[thelist] [ot] what is Color Temperature ?

[aardvark]

color temperature helps dictate what colors you may see given a 
particular light source... for instance, in an ideal black-body 
situation (like the sun, if it weren't so yellow), white would look 
white... but the color temperature of the lights in your office make 
light look greenish-blue... at home, that white may appear yellow 
under your reading lamp...

every light source has a variation on what color 'white' light it puts 
out, based on its black-body spectrum... that's what color 
temperature refers to...

this is a bit simplified, but hope it helps...

as for your headaches, there are many ways to address that, some 
of which might even work:

- kick up the refresh rate on your monitor to to 80hz or so...
- turn down the brightness or contrast...
- turn on some lights in your office so the ambient light is as bright 
as the monitor...
- make sure you monitor is focused properly...
- avoid heavily contrasting colors for system colors... for instance, 
it's more eyestrain to read red on blue, than white on grey...
- you could futz with the color temperature, but it may affect the 
way you perceive colors...

now, if your monitor is color-calibrated, you may need to re-
calibrate after doing some of these... but you should be calibrated 
to a comfortable work environment anyway...

> From: "Eduardo Dominguez" <lalo_dominguez at yahoo.com>
> 
> But then, yesterday, I complained to a coworker about some ocasional
> headaches I get after long sessions with my PC.
> 
> He suggested, lowering the monitors color temperature. Nor only does
> the image in my monitor look more crisp it is more easy on my eyes.
> I also didnt know that monitors had that setting.
> 
> Can anyone explain me what Color Temperature is and what difference
> it made when I changed that setting in my monitor ?