[IxDA Discuss] Guidance for CRT vs. LCD screens

[Anne Hjortshoj]

I find that it's generally good practice to design on a CRT monitor,
unless you have access to a very high-end color-true LCD screen (about
$900 and up).

LCD screens make colors deceptively jewel-like. If something looks
good on a CRT, it should display well on an LCD screen. The reverse is
less often true.

-Anne

On 3/5/07, Ari Feldman <ari1970 at gmail.com> wrote:
> that's interesting.
>
> ironically, CRTs are generally more adept at handling color than LCD screens
> (e.g. brighter whites, darker blacks, etc), which is why graphic designers
> will usually prefer a CRT vs. a LCD.
>
> however, LCDs are crisper at displaying fine lines and text than even the
> best CRTs and don't have the refresh issues that CRTs do. both of these
> qualities make viewing images and text far easier on the eyes on LCDs than
> CRTs.
>
> it's quite possible that the users were reacting not to the color but to the
> greater clarity of the LCD vs. the CRT.
>
>
>
> On 3/5/07, Jim Drew <cfmdesigns at earthlink.net> wrote:
> >
> > I ran into an unusual issue over the weekend, on a simple site I put
> > together for an annual community event.  Set on a black background, access
> > to the different pages if by clicking on graphic buttons ("About", "Events",
> > etc.).  The active page has the graphic bright and underlined, with the
> > other buttons "dimmed" to about half opacity.  Elsewhere, the linked text
> > was a medium-to-dark green, embedded in medium gray text.
> >
> > On the various LCD screens I use, this was completely visible.  The linked
> > text popped out wonderfully.  At worst, you might have to look a little
> > harder to read the dimmed buttons (although I never thought so; they were
> > clear to me), but seeing that they were there was no problem.
> >
> > But it turns out that users on CRT screens had only dim/dark green for the
> > linked text -- no easy to see against the black background -- and the
> > graphic buttons for the other pages was 100% invisible.  (I saw this for
> > myself.)  One person (on an eMac, I think) didn't even realize the site had
> > other pages; another found the buttons because of the tooltips (which didn't
> > show in Safari for the first user) and a layout which informed her that
> > other buttons must be present.
> >
> > This shocked the heck out of me, needless to say.
> >
> > Other than "make things brighter and avoid dark backgrounds altogether",
> > are there other guidelines that I can keep in mind to avoid this sort of
> > issue in the future?  And maybe brightness/contrast settings I can save for
> > viewing such sites on an LCD to better mimic what CRT users will see?
> >
> > -- Jim
> >
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-- 
Anne Hjortshoj | anne.hj at gmail.com