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The Right Specifications to Look For

A monitor is a graphic designers canvas for creating works of art. Having a great monitor, is essential for your graphic design projects. When buying a LCD Monitor for graphic design purposes, the specifications you should look at before you buy a LCD monitor are:

• The type of back light it uses
• Viewable angle
• Native resolution
• Screen size
• Aspect ratio
• Dot pitch
• Contrast ratio
• Response time
• Video Interface type
• Ergonomics
• and glossy or non-glossy screens.

Back Lights

When looking for an LCD display, you should look for one that uses LED (light-emitting diode) back lights since LED back lights are brighter per watt then fluorescent tube back lights. Individual LED bulbs can be arrange where the light is evenly disperse, so there are not any bright spots along the edges of the LCD like a LCD which is illuminated by fluorescent tubes when you display a dark picture on your screen. Another advantage of LED technology is it is more power efficient and lasts longer then fluorescent tubes.

Viewable Angles and Resolutions

The viewable angle of the LCD is also important since you want to view your pictures from multiple angles to see if they look good from all angles. When you are at a store, look at your LCD from multiple angles to see if the LCD is viewable from most angles.

If you make a lot of high resolution pictures like desktop backgrounds, I recommend buying a LCD with a high native resolution which has a resolution of 1400 × 1050 or more, so you are not constantly using your horizontal or vertical scroll bar to scroll back and forth when working on your projects. I also recommend having a screen since of 20″ inches or more for the LCD’s diagonal length (bottom right corner to top left corner). Having a bigger screen, will make you squint your eyes less, or use the “zoom in” and “zoom out” function as much when working on smaller pictures on a high resolution display. Changing your LCD to a lower resolution will make your screen look blurry since LCD are designed to work best at its native resolution.

Aspect Ratio and Dot Pitch

Picking the right aspect ratio is important. If you make a lot of big pictures which has square-like dimensions then I recommend a 4:3 aspect ratio since 4:3 aspect ratios LCD look like a square. However, if you make a lot of pictures which are rectangular then I recommend a LCD monitor with a 16:9 aspect ratio since 16:9 aspect ratio monitors has rectangular dimensions.

Dot pitch is a essential specification when picking a LCD monitor. The dot pitch of a LCD is the length between two pixels of the same color. When a LCD has a smaller dot pitch the picture will be more sharp and less blurry. A dot pitch of 0.28 mm or smaller is most desirable. If the dot pitch is greater then 0.28 mm, the LCD will appear grainy.

Contrast Ratio and Response Time

Picking an LCD monitor which has a good contrast ratio like 800:1 or above will make your monitor display more shades of grey, and the color black and white better. The contrast ratio is the darkest black and the whitest white. Another way of looking at the contrast ratio is the shades of gray in between the color black and white.

If you design flash animation, 3d animation, edit movies, watch fast moving objects on your LCD, you need an LCD with a fast response time of 8 milliseconds or less. If your response time is 10 ms or more, you might see ghosting or un-smooth video playback. The response time is the amount of time it takes for a pixel to go from white to black or black to white.

Video Interface Type and Ergonomics

The video interface type is also an important factor to consider when buying a flat panel display. You need to find out if your monitor can support your video card. A VGA plug which has 15 pins will not work on a DVI monitor because it has a different pin count which is 24 pins. DVI is the best video interface for LCDs since a DVI video card outputs the signal as digital to a DVI monitor which is also digital. If you use a VGA monitor, your monitor has to convert the analog VGA signal from the video card back to digital, so there might be some quality loss during conversion of the analog VGA signal to digital for the LCD to display an image. Another benefit of DVI LCDs is there are fewer parts to break since the analog to digital video converter is not needed.

One of the most over look features when people buy monitors is ergonomics. You should pick a monitor which has an adjustable height stand, so you can move your screen up or down. This will prevent you from slouching down to view your monitor, or staring up to view your monitor. Also, you should test out the buttons on the monitor to see if they are easy to use for adjusting your LCD’s red, green, blue color settings, brightness, and contrast, etc.

Work Environment and Callibration Software

It is also important to pick a screen base on where you do most of your work. If your work environment has a lot of sun light or bright lights then a non-glossy/matte LCD would be better since it reflects less light. However, glossy displays are more reflective, and display colors more vibrantly, and displays black better. A glossy screen attracts more dust and finger prints then a matte LCD, so you will have to clean glossy displays more.

When you finally bring your new LCD home, you should use calibration software like QuickGamma which is a free calibration software which will guide you through on how to calibrate your monitor, so your colors for your LCD are displayed correctly.