ColorVision Spyder2 Suite Win Mac

ColorVision’s Spyder2 Suite sets a new standard for monitor calibration. This innovative and advanced product delivers unrivaled calibration results for advanced amateurs and designers. The Spyder2 Suite allows you to easily calibrate all of your monitors affordably. System Requirements – Windows 2000 or XP, Mac OS X10.2 or better, CRT, LCD or notebook display(s), USB port

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars It’s a start, anyway — Amazon has a great price, too!
I guess you could say when it come to ease of use — in terms of just setting up this gizmo and running monitor adjustments — it gets 4 stars, maybe 5, for ease of use. Install the software in a minute, position the sensor, start the program, lie to the software and say your monitor has no controls of any kind (Spyder will then kick off a completely automated, hands-free scan), and less than 10 minutes later you’re home free. Unfortunately after over a dozen runs on 3 of my monitors, it’s evident that Spyder’s programmers are fascinated, maybe even obsessed, with the color RED. They must figure the redder the better, I guess. Finally I ignored one of their iron-clad rules: rather than leave the room totally dark or covering my monitor with a blanket during the scans, I turned on the rather subdued, soft lighting I use for PC video work (who the %$#&* works in total darkness? Do you? You can’t even see your keyboard!). With some gentle ambient worklight (tungsten) nearby, I finally got a really nice adjustment from Spyder. Did a teentsy bit of tweaking with some of DVE’s tv test patterns, and now it’s about right. Tip: Don’t calibrate in total darkness, run it in the same light you use for PC work, short of flashing strobes and circus floodlights. Caution: this will not make games or videos look “better” on your PC. Media players, games, and most other Windows programs have no way of recognizing .icm color profiles. Photoshop Pro does ($600), and Sony Vegas Pro does ($800), and a few Windows games that need $400 graphics cards — but Windows Media Player, PowerDVD, most freebie photo printing programs, most Kodak photo-CD browsers, most consumer video editors, and most digital camera utilities do not use Windows or Mac color profiles. For that you’ll have to run a manual setup on your CRT and push your own sliders. Sorry, LCD’s have notoriously goofy picture controls, so don’t be surprised if manual doesn’t work with LCD’s (anyone who uses LCD’s for graphics work is fighting a losing battle anyway). Subtract 1 star because Spyder2 told me that before adjustment my monitor was too green. It wasn’t. It was too blue. Otherwise, Spyder2 on auto did neat, quick work on 3 monitors and two laptops. With some qualifications in mind, I’d recommend Spyder2 over the usual calibration videos or test pics.

3 Stars Terrible software
Seems like it would be a great product if the software wasn’t so bad. The profile chooser software is terrible. Constant messages and errors and they still haven’t fixed it. I have to constantly select the correct color profile at bootup and nothing I’ve tried seems to fix that. When I do run with the color profile, it’s great though, so I give it 3 stars. 5 is the software was good.

5 Stars spyder2 suite windows
Color Vision Spyder2 suite is Perfect for my needs and even more worked right out of the box no muss no fuss the results were even better than I could have hoped for

1 Star Not worth the effort
I received the Spyder2 Suite on April 3, 2008. Installation was straight forward with no problems. It appears to do what it says it will do, however, two weeks later when it was time to recalibrae, found a problem. The recalibration would reach the point of “Adjust Color Temperature Preset”. Next step should be “Attach colorimeter to screen” but it bypassed this step and went to “Remove colorimeter” and loops back and forth between these two steps. Finally I would have to close the program. The only way I can recalibrate the monitor is uninstall and reinstall the software.

Went on line and registered with Datacolor (Colorvision) and they said I would receive an email so as to validate my email address. To this date (May l7, 2008) haven’t received anything from them. After two weeks and no email, sent them an email explaining the situtation and ask for help in this matter. Still haven’t received anything from Datacolor. Called their 800 support line and was told that he couldn’t help as his departmnet doesn’t handle the problem of not receiving emails, but he did give me an email address for downloading v2.3 as I was using v2.2. My AT&T browser said it couldn’t find the address. Finally sent a letter, by mail, to the General Manager directly, asking for help on this matter, as you can’t receive support or download software updates without being registered. That has been two weeks now and no reply. So I guess this is my problem now and it appears Datacolor just doesn’t care about it’s customers. Also didn’t find out that the Spyder2 Express and Spyder2 Suite are discontinued products until almost a month after purchasing. I would go to another company.

