Pantone HueyPRO Advanced Colour Correction kit

Pocket-lint

By Stuart Miles

Published May 29, 2007

So you work a lot with photos then, and you want to be able to make sure that you have consistency between images and print? Well you need to get a monitor calibration device then, and Pantone thinks it has the answer with its HueyPro Advanced Color (yes with no u) Correction kit. So does it work? We get calibrating to find out.

Monitor calibration may sound dull, but if you use a laptop or print lots of digital photos making sure your screen is correctly calibrated is likely to save you a lot of time printing out or publishing poor coloured prints or images.

The hueyPRO is about the size of a marker pen and is designed for photographers and creative professionals to improve colour clarity and consistency across multiple CRT, laptop and LCD displays.

Installation is a simple process and like a Gordon Ramsay recipe it’s a case of clean screen, install software, stick calibration device to screen, press buttons, remove calibration device from screen, done.

In fact it's so easy that we were rather surprised when it had finished so quickly.

For those more technically minded, the calibration works by assessing the light levels in the room you are working and then relaying this to the software. It doesn’t affect the brightness of your screen in any way - although within the software there is an option to have the room lighting compensation on or off. Basically it adjusts your display to be suitable to the ambient light level in the room.

Once your screen is calibrated you can see what it was like before to make sure you are happy with the new results, and we presume, to show you the improved difference the software has made.

Our quick take

You know how when you correct an image on the screen and then print it out it looks nothing like it should be, well this little accessory aims to stop that and as far as calibrating our screen, the HueyPRO does a really good job.

Simple to use, the device takes all the fuss out of getting your screen calibration right. Better still making sure it always stays that way - the device will remind you every two weeks so you can do another calibration incase anything (like the weather) has changed.

Good, just not for everyone.