Hi Tim,
There used to be a couple of bits of software around a few years ago that would allow you check / adjust your monitor against a printed card. It was a bit hit and miss though (I did try one and it nearly drove me nuts!) and I had a quick look but couldn't see them any more. I use a an X-Rite (Gretag Macbeth system to go from capture / scan through the monitors to printer profiles) but it wasn't cheap (about £1800 if I remember right) and it is used to keep NEC SpectraView monitors in check (as well as laptops etc) using either the SpectraView software or the Macbeth tools. I think the cheapest spectrophotometer out there (that's any good) is the Spyder3 Express (about £75). It would certainly do what you want but you need to think through your process before investing. Do you want absolute accuracy from view, through capture to output, or do you want what you see on screen (which you may have adjusted away from what was seen/captured) to be there in your output (print, web, whatever)? There's not much point in having an accurate monitor if your prints don't match it. However, interestingly when I use the calibration tools on a decent flat panel (not the SpectraViews - we have some low cost BenQ's) and a decent printer I rarely find they are unacceptably out (in contrast to a few years ago with CRT's etc). It seems that the new generation of kit is pretty well profiled and it seems rare that these profiles cause wide deviations from one device to another. We calibrate because we have a scientific need to ensure that the final image matches what we were imaging. The knock-on into my personal work is just a nice to have. I will probably always calibrate my equipment and control colour in the workflow but if you are finding that you don't see significant deviation between devices I would not get hung up about it. You might even be making things more difficult for yourself as you may end up with a monitor that is spot-on only to find there are huge colour errors elsewhere!
