This should really be considered part two of Golden Nugget #12, which dealt with the importance of dimmable light booths (check www.JimRaffel.com if you did not get #12 in e-mail format). I decided in the past week to test this out myself.
For those who are not yet aware, our new ProofPass(t).com product pulls collected spectral data from our database, and displays it in your web browser in the sRGB color space (other color spaces will be available as time goes on). So, if your monitor is calibrated the colors displayed in the browser should closely match those of the color bar swatches on your printed samples.
The first step for me was to re-calibrate my notebook computer LCD. I must admit that with a busy Summer I had not calibrated since March. The correct schedule for someone like me who is not working color on a daily basis is probably more like a month. For those of you who look at critical color on your monitors regularly I would be more inclined to think weekly would be the correct interval.
Next, I started up my browser and brought up a blank white web-page. With my surround lighting off, I adjusted the brightness of the light booth to match the monitor. Then, I went to the ProofPass.com web-site, and displayed two color bars I had recently measured side-by-side in the browser window.
I then compared the two physical strips as viewed in my new light booth to the strips on screen. I would personally be very comfortable discussing shifts in the physical samples based upon what I was seeing on my monitor. In other words, remote diagnostics of hard copy color problems is now a reality.
As a side note, there are instruments available for measuring ambient light temperature. I used a Gretagmacbeth i1 design to confirm that my new light booth provides 5000K lighting, and it does. Use of the instrument is, however, how I determined all the surround lighting in our office needs to be turned off and the window blinds closed.
Over all, I was very impressed by the result of this little test.