New Monitor

[Colin]

every 30 minutes take a 30 second break, concentrate your vision on something far away, like a tree branch or something that is at least 80-100 feet away. It helps.. learned this from a seminar once

Ya, but that's a normal part of my day anyway; always on & off the computer doing myriad other things.

 

[signswi]

Make sure your ergonomics are sound: you're looking at the monitor from the correct angle, at the correct distance, etc. and minimize glare as much as you can. Don't go to sleep right after staring at a screen, read a book or something for 30 minutes or more. TVs are screens too.

 

[Colin]

Yup, all good.

 

[signswi]

If there are overhead flourescents used mixed color temps throughout the shop, this is really what the above people are indicating when they are adding incandescants (which are evil). You can buy FLs and CFLs in every color temp range now.

Also, if you're working near the large format printers--it could be air quality or noise. Make sure you have a really well ventilated shop if you're running solvents (a charcoal filter is ideal and necessary for many people). Noise can get bad too, we have a Mimaki JV3 and the y-motor got bad over time and we had 85db of noise going 10 hours a day. Saps your energy really quickly and can cause headaches and long term hearing damage.

 

[Colin]

If there are overhead flourescents used mixed color temps throughout the shop, this is really what the above people are indicating when they are adding incandescants (which are evil). You can buy FLs and CFLs in every color temp range now.

I have 8' long fluorescents directly overhead (10' ceiling) and they are Philips 110 Watt 4100K "Cool White" tubes. I just talked to a guy at a local commercial lighting store and he recommended that I use 6500K "Daylight" tubes for better colour rendering, but more importantly that I change the ballasts from the 10 yr old magnetic type to the newer electonic type. They cycle much faster, and are quieter. I think I'll do this.

Thx

 

[signswi]

You should and he's right, 6500 are what you want the most of. We use 6500 over all print areas.

 

[oldgoatroper]

The headaches won't be coming from some weird mix of colour "temperature"

The problem is flicker.

Fluorescents flicker. At 60 Hz.

LEDs flicker. At some other frequency.

Flicker is tiring on the eyes at 60 Hz.

Combining the two creates an interference pattern which can be even more tiring to the eyes.

Adding an incandescent or halogen helps greatly to negate the effects of flicker because these light sources are steady and do not flicker.

 

[signswi]

Flicker can add to it yes but color temp is a very important factor I'm not sure why you put it in quotes. Also I think you meant LCD not LED and the refresh rate of an LCD depends on the manufacturer, anywhere from 60hz to 240hz. It's also a much less significant flicker than the days of CRTs when 60hz would really bake your eyeballs. LCD flicker isn't caused by the light source (as the backlight is on constantly) unlike CRTs and if it's a quality manufacturer the flicker will be extremely minor. As you're also talking about overheads, going to electronic bulbs over magnetic makes a massive difference as the refresh is so fast that there's very little eye strain.

Less light is often a key as well it's just not possible for those of us working from the shop floor. Walk into a computer programming or design agency and you'll notice that the light levels are extremely low. We actually kept them completely off in my last agency and just used bounced outdoor light for ambient.

 

[oldgoatroper]

There is flicker (a small amount) from LCD screens -- not from the LCD itself but from the backlight, which in most cases is fluorescent. Newer displays have LED backlight, which also flickers.

Wave your hand in front of a screen side to side with your fingers spread wide and you will see strobing -- less so with an LCD/fluorescent as opposed to a CRT, but still present.

 

[signswi]

That's not the backlight though it's the two layers of the lcd having it's molecules arranged off and on to allow light through or not. It's a different kind of flickering.

 

[oldgoatroper]

That's not the backlight though it's the two layers of the lcd having it's molecules arranged off and on to allow light through or not. It's a different kind of flickering.

I don't think you understand how an LCD works...

LCD is a steady state process and does not require energy to maintain a state, only to change it. The pixel is not opening/closing 60 times a second or any amount for that matter. It only changes when the colour info for that pixel changes. For a white pixel, R, G, and B components of a pixel are full open and stay that way until the video card instructs that pixel to alter its colour. Thus, the flicker of the backlight can be apparent, especially in large white expanses on the screen.

 

[signmeup]

I bought an HP L2445m. Is it a piece of crap or...?

 

[Colin]

I had my wife pick up the tubes and ballasts on her way home. Popped in just one tube and wow, what a difference! It's more dramatic than what the picture shows. It's like white next to peach.

I'll be putting the ballasts & remaining tubes in tomorrow.

 

[signswi]

I don't think you understand how an LCD works...

LCD is a steady state process and does not require energy to maintain a state, only to change it. The pixel is not opening/closing 60 times a second or any amount for that matter. It only changes when the colour info for that pixel changes. For a white pixel, R, G, and B components of a pixel are full open and stay that way until the video card instructs that pixel to alter its colour. Thus, the flicker of the backlight can be apparent, especially in large white expanses on the screen.

The amount of light emitted depends upon the orientation of the liquid crystals and is proportional to the applied voltage. Flicker comes from an offset of the common voltages. I was using simpler terms "on/off" as this is a sign forum. Properly balancing the common voltage virtually eliminates all flicker in LCDs. Weekend time!

 

[signswi]

I bought an HP L2445m. Is it a piece of crap or...?

It's a 6bit TFT with 92% sRGB coverage...and most of that coverage is via dithering. So yes, don't rely on it for screen proofing print gamut. Use the highlight gamut preflight tools in Adobe or whatever or you might get burned.

Fine for just about anything else though....(web browsing, email, productivity, normal gaming, etc.).

 

[S'N'S]

I use LCD and LED monitors and calibrate them all with a Spyder and they come out looking pretty much the same, LED seems a fraction darker.(hardly noticeable)

 

[Colin]

***Just got all the new 6500K "Daylight" tubes (and new electronic ballasts) installed.

HOLY CRAP!!! What a difference! Should have done this years ago.

 

[signmeup]

Will the electronic ballasts cut the power consumption?

 

[Colin]

I don't know, I'll ask my friend who's an electrical inspector.

My new monitor which I thought was really bright now appears duller. I guess I should jack up the brightness a bit.

And from outside at night, the light emitting from my shop windows looks like there's a super-nova going on inside!