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Archive 2014 · Apple's new 27 inch with Maverick

  
 
J4644
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Apple's new 27 inch with Maverick


Hi,

I have an iMac that was made in early 2009. At the time, I could not color calibrate it to my liking. Could not get the cd/m2 down low enough to get prints that matched the monitor. I then purchased a secondary Dell monitor and have been happy ever since. I am running 10.6.8 now and need to update the OS. I am thinking about going to 10.8.4 because I have seen reviews of Maverick and they have not been overwhelmingly great. I also am thinking about the new 27 inch iMac with Maverick installed, but am reluctant because of the possible issues.

My questions are:

1) Does Maverick have issues as far as printing is concerned? Will be using an X-rite i1 and Canon ipf6300 via Canon's plug-in.

2) Can the new Apple monitors be color calibrated successfully enough to get prints to match the monitor?

Thank you for your anticipated cooperation.

Jim



Aug 30, 2014 at 12:06 PM
gdanmitchell
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Apple's new 27 inch with Maverick


I've had great luck with my 27" iMac (a slightly older model) and with more recent models. They have great screens and can be calibrated quite well. I use an x-rite i1 for mine.

There is a myth that you should be able to make your monitor display an image that looks exactly like your print will look. You will never get a monitor to look exactly like a print. A rear-illuminated screen cannot give the same appearance as top-illuminated paper with ink.

The goals of monitor calibration are primarily two:

1. Get the color balance to be as close as possible to accurate.

2. Once that balance is achieved, to be able to maintain it consistently.

The consistency is the bigger deal. Once you learn your monitor and your papers you can extrapolate from what you see on the screen to predict what you'll get in a print in a much more reliable way — though it is still necessary to actually make the print to be able to tell for sure.

Dan



Aug 30, 2014 at 03:17 PM
J4644
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Apple's new 27 inch with Maverick


Dan,

Thanks for the information. Good to hear that the screens color calibrate well.

Jim



Aug 30, 2014 at 04:11 PM
butchM
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Apple's new 27 inch with Maverick


J4644 wrote:
I am running 10.6.8 now and need to update the OS. I am thinking about going to 10.8.4 because I have seen reviews of Maverick and they have not been overwhelmingly great.


Not sure what "reviews" you have been reading ... but, Mavericks reached a higher percentage of use/implementation in less time than did Snow Leopard (10.6). Mavericks is the most widely used version of OS X. Ever.

I'm running Mavericks on two iMacs and two Macbook Pros without issue and have no problems profiling any of them. I use a Spyder 4 colorimeter and Color Eyes Display Pro for creating the profiles. CEDP seems to handle achieving the proper brightness without sacrificing contrast.



Aug 30, 2014 at 05:03 PM
macrobild
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Apple's new 27 inch with Maverick


gdanmitchell wrote:
I've had great luck with my 27" iMac (a slightly older model) and with more recent models. They have great screens and can be calibrated quite well. I use an x-rite i1 for mine.

There is a myth that you should be able to make your monitor display an image that looks exactly like your print will look. You will never get a monitor to look exactly like a print. A rear-illuminated screen cannot give the same appearance as top-illuminated paper with ink.

The goals of monitor calibration are primarily two:

1. Get the color balance to be as close as possible
...Show more

not calibrated but profiling quite well, it is significant difference to be calibrated or profiled



Aug 30, 2014 at 06:07 PM
howardm4
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Apple's new 27 inch with Maverick


just as an FYI, i have that same iMac and have used BasICColor Display s/w is capable of bringing the luminousity down to something reasonable (I use 90-100)


Aug 30, 2014 at 07:48 PM
OntheRez
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Apple's new 27 inch with Maverick


I have the latest (and highest specced) 27" iMac running Mavericks. There are things I don't like about the direction Apple is taking the GUI (like this multi-tone grey thing), but as an OS it has been solid and I think the quickest yet. I ran 10.9.4 on a 2010 Mac Pro dual quad and it also did well there. Those of who have used Macs for a long time have found that "the way things are supposed to be done" are changing. Some of it is fine, but some just seems stylistic and faddist. Still it's a great work platform particularly with a full complement of RAM, the fastest processor, and an internal .5TN SSD. (Photo storage is external in an SSD based array.)

Robert

I have found it to be straight forward to calibrate (or whatever is the technically correct term) with an Xrite I1Display device.



Aug 30, 2014 at 10:07 PM
J4644
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Apple's new 27 inch with Maverick


Hi Butch,

I just checked to make sure and the reviews I was going by were on Apples site. They may be overwhelmingly skewed towards the initial version, but they are there.

As for your experience, I am glad to hear that you are not experiencing any problems. If the responses here continue to be positive, I will probably buy the new iMac.

