New hardware, monitor, and how the web 'looks'

[autumn_whispers2me]

Hi everyone.

My hard drive died a little over a week ago and I'm using a new laptop for now.. until I get get another desktop. We opted for a laptop with a high bright screen... and now the desktop wallpaper looks fantastic, as well as 'most' of the web sites I visit, but.... this high bright business makes me wonder if web design will have to change because of this new way of 'seeing' the web??

Also, stupid me... STUPID me... I've been designing my dang pages with the doggone text size (in IE) set to 'smaller,' which means that the text may appear much larger to someone whose settings are set to 'medium' as a default...

What do you think about this?? Oh, and pages with black bg don't look black anymore.... sheesh. So confused...

thoughts?? I worry about designing graphics as well because I'm not sure if what I'm seeing on this screen is what everyone else will see.

[Rob]

You laptop WILL allow you to turn down the brightness if that helps.

[Webforumz Staff]

It is a difficult topic and one which isn't obvious to the uninitiated! The worst thing is if you design a website on a fairly dark monitor and miss things, as then other people will see marks, etc on your graphics that you missed!

You can change your 'gamma' but there's no right or wrong - just what you prefer. Luckily all PCs have roughly the same gamma level by default, although Macs have a higher gamma.

The best thing to do is to always ensure that your designs don't have blemishes and always make your text, etc, stand out so that if someone is viewing on a darker screen the difference is still noticeable.

[Webforumz Staff]

I know running dual monitors seems like a luxury but this is one of the reasons I do it (not to mention more productivity). I have a traditional CRT monitor for my main one and a LCD for the second, and art/pages look clearly different between the two - which helps me try to target a happy medium.

There's things that stand out clear as day on the LCD that are invisible on the CRT sometimes.

[autumn_whispers2me]

You guys are awesome... thanks. This laptop does have the ability to hook up an additional monitor, so that may very well be what I do next. These high-bright screens are awesome, absolutely incredible, but... they're made to be 'brighter' and more vivid.

Man, I wish I could afford a Mac! But i have my eye on a Vaio desktop (to die for!)... we'll see.

Okay, SO... now that I'm considering an additional monitor so I can make graphics that will make sense (if that makes sense), do you guys know if ANY monitor can be used with any machine?? For example, my 'dream machine' is a Sony Vaio, so if I get a nice flat screen that will work with that for later (when I have the desktop), do you think it will work with my laptop in the meantime?.... laptop is a Toshiba.

BTW, my old pc's monitor was SO shot. The brightness had to be kept ALL the way down, the contrast kept ALL the way up... or things looked bad, and even then they didn't look right. I used Adobe Gamma Loader as well, but it didn't help.. might have made things worse actually. But this high-bright monitor does tend to wash out blacks online, etc. Weird, and I'm not sure if it's 'supposed' to do that or not. Hmmnn.

[JohnMitch]

Yes all monitors will work with all computers. Monitors have a universal port on them so you dont have to worry about that (well as long as your not getting an LCD then you might need to check on S-Video). As far as LCD's go, they are becoming very popular, but the crowd against them is growing just as fast. LCD's have a bad habit of burning out. This is the main reason people hate them so. Also, LCD's response times are still behind and they just haven't gotten up to standard yet. (well I know you can buy them with good response times but last I checked it was well into the thousands... Another thing that I have noticed with LCD's is that the color is different on every one of them. A sony has a darker richer color, a ViewSonic a brighter, more vivid color, and so on. Where the good ole CRT's are pretty much the same thing, with the LCD's you never know what you will get.

Ohh, but for privacy purposes, LCD's are the leading monitor!

[autumn_whispers2me]

I'm not up to speed so much on hardware... by LCD are you referring to the flat screen monitors? I feel really stupid asking that....

[Webforumz Staff]

Yeah, LCDs are the flat thin ones. (There's also "flat" CRT monitors where there isn't the old curve to the glass).

I would always disable Adobe Gamma. It's mostly to help print designers match screen color to print color. Running it as a web designer will just get your results even further from the typical computer's.

[autumn_whispers2me]

thanks, Catalyst... makes sense. I really want a flat screen monitor, but I'm a little concerned about them burning out, etc. like you described.

Hmmnn.

[Webforumz Staff]

I don't think that LCD quality is any less or that the response time would be a problem for anyone unless they wanted to play fast-paced games.

As for burning the screen - what do you think screen savers are for?

[autumn_whispers2me]

Sirkent, I *think* (though I'm not certain now) what catalyst was saying is that they 'burn out,' not that images burn into the screen. I was told a couple of years ago that screen savers were basically obsolete now because the new monitors don't burn the way the old ones used to.

I remember years ago when I did word processing that our old clunky computers had 'ghosts' on the screen, text actually, from that.

Does anyone know if this is true, that the new monitors don't do this?

[Webforumz Staff]

Yes that makes far more sense and I feel pretty stupid now!

However, considering how many offices use TFTs and have them on all the time, they must have quite a long life to them?