When good enough is good enough

Here's the deal:

The Pantone Huey is a small device that helps correct and display "accurate" color on your computer's monitor. That's the short version.

The longer version is that this little tool has turned out to be only marginally useful in dialing-in color and hue in Adobe PhotoShop, Apple Apterture and in printing from both applications.

Users that require "calibration" on more than one display should look to other solutions, as this only does one monitor only.

The HUEY system includes a Pen-sized light sensor, which is connected--via a USB cable--to a computer; additionally, software is included, allowing the user to create a type of monitor profile unique to the system/monitor on which it's being used; the Huey device will measure the output of the monitor as it displays a range of colors; this process takes only a few minutes.

When that's finished, you place the Huey (still connected via USB) near the computer, allowing it to read the amount of ambient light, which helps correct image quality on the monitor, based on light. Again, the software is good: it allows the user to set preferences specific to how often the ambient room light is read. And that's a good idea.

In fact, the whole Huey concept is a good idea. The device is good, the form-factor is good, the software is good, and the manual is good (well, good enough). The manual is way too brief to actually address any meat-and-potatoes questions about color space, saturation, true calibration, etc. No problem. There are plenty of good resources for that info.

In practical, daily, use, I have found that the Huey is a better idea than it is in reality. It's good; it works; and it's well-designed. But I don't see that my prints are significantly better. I don't find that my color and hue and saturation corrections in PhotoShop or Aperture are any better. In fact, the differences between "corrected" color and "stock" color are negligible, in most cases. That's the only down-side.

And by the way: by "better" I mean more "accurate" and less subject to a particular color cast or bias, etc.

On the other hand, I do notice subtle color shifts in some cases, based mostly on what I perceive to be the natural output of the monitor: an Apple 23" Cinema Display LCD (about six months old).

So, given all that, my thinking looks like this:

1. It works.
2. It's not all that expensive.
3. It's not dramatically improving my image quality.
4. I have seen only subtle, minute benefits.

Do I recommend this product? Sure. Okay. You bet. If you have an extra hundred dollars, and you do not currrently have any calibration tools--but are deeply and daily involved in fixing, improving, or managing photographs or digital images.

Just remember not to expect too much. Yes, you can switch the Huey on and off, proving to yourself, visually, that it's working based on how different the monitor looks as you click the button on and off....

But does your output (your real work) look any different?
Mine doesn't. Not much, anyway.