Re: [Gimp-user] Monitor recommendations?

[Liam R E Quin <liam w3 org>]

On Sun, 2012-11-04 at 05:46 -0600, Daniel Smith wrote:
> I am right now looking
> around at getting a new monitor and since I know obviously this list has
> as lot of graphics and image specialist type people on it...

Some things to look for -
. contrast ratio (higher is better)
. IPS screens generally have the best colour fidelity but cost more
. many LCD/LED screens have only 6-bit colour, so e.g. 64 levels of
blue. Others have as high as 10 or 11 levels (per channel), but cost
more.
. some monitors have a USB hub, some also have speakers built in, but
the more they spend on add-ons, the less care they take over the monitor
part for a given price. The USB hub is a useful addition though.
. check it comes with cables! (see below)

> I realized when I went to the Frys store here in Houston I had never even looked
> at a LCD/LED one. Some of them were pretty crappy compared to the old Viewsonic
> .25 dot pitch etc...

.25mm is about 100dpi. You can get 150dpi monitors fairly easily, but
watch that you need a video card and cables that can drive them.

Monitors today may or many not include a VGA port, so after you choose a
monitor you might need to spend $50 or more on cables and adaptors. For
high-fidelity colour you probably want the connection called
"DisplayPort". For anything over 2,000x1000 pixels or so, you may need a
dual-slot video card and a spcial DVI cable, or DisplayPort. Not all DVI
cables will work.

I have a Dell 24" monitor that is not perfect but is better than
anything I could buy locally (I tried!).

Liam


-- 
Liam Quin - XML Activity Lead, W3C, http://www.w3.org/People/Quin/
Pictures from old books: http://fromoldbooks.org/
Ankh: irc.sorcery.net irc.gnome.org freenode/#xml