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Best monitor/display for WRITING? Eye strain? THANKS.

B

Barb123

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 24, 2009
13
0
Hello - thanks in advance. I am driving myself batty researching every last possible feature on monitors, trying to learn. I need an external monitor for my MacBookPro. I have the last gen (not new one). I spend far too much time reading and writing on web and my eyes are strained. I also do photo work, but am not obsessed with print accuracy.

I want a MATTE screen
Big enough: sat 22-24 inch.
Ergo capabilities.
Would be nice if had green/eco parts, but not necessary
IPS (see below)
high refresh (?) ( see below)

I see people raving about new Dell, but is that good for TEXT too - for writing? I also see people saying the most important thing for writing and eye health is refresh rate (?) and ability to control brightness etc.

Thank you for saving my body and eye pain spending so much time researching. Oh, and also I am told only go with IPS panels (b/c quality for photo and something to do with refresh rate). THANK YOU. Am here to learn, so if I forgot something, I am open to hear! THANKS!
 
LCDs don't really have a refresh rate - at least not in the sense that CRT monitors do. The refresh rate simply means how often the display data can be updated, typically at 60 frames per second. This is really only relevant for games and not much of an issue even then. The 60 Hz refresh rate won't cause eye strain and flicker like it does on CRT monitors.

I imagine important factors would be pixel size and vertical resolution. 24" and 1920x1200 resolution is quite nice. While 22" and 1920x1200 (not very common) has smaller pixels and technically more detailed text, it also means it has smaller text which can be harder to read. I would not go higher than 24" if the resolution is 1920x1200. Skip any displays that are 1920x1080, the lack of vertical space will make writing less pleasant.

Another important thing is the ability to get the brightness level low enough. This is not guaranteed and many displays are WAY too bright for accurate colors and comfortable reading so they look vibrant in a store. For example on my work Lenovo L220x I have the brightness down to 10 (0-100 scale) and it is still plenty bright.

The NEC recommended by yensteel is certainly a quality display, even though I don't really care for autodimming features because they can work a bit wonky if the lighting happens to be so that your head cast a shadow on the sensor...

http://www.prad.de/en has good, lengthy reviews so check that out.
 
hate to sound like a fanboi, but ive started working at a new company. and they use IBM LCD monitors. they are TERRIBLE. the dell monitors are TERRIBLE. even asus/acer are.

to be honest, i DONT get eye strain from the mac monitors! my imac, my mbp, my gfs mbp do not give me eye strain.. call me crazy, but thats what happens.

go apple displays!
 
yensteel said:
I think the Nec 2490WUXI is a good monitor for you.

It fits all of your criteria and it has an auto brightness feature which adjusts the brightness based on the environment or on the content it's displaying to reduce eye strain.

http://www.nec-display.com/ap/en_display/old/lcd2490/index.html
Click to expand...
I use one, and it's a great monitor, and for the same reasons as the OP (I get massive headaches from eyestrain with other makes/models). I don't use the Autobright feature though.
 
DoFoT9 said:
have you ever used an apple branded monitor? do they give you eye strain?
Click to expand...
Never tried one. The only Mac monitor I've ever seen was part of an iMac about 2 years ago. Not bad, but I didn't look very long.

But as they're IPS (H-IPS at that time IIRC), I'd expect it to be better than TN anyway. ;)
 
nanofrog said:
Never tried one. The only Mac monitor I've ever seen was part of an iMac about 2 years ago. Not bad, but I didn't look very long.

But as they're IPS (H-IPS at that time IIRC), I'd expect it to be better than TN anyway. ;)
Click to expand...

we HAVE to buy a mac for you!!!

when im rich ill get you one, ok?? ;)

i7 imac is perfect WRT the screen.. its delicious on the eyes :D
 
DoFoT9 said:
we HAVE to buy a mac for you!!!

when im rich ill get you one, ok?? ;)

i7 imac is perfect WRT the screen.. its delicious on the eyes :D
Click to expand...
I'm happy with my NEC 2490WUXi for the moment, and I've had Eizo's before.
 
