Today’s Question: Wanting to calibrate my mac 27” monitor, I reviewed three of your Ask Tim Grey letters from mid-July 2019. You recommended X-Rite ColorMunki Smile. However, per X-Rite the Smile only works with 32-bit and I believe my Catalina macOS version is 64-bit system. What do you recommend?
Tim’s Quick Answer: You will need to opt for a different solution, and I recommend the X-Rite i1Display Studio, which you can find here:
More Detail: With the update to MacOS Catalina, applications essentially must be 64-bit rather than 32-bit. Many software applications have of course been updated so they can be run on the latest version of the operating system, but not all applications have.
The monitor calibration software included with the X-Rite ColorMunki Smile colorimeter has not been updated to 64-bit, and X-Rite has indicated they will not be developing an update. In other words, you can’t use the ColorMunki Smile display calibration package on a computer running MacOS Catalina.
The X-Rite i1Display Studio package is the “next step” up the line of products from X-Rite, and so is the option I would recommend as an alternative to the X-Rite ColorMunki Smile. You can find the i1Display Studio package here:
The software included with the i1Display Studio already supports MacOS Catalina, so you’ll be able to calibrate your display on the latest version of this operating system.