I would have gave Spyder2 Suite 4 maybe 5 stars if I wasn’t having the problem and could get support. I didn’t purchase it for profiling the printer as other previews said this sucked anyway. The Suite has more options than the Express.

UPDATE (May 19,2008)

After trying one more time, I called the 800 support line and explained my problem again and was transfered to someone else to resolve this issue of not receiving an email so as to validate my account. While my email address was registered with Colorvision (Datacolor) it couldn’t be explained why I couldn’t receive an email from them. Tried registering with an disposable email address and this worked. I was able to click on the link and validate and was able to download v2.3. After uninstalling v2.2 and installing v2.3 it would still skip the step of “Attach colorimater”. Only by deleting the profile created by Spyder2 by going to Control Panel>Display>Advanced>Color Management was I able to calibrate, and right afterwards to make sure I could, recalibrate the monitor, but by only deleting the profile created first. If I don’t, it will bypass the step of attaching the colorimeter.

I will now give it a 4 STAR RATING and not a 5 star because of all the problems experienced and would recommend this product to others.

4 Stars Will improve your display’s color reproduction!
I was surprised how much it changed the color reproduction on the monitors — especially since I wasn’t really sure the monitors needed calibration. The first calibration on the 17″ MacBook Pro did NOT produce good results; Apple recommends using a target gamma of 1.8 so that was what I initially used and the resulting calibration was horrible. I reran the calibration using the target gamma recommended by Spyder (i.e., 2.2) and got great results. Since then I’ve calibrated two other monitors and gotten very good results — the tones look truer and the colors are more vibrant. My only regret is that I didn’t shell out the extra $$ for the Pro version so that the software would remembered which monitor was being calibrated.

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VisTablet 12 Inch Tablet

VisTablet, The New Standard

VisTablet allows you to explore the internet, draw, paint, write, highlight and do professional or home photo editing. VisTablet also opens up advanced pen features available in all the new Microsoft Office applications. Through electro- magnetic induction, information is exchanged between the pen and the tablet while your movements are translated to your computer screen. With no stand-alone power supply required, the VisTablet is a great choice for portable computers as well as desktop PCs. VisTablet will open up the world of design to you in ways that were previously either too expensive or too limiting. VisTablet is the new standard in graphics tablets.

2 Year Warranty and U.S. backed technical support

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Happy with it
I couldn’t rationalize spending over $300 on a tablet so I went with the vistablet and am happy I did. It may not have the brand name, but it offers the pressure sensitivity and precision to work with my detailed images. The size is small and can conveniently fit in my laptop bag.

5 Stars Excellent Tool
As an art student studying illustration, I wanted a tablet I could rely on to make my workflow a bit smoother. I can trace drawings under the surface of the tablet to get the most precise illustrations. The tablet is light but extremely durable which I found out by accidentally dropping it! The pen does require a battery, however it has a comfortable grip and sits well in my hand.

1 Star Disatisfied
Too much presure was need to get any kind of response from tablet.

Image on screen was jumpy when pen didn’t leave tablet.

5 Stars Good graphics tablet
I am pleased with this tablet, especially for the low price I paid on Amazon. I love how I can place images under the drawing surface and use it to trace which I have never seen before. I am running the vistablet on my PC and I am able to customize the function keys to my liking. I can even customize the function keys once in Photoshop to use all my editing tools. Overall a great tablet that didn’t break the bank.

