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Why is it so hard to read from the MBP Screen?

aleni

aleni

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jun 2, 2006
2,604
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does anybody having eyestrain in 5 minutes use of this new 17" mbp unibody?

i tried reducing birghtness still it doesn't help much. my eyes were just fine with the 15" unibody i already sold..

my new 17" is glossy, not the anti-glare version, so should i buy an anti glare film screen to reduce my eyestrain? will the screen suck if i put the film screen on?

thanks in advance..
 
I certainly would not want to take a $3000 machine and count on some after market film - blah :eek:

Some people have suggested turning off the anti aliasing feature.

Can you drop by an Apple store and spend 20 minutes or so with the anti glare version to see if that helps?
 
dangit boy, i should've ordered the anti-glare version. i did not because i'm actually fine with my previous glossy mbp 15"
 
Apple Corps said:
I certainly would not want to take a $3000 machine and count on some after market film - blah :eek:

Some people have suggested turning off the anti aliasing feature.

Can you drop by an Apple store and spend 20 minutes or so with the anti glare version to see if that helps?
Click to expand...

how do i turn off anti aliasing? i can't turn it off all the way. in "Appearance" preference, i just can set it to "12pt" to make the OS disable AA when text is 12pt and smaller.
 
I have a problem with eyestrain on my 15" Unibody and I'm not sure why. Happens in Windows via boot camp too, so it's not a problem with font smoothing or similar.

It's a real problem for me, because there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the screen yet I can't use it for long periods with discomfort.

It's interesting that you were fine with your previous 15" unibody's screen. I wonder if there's some subtle problem that results in this eyestrain for certain people on certain unibody screens.

Anyone else in the same boat?
 
vocalcity said:
I have a problem with eyestrain on my 15" Unibody and I'm not sure why. Happens in Windows via boot camp too, so it's not a problem with font smoothing or similar.

It's a real problem for me, because there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the screen yet I can't use it for long periods with discomfort.

It's interesting that you were fine with your previous 15" unibody's screen. I wonder if there's some subtle problem that results in this eyestrain for certain people on certain unibody screens.

Anyone else in the same boat?
Click to expand...

in my case, i bet nothing's wrong with the screen, i think it's my eyes that can't accepting the 1900x1200 resolution. everything look amazing but too small for my eyes. this didn't occur with the 1440x900 res in 15".

my eyes is getting strain when i read things on it. but not when i design with illustrator.
 
That sounds like a reasonable possibility, since the text would be a lot smaller at the higher resolution. In that case, maybe you just need some time to adjust to the change...
 
it's been a week and my eyes still not adapting?

yes i know cmd , + to make its font size bigger, but it looks ugly and my 1900x1200 feels like 1440x900. it's wasted.

maybe i'll just give more time to adapt. hope it will be fine soon.
 
I had the same problem and I used Tinker Tool to make some of the fonts/pages bigger. For example, it remembers your magnification settings for each site in Firefox so it saves having continually use ctrl + each time you re-open FF. It doesn't work on all of the system fonts - but does change some of them.

http://www.bresink.de/osx/TinkerTool.html

The only other method I found was to use command+2 finger swipe up and down to zoom in and out of your screen - but the drawback of that is that is does a straight zoom rather then rescaling (not sure I've explained that very well - but try it and you'll see). You would then use a 1 finger swipe to move the zoomed view around.

FWIW, after 4 weeks I have got used to it and don't notice any strain. I think part of it for me was that it was my first mac and I had to actually read everything as I'm not used to the system layout. Now I can do more on autopilot. I am also now used to using the screen on about 1/3 brightness which is less dazzling.

Hope this helps.
 
Mcmac17 said:
The only other method I found was to use command+2 finger swipe up and down to zoom in and out of your screen. You would then use a 1 finger swipe to move the zoomed view around.
Click to expand...

Im pretty sure its ctrl + 2 finger swipe :D
 
How odd - it is definitely cmd + 2 finger swipe on my umbp but maybe I changed the settings when I customised the trackpad? I don't recall exactly what I customised as it was all generally very exciting having a mac at last!
 
aleni said:
does anybody having eyestrain in 5 minutes use of this new 17" mbp unibody?

i tried reducing birghtness still it doesn't help much. my eyes were just fine with the 15" unibody i already sold..

my new 17" is glossy, not the anti-glare version, so should i buy an anti glare film screen to reduce my eyestrain? will the screen suck if i put the film screen on?

thanks in advance..
Click to expand...

