A friend loaned me his Eye-one Display LT so I can try out monitor calibration. Doing some reading, I have learned that the colorimeter that comes in this package is (or was) the same as the more expensive "Display 2", the only difference being the software. Both units are discontinued, and I have some concerns about using this with Windows 7. Reviews I have read indicate that I would immediately want to upgrade the software packaged with the unit anyway.

One recommendation is to use the following links to download iMatch 3.6.2 for the i1 Display 2:

• Eye-One Display 2 support page

• i1Match_3.6.2_Win7.exe

C:\Program Files (x86)\GretagMacbeth\i1\Eye-One Match 3

Reading the brochure that comes with the device, I am instructed not to press the gadget onto the screen (if I had a CRT, I would be advised to press it onto the screen). The device has little suction cups (this is what the pressing is all about). A counterweight is required with an LCD screen to keep the gadget in the right place. I go ahead and plug it into a USB port and my computer tells me that the i1 driver gets installed successfully. And now when I start the software it is off to the races, leading me through a bunch of menus and dialogs until I am confronted with a choice of white point and gamma.

The default it presents me with is medium white (6500) and 2.2 for gamma. The alternate choice for gamma is 1.8, which Martin Evening says should not be used and exists only for quaint historical reasons. Alternates for the white point are 7500 and 5000. Evening also says that choosing the white point does not really matter, so I leave these settings as they are. I do check the box to perform ambient light check.

The ambient light choice requires me to snap a white diffusor gizmo onto the gadget and then click the calibrate button. It is not clear where the gadget should be help during this calibration, but I hold it near but facing away from the monitor, trying to emulate the cartoon provided by the software. It tells me my ambient is 4400K at 91 lux. The bar graphs indicate my ambient is rather warm and definitely too bright.

Now it wants me to set monitor contrast to 100 percent and I go through the insane user interface on my Samsung monitor to achieve this. It seems odd that it doesn't want me to adjust the brightness setting.

Now it wants me to fiddle with my monitor settings to get to the selected white point. My monitor has a menu setting called cool/normal/warm/custom -- I select "normal". I click start and it tells me my current setting is 5600. Well, I thought that we agreed on 6500 when all this began, this is about as clear as mud.

Now I click the right arrow and it is busy measuring. And it stays busy for several minutes.

Now it has a profile 10-12-2013_1.icc and wants to save it (and make it my default profile, applying it to my monitor). Here the software is confusing and contradictory. There is a button that says "finish calibration" and a right arrow that the instructions tell me will save my profile. Which am I supposed to click? I go for finish calibration. It has a button saying "calibration ON" and "calibration OFF", with the traditional bad GUI design (does the button label indicate the current state or the state we will transition to if we click the button?). When I click the right arrow, the software exits.

The profile gets saved to:

C:\Windows\system32\spool\drivers\color\10-12-2013_1.icc

My impression is that the colors are now darker, flesh tones are much richer. Many aspects of the software are confusing -- some kind of decently written manual or online guide would be a huge help. I will say this though, it didn't trash my system or screw up my monitor. As near as I can tell it did something good.

HCFR

• HCFR