[thelist] Fluorescence on screen

Adrian Simmons adrinux at ntlworld.com
Wed Oct 6 19:09:45 CDT 2004


Chris Kavanagh wrote:
> Is it possible to get a computer screen to display fluorescent colours? 
>  Like the kind of shining yellow or pink you get from a highlighter pen?
Well everyone else gave you the practical advice. But this brings out 
the science geek in me not the web geek...

All the colours on your screen are fluorescent. The pigments in 
highlighter pen ink don't just absorb light, but also emit some too, 
it's that which makes them look 'brighter' than say a normal yellow or 
pink. The red, green and blue phosphors on a CRT screen[1] also emit 
light – they fluoresce when bombarded with electrons.

So really the question should be 'how can I display colours on screen 
that *don't* fluoresce?'.
The only 'colour' that you can do that with is black, so I'd advise 
putting the bright colours everyone else suggested against a black 
background for maximum effect.

The fundamental problem is that fluorescent materials in the natural 
world are very rare, so when we see one it really stands out, the 
material is much brighter than it *should* be to our minds. But when it 
comes to computer screens and TV's we take the fluorescence for granted, 
we expect them to be bright.

[1] not sure how LCD monitors work, sorry.

-- 
Adrian Simmons <http://adrinux.perlucida.com>
e-mail <mailto:adrinux at ntlworld.com>
AOL/Yahoo IM: perlucida, Microsoft: adrian at perlucida.com


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