A spectro what? That’s what most people say when I tell them what this little device is actually called. But for me “The Munki” is far easier to say. Created by the minds at X-Rite, the ColorMunki Photo is the answer for people who take lots of pictures, but always wonder why what they see on the monitor isn’t what they remember shooting. This little gizmo profiles your monitors, even your printers and projectors, to allow you to display your shots exactly the way that you remember taking them on all your displays.

What is a Spectro-thing-a-ma-bob?

A spectrophotometer is a specialized device that “sees the full spectrum of colours”. This allows the device to measure the actual colour of everything that it looks at. As a result, it can quickly and accurately judge colours across a wide range of output devices like monitors, printers and even projectors. If you’re working with a multitude of output devices, you can see how this can come in handy to ensure that every device shows you the same picture. In other words, weird Uncle Bob will look just as drunk on the projector as he does in the family photos that you printed.

The folks at X-Rite have managed to squeeze all this functionality into the tiny chassis of the ColorMunki Photo, which we’re going to check out today.

System Requirements

You don’t need a fancy graphics workstation to use the ColorMunki Photo. X-Rite recommends…

Macintosh®

• Mac OS X 10.4 or higher
• 512 MB RAM
• G4 processor or higher
• 300 MB of available hard disk space
• Powered USB port
• Monitor resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels or higher

Windows®

• Microsoft Windows XP or Microsoft Vista
• 512 MB RAM
• Intel Pentium IV/AMD Athlon XP or better
• 300 MB of available hard disk space
• Powered USB port
• Monitor resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels or higher

Overall, the system requirements are pretty moderate so any modern PC should be able to use it. If you are using your computer for graphics editing, more RAM always helps.

What’s Inside the Box?

The ColorMunki Photo comes to us with the following goodies in the box:

• ColorMunki Photo Spectrophotometer with built-in Calibration Tile and Optics
• Protective Case which also works as a Monitor Holder
• USB cable (mini to standard)
• Software CD – Printer/Display/Projector Profiling, DigitalPouch, Photo Color Picker, Diagnostics, Operational Videos
• Quick Start Guide

Usually when you get a whole crap load of stuff in the box, you think you are getting a good deal. In reality, that just means that you’re in a world of hurt and setup. The ColorMunki bundle was kept simple on purpose to make the experience simple, friendly, and trouble free.

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