2 Stars Tracing Slowly – OK / Sketching – Terrible.
Vistatablet LLC has been spamming the heck out of forums, retail sites, and artist communities for the last year or so and it’s obvious they’re targeting neophyte dreamer who would otherwise buy a Bamboo and indeed they bill themselves as competition to Wacom’s natural monopoly on high-end digitizers so they have some real big shoes to fill with very little time left before digitizers go the way of the trackball, magnetic tape, and so on. One thing that should be mentioned and this company ought to be more up front about is that they don’t actually manufacture these digitizers, it’s just a re-branded Aiptek Slimtablet 600U. That little detail isn’t nearly so important as the stark contrast between the Vistablet(600U) and Wacom’s hardware and drivers.

Pressure sensitivity is a simple off the shelf solution, where Wacom excels is in relative position resolution, eliminating lag caused by using an active power transmit/receive pen instead of an electromagnetic inductive strategy, and in the drivers ability to provide as much device customization latitude as is possible without generating a hardware abstraction layer conflict with the OS kernel. This device will no-doubt allow for default use of a digitizer in apps like Photoshop but the specs and drivers make it far less functional than even the “for-fun” Wacom Bamboo. Having bought one of these on e-bay for just under $50, the Vistablet that is really a Aiptek Slimtablet will install on an XP machine; but if you plan on drawing free hand instead of tracing pictures at a slow pace then you will notice a significant amount of jitter, curve lag, inconsistent pressure sensitivity, no angle/tilt recognition, and cursor deviation from tip going as high as a quarter inch.

I caution anyone against buying this digitizer you are planning on doing any sort of sketching, photo-editing, digital painting, NURBS modeling, just enjoy yourself with a bit of doodling, or even want to try out an alternative interface to overcome a handicap/ergonomic issue. Short of slowly tracing pictures and launching a handful of assigned functions, the VisTablet in any could give you a really bad impression of how powerful better digitizers are as tools for the digital artist.

Considering that you’re thinking of forking over $101.75 (as of this writing), why not save up a little while longer so your investment is rewarded with a stable manufacturer of performance oriented digitizers like Wacom or just get a refurbished Slate Tablet PC that’s Wacom Penabled Tablet PC like the HP TC1100 or Motion Computing which can be found for $250-500.

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Nitro PDF Professional

Create, Convert & Edit PDF Documents 300% Faster than Adobe Acrobat. Nitro PDF Professional is everything you need to create, convert and edit PDF files. All files are 100% industry standard and compatible with other PDF viewers. FEATURES: Fast, High-Quality Document Conversion. Convert any kind of file to PDF – alone or in batch. Convert PDF files back to Word while retaining text, graphic and pages. Combine multiple documents into one PDF. Convert Word, Excel®, and Powerpoint® to PDF with one click. Convert paper to PDF by scanning and converting documents. Comment and review PDF documents just like paper documents. Insert sticky notes – just like Post-it® notes – on your PDFs. Highlight, underline, and strike-through text on your PDFs. Use pens, shapes, and other drawing tools and apply stamps like “Approved” or “Draft.” Take charge of the PDF document review process – record, view, sort, and import and export comments. Quickly edit any PDF file with the best-in-class manipulation tools. Insert, edit, move, resize, and delete text and graphics in PDFs. Shuffle pages to create client-ready PDF files. Apply headers, footers and watermarks. Insert text, numbering, and graphics in your PDFS. Generate PDF hyperlinks and bookmarks automatically. Protect documents with passwords and digital certificates. Protect your PDFs with powerful 128-bit encryption. You decide if your PDFs can be printed, edited, copied, commented, and more. Use digital signatures and digital IDs to ensure the integrity of your PDFs. Profiles make it easy to apply the right security to your PDFs, every time.

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars positive
this product works fine. i was looking for a PDF editor and it was inexpensive and works great.

5 Stars NITRO PDF, Excellent Product
Excellent product. I have used all of the Adobe suit in my business and I would say that this matches up very well for the price. I had some trouble registering it online which is kinda normal these days, also the fact that it “stamps” pdfs with its brand name can erk sometimes. Overall though, very easy to use and a nice product for the price point.

5 Stars Happy to recommend
I have not used PDF software before and this was very simple to use. Now I can create PDFs, change text and use sticky notes and stamps.

