[thelist] Designing for New Monitors

[Bruce Wilbur]

Rob Smith wrote:
> Hey list,
>
> With the sale of these new fand-dangled flat panel monitors, quite a few of
> them are arriving in wide screen.
>
> Has anyone had any experience designing for these types of monitors? What
> are the pixel dimensions, colors, etc. used?

I use a pair LCD panels on my main machine.  The only significant differences I've found are in brightness/contrast in the very darkest and very lightest ranges.

I've also noticed this on laptops and at client sites where they use a different brand of panel.  (And yes, I've noticed it on on a friend's Mac Titanium too.)

For example, games generally have lots of dark regions that look the same on an LCD, but on a CRT you can see the subtle difference in shades.

On web sites, the trendy new low-contrast light-gray-on-light-gray look is all but unreadable on an LCD.  The reverse is true as well.  I did a watermark graphic that looks fantastically subtle on my LCDs.  On a CRT, my first thought was, "How am I supposed to read this?"

In the midranges, and wherever there's more contrast between colors, shades and brightness, I see very little difference.

On color balance, I've had a hard time ridding mine of excess blue.  It's most noticable in grays, but I imagine it contributes to less "warmth" across the spectrum.  I can't say I've devoted much thought or research to the color balance of other LCDs.

Best bet, just like with browsers, is test, test and test again.

HTH!
B