Thanks,

Jim



Aug 31, 2014 at 06:50 AM
J4644
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Apple's new 27 inch with Maverick


Hi Howard,

I did try a number of third party fixes to get the luminance down but I did not have much success. For what it is worth, I have been calibrating to 75 cd/m2 for the luminance and it works fine. I would imagine that I would have to continue to get the luminance down to those levels with the new iMac. If the new monitors can get to those levels for luminance, then I would think that I would be fine.

Thanks,

Jim



Aug 31, 2014 at 06:56 AM
J4644
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Apple's new 27 inch with Maverick


Robert,

Thanks for the information. It is looking like the newer unit is not as bad as I had been led to believe.

Jim



Aug 31, 2014 at 06:59 AM
OntheRez
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Apple's new 27 inch with Maverick


J4644 wrote:
Robert,

Thanks for the information. It is looking like the newer unit is not as bad as I had been led to believe.



Jim,
As the designated "IT guy" for my family and friends (longevity implies competence, I suppose I've - over the last 3 months - helped purchase and install four 27" iMacs. They had varying degrees of power (most had the i5 processor). Still all are running 10.9.4 and the biggest problem I've faced is helping people deal with iCloud which - IMHO - after four years from .mac to .icloud is still a kludge. As for the machines themselves and the user experience it has all been 5 star. I have to admit that while I miss my 30" CinemaHD display from my old Mac Pro the actual quality of the image on this new 27" is superior. I've noticed it particularly when carefully examining pix for critical sharpness. This machine is also clearly faster with Lr and Ps than my old dual quad Mac Pro.

I expect to go to a new Mac Pro perhaps at their next iteration, but for the next 3 years this seems to be a perfectly competent solution. I'm not familiar with the negative reviews you've encountered, but I do suggest
Macintouch as a superb resource for emerging Mac technology and generally intelligent commentary/discussion on trends and issues with OS X.

From what you've identified as your needs, I think you would be more than satisfied with the i7 27" model. Get a decent sized SSD (.5 TB) but buy your extra RAM from either OWC or Crucial. Installation is a snap. You will need to find an external backup device, but USB-3 is robust and certainly quick enough for back up. You don't need a fast external disk. I use the time capsule for general backup and a two tiered storage system for photos only. Bit of a hassle but with SuperDuper (Carbon Copy Copy is just as good), it's all automated and gives a reasonable degree of protection.

Good luck, you'll enjoy the new iMacs. They actually are quite nice. (This coming from a person who swore he'd never own one

Robert



Aug 31, 2014 at 08:19 AM
J4644
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Apple's new 27 inch with Maverick


Robert,

Thank you for your knowledgable information. This is exactly why I come to FM in the first place. It looks like I was mistaken and I will probably buy a new unit soon. Thanks for the headsup for Macintouch I will take a look. I have purchased extra RAM from OWC in the past and it really is quite easy to install. I also am all set with external hard drives, I have two Western Digital units.

What I really want to make sure about with the new monitors is that the luminance can be brought down to the range that I am accustom to ( around 75 cd/m2 ), without any third party fix; and that the prints will be very close to what I see on the monitor. I do also have custom profiles for my media in case anyone asks. Do you have any experience printing from the new Macs? If so, how well do your prints match? I ask because some people just judge these monitors on what they see on the screen and never really do any printing.

I will look forward to you response.

Thank you,

Jim



Aug 31, 2014 at 09:39 AM
gdanmitchell
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Apple's new 27 inch with Maverick


OntheRez wrote:
I have found it to be straight forward to calibrate (or whatever is the technically correct term) with an Xrite I1Display device.


Pedantically speaking ;-)... you calibrate your monitor and you create a profile to hold that information.

But realistically speaking, who cares? ;-)

Dan



Aug 31, 2014 at 12:52 PM
OntheRez
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Apple's new 27 inch with Maverick


Jim,
I can't directly answer your question as I tend to work from what looks good from the profile when my monitor is calibrated (thank you Dan with the I1Display Pro and then tweak my printed output to fit to the image I have in mind. The I1Display creates an excellent profile and allows one to set most monitor parameters. Also, it is not often noted, but Apple includes the ColorSync utility with the system. I've never attempted to use it, but others have found it to be quite powerful. It certainly can tell you all profiles not only for your monitor but any connected device and allows for a lot of tweaking including specific utilities for lightness increase/decrease. So between the two tools I suspect one can tinker quite a bit. I've never used custom profiles (other than those provided by the printer manufacturer) so how yours will look/work on a different display is unknown.

I can say that while I'm still getting use to this machine (2 weeks in), I'm really liking its color and clarity and I think my print/monitor correlation has improved.

Sorry I can't directly answer your question, but in my not so extensive experience I've found the matching of print copy to monitor to always require some back and forth to get it to my liking.

