One of the most difficult aspects of graphic design is color management. It’s one of those things you know you should do, but often overwhelms all but the most expert of users. Thankfully, Pantone offers ColorMunki Design, a suite of hardware/software tools for designers and digital photographers to ensure accurate color from design to output. I recently wrote a full review of Pantone ColorMunki for Macworld, where I found that ColorMunki not only makes color calibration of your display and printer easy, but capturing colors from any substrate you can think of a snap! 
Display calibration took less than a minute, printer profiling not much longer, and I was building custom color palettes and exporting them to the Adobe Creative Suite apps in no time. Step-by-step instructions guide you through the calibration and profile process. Color capturing from various substrates like printed brochures, t-shirts, soda cans and magazine ads, as well as color palette creation were simple as well. One of the coolest features is the ability of the software to automatically create a color palette from any image you choose. Not only that, but you can then choose one of the colors created, and ColorMunki will offer your a host of complimentary colors as well. The Pantone ColorMunki comes in three flavors.
- ColorMunki Create ($149) calibrates your monitor and builds color palettes.
- ColorMunki Design ($499) does all that, plus allows you to profile your printer, and capture colors from anything you can scan with the ColorMunki device, as well as measure the ambient light in the room.
- ColorMunki Photo ($499) adds features specific to digital photography pros.
If you’re serious about color accuracy, check out the review of ColorMunki Design at Macworld.com, or visit the ColorMunki Web site.