Get Scrivener and write in green-on-black.

It's nice, old-school style writing.
 
DoFoT9 said:
how much abouts did the NEc set you back?
Click to expand...
I picked up a refurbished unit, so it was ~$775 (includes extended warranty and shipping). New, they're a tad over $1k USD ($1038 = best price last I checked), and it doesn't include shipping (standard warranty on new is 4yrs IIRC).
 
nanofrog said:
I picked up a refurbished unit, so it was ~$775 (includes extended warranty and shipping). New, they're a tad over $1k USD ($1038 = best price last I checked), and it doesn't include shipping (standard warranty on new is 4yrs IIRC).
Click to expand...

not TOO bad of a price. especially when the apple cinema monitors are so much. i wonder how the NECs and cinema displays compare. NECs probably are a bit better these days, apple hasnt upgraded for yonks!! :mad:
 
DoFoT9 said:
not TOO bad of a price. especially when the apple cinema monitors are so much. i wonder how the NECs and cinema displays compare. NECs probably are a bit better these days, apple hasnt upgraded for yonks!! :mad:
Click to expand...
I can't really say, as I've not had the ability to put them side by side and compare for myself.

But the NEC has a good screen, and it works quite well. I can even connect a few different monitors to it without the need of a KVM switch (though it's not as flexible as others in terms of input types - no HDMI or DisplayPort, just DVI-D/DVI-I/VGA).
 
nanofrog said:
I can't really say, as I've not had the ability to put them side by side and compare for myself.

But the NEC has a good screen, and it works quite well. I can even connect a few different monitors to it without the need of a KVM switch (though it's not as flexible as others in terms of input types - no HDMI or DisplayPort, just DVI-D/DVI-I/VGA).
Click to expand...

thats a pretty cool feature. for multiple computers it would come in really handy and i know a few people that do that.

last time i checked the NECs in aust, they were over $2k(aus)!!!!
 
I've been through the whole gamut of Apple screens.

15" oldschool Apple Display, 17", then 20" 23" and 30" Apple Cinema Displays.

The new 24" is not good for writers, imho.

The best value for you as a writer would be the 23" Aluminum Apple Cinema Display. You can see the full text of two pages side by side, without having to scroll, which, as a writer, takes up a lot of time in the long run. Not kidding.

If you can afford one the 30" is the best. The led displays flicker and this causes the eye to unnoticeably contract and constrict with the flickering... this is why no artist or writer would ever work under florescent lighting either. It kills your eyes.

The 30" LCD Apple Cinema Display or the 23" ALuminum Apple.

The 20" is not big enough for two full text pages. Been there twice.
 
California said:
If you can afford one the 30" is the best. The led displays flicker and this causes the eye to unnoticeably contract and constrict with the flickering... this is why no artist or writer would ever work under florescent lighting either. It kills your eyes.

The 30" LCD Apple Cinema Display or the 23" ALuminum Apple.
Click to expand...

Care to back up the flicker thing with some info? I haven't heard of it at all and certainly never noticed it on my MBP or on iMacs or the 24" ACD.

I don't recommend the 30" ACD because it only has a dual link DVI connector and needs the mini-DP to dual link DVI adapter which is known to be somewhat poorly working apparently. For a 30", get something with a Displayport connector.
 
kasakka said:
Care to back up the flicker thing with some info? I haven't heard of it at all and certainly never noticed it on my MBP or on iMacs or the 24" ACD.

I don't recommend the 30" ACD because it only has a dual link DVI connector and needs the mini-DP to dual link DVI adapter which is known to be somewhat poorly working apparently. For a 30", get something with a Displayport connector.
Click to expand...

can you see parasites?

ok.... bad analogy. but the flicker probably happens so fast that we dont even see it (there is no refresh rate on LED panels, but yea who knows what its from), which causes our eyes to react even if we dont notice it.
 
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