The software is pretty cheap for what it does.

1 Star No 64-bit Vista/XP support–FYI!
Just FYI–I bought this, waited on it, and tried to install on my 64-bit Vista system (it said ‘Vista’ compatible on the description), but informed me that it had no support for 64-bit XP or Vista. So, i had to return it and begin looking for ANOTHER PDF-solution for Vista64.

I may be perfect for 32-bit usage, but i couldnt test it. I just wanted to let others know about this limitation, so they wont waste time.

5 Stars Great Product! Wish I had bought it years ago!
I have never been able to justify spending the money on Adobe products, and have always been looking for an alternative that would not break the bugdet. It is a real shame I did not find Nitro PDF sooner. Very solid product, great price and all the functions I need.

Highly recommended.

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ColorVision Spyder2 Express Win Mac

ColorVision Spyder2 Express offers photographers, designers, and gamers the best color experience on screen. With just a few steps, you’ll get accurate, reliable and consistent color. The quick, easy, and accurate monitor calibration delivers true-to-life flesh tones, well-defined shadows and realistic highlights. It’s a must-have for photographers, designers, gamers, and anyone who wants accurate color on screen.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars I should have done this a year ago!!!
I recently purchased the spyder2 express to calibrate my ibook monitor. WOW what difference it made. I have used several shareware calibrators and they aren’t even close. Now what I see is almost exactly what the lab prints. I wished now I had done this months ago.

5 Stars No problems
Very good color correction. I use it for photoshop editing and with lightroom. It niceley corrects the color even with the FL. sun behind me all day.

4 Stars Can’t Believe I Didn’t Do This Sooner
I have owned a lot of really nice monitors. I use an Apple MacBook Pro and have had Apple monitors and then some. I used the Spyder 2 Express to calibrate my MacBook Pro today and what a difference it makes. I always thought the default display was the way Apple set it up, so that’s the way it should be. In fact, I judged my new Dell 2408WFP monitor against my MacBook Pro display and found the Dell to be very saturated.

Now, it’s a fact that that monitor is very saturated out of the box, but looking at the uncalibrated MacBook display I thought the Dell would have to go back because it was horribly saturated. When in reality, my MacBook Pro display was simply dull and lifeless. That isn’t to say that the Dell was correct, only that the MacBook was muted and not vibrant, or contrasty in any way. I fixed that in 10 minutes with the Spyder 2. My display is now gorgeous. The colors pop, but are not saturated, the contrast is beautiful and the whole thing just seems more lifelike to me. I can’t wait to get the Spyder 2 home to work on my Dell 2408WFP which I have played with and gotten great results with, without this tool.

I highly recommend this to anyone looking for more lifelike colors, better contrast and more control over the default settings from the manufacturer. The manufacturer’s settings are nothing compared to what this creates. My only problem is that this version doesn’t control Gamma and I think that’s the main issue with the Dell 2408WFP. We’ll see.

5 Stars Serial Number Help
I recently changed over from a PC to latest iMAC. Transferring software for this product I found a prompt for a serial number. However I had long since thrown the packaging. Reading general customer comments on the web I found a lot of negative press for Data Color help desk and complaint that customers could not get the serial number. However my experience was very good. I got a quick response, you just need to quote them the number on the USB plug. Calibration worked great!

5 Stars Great value, although not compatible with DUAL DISPLAYS
Cheap, quick, and easy to use (on my Mac, and until I get around to calibrating my Windows machines, I’ll assume the Windows functionality is at least as good). BE WARNED that this is only set up to do ONE MONITOR PER COMPUTER, and on a laptop it doesn’t let you choose, and of course laptop displays are not particularly suited to colour-critical applications. There are complicated ways around this, but it is simply not what this product is intended to do, and it is not a particularly well-advertised fact. That said, you absolutely get your money’s worth here: This is the same hardware as in ColorVision’s professional-level Spyder2 products, they just took some of the professional features out of the software to force pros to buy pro-level while giving everyone else an incredibly good value.

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