Robert



Aug 31, 2014 at 08:36 PM
Alan321
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Apple's new 27 inch with Maverick


OntheRez wrote:
I have found it to be straight forward to calibrate (or whatever is the technically correct term) with an Xrite I1Display device.

gdanmitchell wrote:
Pedantically speaking ;-)... you calibrate your monitor and you create a profile to hold that information.

But realistically speaking, who cares? ;-)

Dan


It matters a lot if you use a computer such as MacBook Pro that does not give you good control of the screen "brightness". It is so easy to bump the button that changes the brightness and you would have to know where to set it back to - e.g. "8 bars from the left" instead of a more useful "90 Cd/m2". It also matters with external screens that give you a choice of colourspace.

However, if you use an NEC PA or EIZO screen then applying a profile sets everything internally in the monitor and the results are always consistent. Then the profile is also the calibration.

- Alan



Sep 01, 2014 at 02:54 AM
Alan321
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Apple's new 27 inch with Maverick


Screen brightness can be affected in at least two different ways; one (the best) is to control the backlight. The other (not so good) is to sacrifice the brighter data levels, leaving a smaller range of values to be used for the profile.

To better match a print you need to limit the brighter parts of the image to whatever brightness you would get from blank paper in the viewing room, and also increase the blacks to match whatever the black ink reflects from the paper being used. This can be done but the results look rather crappy on screen because most bright daylight scenes are a lot brighter than say 70-90 Cd/m2 that you might get reflected from paper.

In my opinion we need more than one version of each image - one for a satisfying display on-screen and another derived from that one for each print viewing setup.

- Alan



Sep 01, 2014 at 03:04 AM
Alan321
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Apple's new 27 inch with Maverick


Jim, can you still get Mountain Lion ? Mavericks might be your only choice now.

Lloyd Chambers documented a number of Mavericks bugs and problems in his macperformanceguide.com, but I gather that things are better now that they're up to the .4 iteration. It's pretty bad that you can't just ignore the .0 release these days.

I just tried installing Mavericks yesterday before it disappears once Yosemite is released. It was a 5+ GB download (over a third of my monthly internet allocation) and did not work properly. Now I'll have to go to an Apple Store and use their wi-fi hotspot to get a fresh download but (a) it will be a lot slower and (b) it has to be done before Yosemite is released. What a pain. Especially as it has to be done for each computer because you cannot save the download.


With regards to the iMac, you might want to wait until Apple gets into 4k screens. 110ppi on the present range is not very good to look at compared to what they might produce before long. Presumably they'll also work out how better to handle somewhat higher pixels per inch in their user interface.

- Alan



Sep 01, 2014 at 03:23 AM
J4644
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Apple's new 27 inch with Maverick


Hi Alan,

I did find Mountain Lion on line on Friday night, it was not easy. I ordered it but have not received it yet. So to answer your question, I think I can get it. I also agree that one needs a screen version and a print version so both look good.

As for Apples 4K screens, I do not think I can wait for that. I have two issues right now that I need to address and I am hoping either Mountain Lion or a new machine will take care of those problems.

Thank you,

Jim



Sep 01, 2014 at 06:14 AM
J4644
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Apple's new 27 inch with Maverick


Robert,

Thanks for the additional response and honesty.

Jim



Sep 01, 2014 at 06:16 AM
OntheRez
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Apple's new 27 inch with Maverick


Alan321 wrote:
Lloyd Chambers documented a number of Mavericks bugs and problems in his macperformanceguide.com, but I gather that things are better now that they're up to the .4 iteration. It's pretty bad that you can't just ignore the .0 release these days.


Alan,

Can confirm that most of the problems with 10.9.0 have been addressed and agree that a product should be good to go on release. However, I cannot think of a single piece of software (or many bits of hardware) that haven't required several "maintenance" releases until they worked properly. Mavericks does represent some major rewriting on Apple's part to make several of the key processes both multi-thread and multi-core capable. While some major engineering was going on down in the boiler room the decorators did a fairly radical make over of the finder which is where most of the bugginess came from. Mail got particularly abused. Still I can say that at 10.9.4 seems stable at this point though I still don't like the decorating.

There was a time when I was an earlier adopter, but those days are past. I won't touch any software till at least 2 or 3 revisions and generally buy just behind the curve on hardware. It's possible that Apple's "public beta" of Yosemite will help alleviate some of the problems that both Mountain Lion and Mavericks faced on release.

I'm not defending Apple's software QC as I do think it has declined. Still it is impossible to conceive of, much less test for all the things users can do to an OS. Having once worked in development, I can say that the teams I worked with always had a smack on the forehead at a bug or two that would appear when a new version was released.

Jim, I see you found a copy of ML. Personally I would go with Mavericks rather than stopping at an older version. All you are doing is putting off a move to the newer OS version as hardware and software changes around you. One of those pay me now or pay me later type of things.

Robert



Sep 01, 2014 at 08:57 AM
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