ColorMunki Design set up and Color Palette for Mac OSX

I waited to upgrade my Gretag Macbeth Eye One Match for a couple of years and finally bought ColorMunki Design from X-Rite.  I wanted to have an all in one device that calibrated my monitor and also allowed me to use Pantone Fashion and Home swatches which are already part of the Color Munki software.  The added bonus was that I would be able to take snapshots of colors not already provided in the software, and then have them automatically added to a palette.  This would be a huge reduction in time, instead of trying to mix colors correctly onscreen for presentations.

Using the ColorMunki spectrophotometer proved to be very easy when it came to calibrating my monitor.  The onscreen instructions are smooth to follow, and it is the first thing you do at set up after the software is installed.  The software can be set to remind you of monitor calibration  every week, or up to 4 weeks from your last calibration. To recalibrate the Monitor before the time you set the software to remind you, go to Display Profiling on the menu. 

I'd calibrated my monitor earlier in the day which also calibrated the device.  When I later went to take spot colors with the ColorMunki, I was reminded that the device itself needed to be calibrated.  To calibrate the device, click on the ColorMunki symbol on the left menu of the window. The ColorMunki device must be connected to your monitor via the USB cord.

New palettes are created by going to the + symbol at the bottom left of the window. Next type in the name of your palette by clicking on the title under "Projects".

Take spot colors to add to the palette with the ColorMunki device.  ColorMunki assigns the swatch a color category below the color name. You can assign a new color name by double clicking on the color title in the upper right hand box of the window.

Several swatch libraries come preloaded with the ColorMunki Software.

If you have the number reference to the swatch you are looking for from one of the libraries, it can be typed in at the bottom of the window under the main color swatch. If you want to add the swatch to your custom palette, drag the large swatch over to the title of your custom palette, and it automatically drops in.


The ColorMunki Design spectrophotometer has made creating a palette and calibrating a monitor much more streamlined.