Essential recommendation! The Spyder5Express version doesn't even enable to choose the brightness that your monitor will display after calibration!!! The sensor will only perform a colorimetric calibration of grey neutralization, in particular. I thus recommend, once you'll have reset your monitor, to choose the following values BEFORE LAUNCHING CALIBRATION:
- Color temperature: 6500K
- Brightness: around 30/35% on a recent monitor,
- Contrast: around 75%.
It is an average setting but it will still be a lot better than factory settings because the monitors come out around 250/300 Cd/M2 by default. We only need 100/120!
The software even goes so far as to ask you to tick each step performed in order to click on the "Next" button. It's definitely "amateur" software!
Click on "Next"...
2 - Select the monitor you wish to calibrate...
In the unfolding menu, select the monitor you want to calibrate and the menu will place automatically on it, unlike in older versions, less convenient regarding this point.

With this new version of Spyder5Express software, it is possible to calibrate several monitors very easily, but it won't be possible to match them, meaning to calibrate them harmoniously even if one monitor is "weaker" than the others. It is obvious that all monitors will still be calibrated the same way because the values are unique so it will still be a kind of default matching!
Click on "Next"...
3 - Select the type of monitor you wish to calibrate...
The software then asks you whether it's a desktop monitor (hence with brightness/contrast/etc. settings) or a laptop monitor for which you'll only be able to set brightness.

Click on "Next"...
4 - Choose the name of the monitor (to automatically name the ICC profile)...
By giving you the ability to choose the make and model of the monitor you are calibrating, the software knows what name it will automatically give to the ICC profile you are creating.
Tip! If, like me, you have at least two identical screens, it will be easy to add "_left" or "_right" to your screen template, for example, so as not to mix ICC profiles later.
5 - Place the colorimeter on the screen...
... on the designated zone! And click on "Next"...

My advice! The Spyder5 sensor isn't ballasted anymore so you might have to tilt your monitor slightly for your sensor to stay flat against the monitor.

Click on "Next"... Calibration launches and it is on for a little more than five minutes, which is quite quick for budget software. Once calibration is finished, you're invited to name this profile and save it on your computer.
4 - Saving your monitor ICC profile
Once calibration and characterization are over, name your ICC profile and choose the date of the next calibration reminder.

My recommendation! If you own several monitors, be sure to identify them by naming them clearly and possibly note everything that could be of interest if you're making tests. Here, for instance, I noted that it is my right-hand monitor with Spyder5Express.
Click on "Save". The software lets you know where it stored the ICC profile.
5 - Before/After comparison
Very instructive most of the time! |