Blew $200 on a "CMYK calibrated" monitor that was a total scam

I bought this cheap monitor advertised as CMYK calibrated for print work, and my first batch of business cards came back looking like someone puked neon green. Turns out it was just an RGB monitor with a sticker claiming calibration. Anyone else get burned by fake "print-ready" gear?

2 comments

2 Comments

taylor_barnes594d ago

My buddy bought one of those "calibrated" monitors off Amazon for his design side hustle and his client's logos kept showing up with weird orange tints he couldn't see on screen. He spent a whole week messing with settings before he figured out the calibration certificate was just a piece of paper in the box, not an actual profile loaded onto the monitor. He ended up having to borrow a friend's Spyder to fix it, so yeah those scam listings are way too common.

eric3593d ago

The Spyder wouldn't fix the calibration issue on its own though. It's just a tool to measure and create a profile, not something that actively loads one onto the monitor. He probably used it to generate a custom ICC profile based on the actual screen output, which is the real fix. That scam listing is still garbage either way. Those cheap monitors rarely have consistent color across the panel even if you calibrate them manually. You get what you pay for with display hardware, no sticker changes that.