December 21, 2002

Second Monitor

I currently have a large 21" Dell Trinitron crt monitor. It's a huge, heavy beast with a big screen.

Ideally, I'd use this monitor for color-accurate Photoshop work and have a second monitor to the side to show things like email and my Bloomberg terminal.

It seems/seemed to me that this could easily be a smaller, inexpensive flat-screen monitor.

All day today my eyes have been sore and tired. I've been working long hours and haven't caught up with enough rest I guess. Staring at the Eizo LCDs all day long, and then using my own computer all night long is tiring I guess. I started to wonder if maybe an LCD screen would be easier on my eyes, or perhaps there were setting adjustments I could make to my CRT monitor to make it easier on my eyes. Any ideas?

If using an LCD would make a material difference, maybe I should getting something more substantial?

Mono-raj suggested (I think) Samsung monitors as being quite nice and a good value overall. The guy at Superpet tried to sell me on a Sharp 1620.

By-the-way: Does anyone have any decent guides to choosing an lcd, or making a crt less punishing to the eyes? I found this guide to LCD specs and this set-up primer.

This guide to reducing eye strain has an interesting excerpt that I think may explain why my eyes were so tired last night and today:

    Visual stress will be induced if - while you are watching your screen - your peripheral vision is exposed to light intensity brighter than the brightest regions of your display. A color scientist or video engineer uses the term surround to refer to the area that is perceived by your peripheral vision. In addition to disturbing your peripheral vision, a bright surround will necessarily increase your ambient illumination. Try to establish a visual surround that is quite a bit darker than the brightest white of your screen.

Coincidentally, we added a bright flourescent desk lamp off to the side of my computer recently. It is very bright. Maybe I underestimated its effect.


Posted by Nils Blutig at December 21, 2002 10:54 PM | TrackBack