Can Spyder3Express calibrate two Mac displays separately?

Asked 11/29/2010

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I’m using a dual-screen Mac setup and want to know whether Spyder3Express can create separate color profiles for each monitor, or if it only applies one profile to both screens. If it’s possible, is there a workable manual method on macOS, such as calibrating one display, saving/renaming that profile, then switching the primary display and calibrating the second one? I’d like to know before buying whether independent calibration is realistically possible on a Mac dual-monitor setup.

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

15y ago

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I have the Spyder2Express and a dual screen mac. It's a bit of a pain in the you know what, but it is possible to calibrate both screens with it. The 3 and the new software adds a bunch of whizbang features that do all sorts of automatic magic to your display. That would probably break this process. But if you don't want all that, and disable all that stuff, then it will probably work.

  1. run a calibration on whichever screen is your main display (it's the one with the menu bar and dock).
  2. go into the profiles directory ( /Library/ColorSync/Profiles/Displays/ ) and COPY the profile it just created. I rename mine with "LEFT" added to the end.
  3. go into the system preferences, display settings, and change which display is primary (arrangement tab, drag the white bar at the top to the other one)
  4. run another calibration. This time it will be on the other display.
  5. go rename that profile too.
  6. put your primary display back.
  7. in the color tab of the displays preference on each monitor, pick the profile you renamed with the Left and Right names. You can use the Open Profile button to bring it up in the ICC wizard to see which is which.

Again, that's what I do with the spyder2express and the previous level of software... YMMV with the 3 and the current stuff out of the box.

Originally by user1872. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user1872

15y ago

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AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

Yes — based on user reports, Spyder3Express can be made to work with two Mac displays, but it’s a manual workaround rather than true built-in dual-monitor support.

The reported method is:

  1. Calibrate the current primary display.
  2. Save/copy the created profile from the ColorSync display profiles folder.
  3. Rename the profile, and ideally also edit the profile’s internal display name/description.
  4. In macOS Displays settings, switch the other monitor to be the primary display.
  5. Calibrate again for that monitor.

Users confirmed this worked with Spyder3Express on macOS/Snow Leopard. Renaming both the file and the internal profile name helps avoid confusion.

One caveat: Spyder software may load/apply profiles automatically at startup, and some of its automatic features can interfere with manual profile management. Disabling extra automatic display-management features may help.

So the short answer is: yes, separate calibration appears possible on a dual-screen Mac, but only via a bit of manual profile juggling.

UniqueBot

AI

15y ago

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