Coming from a BlackBook to a 17" I have the same problem. The large screen and resoultion are good for lots of things but not for internet reading, for me. I find the Cmd + and - to be the best help, especially with the latest version of Safari. Yes, it kind of "wastes" some of that resolution, but I only do it on some sites. Like these forums, sometimes! Then there is opt - cmd +, that blows up everything and that DOES look funny.

That would help if text size is your problem. Maybe it really is the mirror-like screen. I went from a matte Thinkpad to the MacBook and had eyestrain for months, figured it was the glossy screen. This thing makes the MacBook look matte! If I could do it again I'd get the matte, absolutely. I'll end up trying some kind of anti-glare film.

Good luck!

John B.
 
I came from a Gateway 17" at 1920x1200... it was just too much for my eyes. I loved the additional real estate but I couldn't get over the eyestrain and fatigue it was causing me.

I'm on a 15" MBP and the 1440x900 resolution is much better for me.
 
I have glossy as well. Some eyestrain the first day of real use, but now, several weeks later, it is never a problem. I got new glasses as well, maybe the combination was too much for a day or two.

Glossy ... I still love the deep colours and general excellent look of the screen. but I see that is is VERY glossy too. Pretty sure macfuture will hold some better, alternative glass. The matte version as per now may be functional, doesn´t look very good. I also like the black rim

P
 
johndoe588 said:
Coming from a BlackBook to a 17" I have the same problem. The large screen and resoultion are good for lots of things but not for internet reading, for me. I find the Cmd + and - to be the best help, especially with the latest version of Safari. Yes, it kind of "wastes" some of that resolution, but I only do it on some sites. Like these forums, sometimes! Then there is opt - cmd +, that blows up everything and that DOES look funny.

That would help if text size is your problem. Maybe it really is the mirror-like screen. I went from a matte Thinkpad to the MacBook and had eyestrain for months, figured it was the glossy screen. This thing makes the MacBook look matte! If I could do it again I'd get the matte, absolutely. I'll end up trying some kind of anti-glare film.

Good luck!

John B.
Click to expand...

Exactly! Guess i had to live with cmd + and kinda feeling having a low resolution when reading websites with the wasted high res display.

It's like having the 15" mbp with the price of 17" when doing the reading task.
 
aleni said:
Exactly! Guess i had to live with cmd + and kinda feeling having a low resolution when reading websites with the wasted high res display.

It's like having the 15" mbp with the price of 17" when doing the reading task.
Click to expand...

It's not too bad. The high res is still there when I need it, like when using a mapping program or working with photos. Some websites I know I'll have trouble with I open in another tab, then bump it up a notch or two. Doesn't affect the other tabs. I had a couple of 15" UMBPs before swapping to 17" one, and they were a bit easier to read on. I notice also reading is harder the more tired I am.

Give it a try for a while and it may come easier to you. Good luck!

John B.
 
That was the same for me when I had the last generations 17" hi res. I remember I had to look close up all the time to look at the text.

I did get used to it after a few weeks but I still had to go up closer than usual to read the text.
 
johndoe588 said:
It's not too bad. The high res is still there when I need it, like when using a mapping program or working with photos. Some websites I know I'll have trouble with I open in another tab, then bump it up a notch or two. Doesn't affect the other tabs. I had a couple of 15" UMBPs before swapping to 17" one, and they were a bit easier to read on. I notice also reading is harder the more tired I am.

Give it a try for a while and it may come easier to you. God luck!

John B.
Click to expand...

changed my mind. i decided not to zoom up. if i zoom up, my eyes will never adapt to the current resolution, and it will make feel wasting the res :).

let me live with this eyestrain for more weeks and see the progress. it's been 2 weeks though.

and one more thing i realized that when i use it in my home, my eyes is not getting much strain like when i use it at the office (which has sunlight at my back). maybe the glare is playing a bit of part here.
 
aleni said:
changed my mind. i decided not to zoom up. if i zoom up, my eyes will never adapt to the current resolution, and it will make feel wasting the res :).

let me live with this eyestrain for more weeks and see the progress. it's been 2 weeks though.

and one more thing i realized that when i use it in my home, my eyes is not getting much strain like when i use it at the office (which has sunlight at my back). maybe the glare is playing a bit of part here.
Click to expand...

yeah but just cause we have a bigger monitor, I ve had the same issue in another monitor - the scaling one, doesn't mean we are forced to see everything as ant-sized, isn't there a way you can uniformly tweak system font sizes and browser sizes to get a good result? Why not give the great opera browser a go, it has a feature where you set a % zoom in for every page, uniform zoom in no funny stuff. I ve set it to 120% and it makes a huge difference.
 
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