (be careful!) - another reviewer mentioned receiving used equipment. I, too, received a used product - scuffs on the spyder and opened software box. unfortunately, my product was broken as well.



the product may be good in theory, but then, it would need to work for me to comment on that particular facet.



you may want to consider other alternatives.
2 stars (A Necessary Accessory?) - The Spyder 2 promises to calibrate your monitor so that the images on the screen will look more like what is being produced by your printer. It does this by building a profile for your monitor and running that profile when you start your computer. Installation and running of the of the software and the hardware that attaches to the monitor to build the profile was flawless. A little more information in the form of a printed manual or pdf file would have been nice, but the software does a good job of hand-holding and stepping one through the process. With the monitor calibration completed the images on the screen were indeed a little closer to what my printer, an HP 5550, was producing. From this point of view I would rate the Spyder 4 stars because it does what it says it is going to do.



However, more is involved in getting your monitor image and printed image to look identical. Not mentioned in the Spyder 2 information is that each printer also has a profile that must be used to get accurate translation from the screen to paper. And finally, each photo paper is a little different in the colors it produces. Taking all of this together, experience with your monitor, printer and specific type of paper is probably better at insuring success than depending on the Spyder 2. If I had it to do all over again would I buy the Spyder 2? No! For most people it will simply be an unnecessary and expensive piece of equipment that is not likely to significantly improve their success in printing pictures.