Recommend a monitor for Web Design

Reamer Fanny

Hi,

I am looking to invest in a couple of new LCD monitors, I am going to have a dual-monitor set up and I am looking to pick up a bargain. For my main display I need a 19" TFT monitor, preferably silver with a slim facia around the display. Please feel free to move this, as it might not be relevant in this forum.

Thanks.

ocallagh

You want a full HD monitor with res of 1920X1020 for web development IMO.

BenQ 24" http://www.peats.com/cgi-bin/catalog.cgi?view_product=1&id=25675&sid=14&cid=139&scid=499 or Samsung SyncMaster would be two I'd go for http://www.peats.com/cgi-bin/catalog.cgi?view_product=1&id=26074&sid=14&cid=139&scid=499

I have the BenQ and for the price it's amazing, the screen is pretty much as clear as my Sony (which I paid over 1k for) and it has all the standard inputs.

For a 19" you could probably find one for under 200 but make sure the max resolution is not too low

Reamer Fanny

BenQ G2220HDA 21.5 Inch Full HD Monitor at €179 is good value, decent resolution to 1920 x 1080 looks promising. The workstation only allows 19" might have to remove a couple of shelfs :rolleyes:

I find that having a really good monitor is annoying when it comes to design. I could have designed a nice looking site with a color scheme that I liked, only to find out that on other monitors, that my use of non-websafe colours have come back to bite me in the ass.

Pixelcraft

web safe colours? Did you go back in time to use those 'other monitors' ?

Get a monitor with as much screen real estate as you can afford. I'm a massive fan of the apple displays, they're pricey but a joy to work on.

Reamer Fanny

My system is years old, so I am having to upgrade alot of the components i.e. the graphics card needs to have two outputs VGA and DVI(for dual-monitor setup), I am limited to choosing a graphics card that has a 4x interface and my psu is limited to only 250w. For now I think the BenQ 21.5" is the winner.

Pixelcraft

Pixelcraft wrote: »

web safe colours? Did you go back in time to use those 'other monitors' ?

Get a monitor with as much screen real estate as you can afford. I'm a massive fan of the apple displays, they're pricey but a joy to work on.

Back in time? You do know that the majority of people don't upgrade their computers every year don't you? The monitor that I used when I noticed this was only two years old. I was also in an Internet cafe not so long ago, and it was the same result. The fact that some people are STILL using IE6 should drive home my point. It may look brilliant to you on your super cool monitor; but unfortunately, not everybody needs nor wants to upgrade. They just want to make word documents, check their emails and browse the Internet.

Pixelcraft

believe me I know perfectly well. Web safe colours has not been an issue since the days of 256 colour limited monitors/systems. When was the last time you've seen one of them? it has nothing to do with IE6. Perhaps you shouldn't be selling web services if you're unaware of this basic fact?

Pixelcraft

Pixelcraft wrote: »

believe me I know perfectly well. Web safe colours has not been an issue since the days of 256 colour limited monitors/systems. When was the last time you've seen one of them? it has nothing to do with IE6. Perhaps you shouldn't be selling web services if you're unaware of this basic fact?

Then explain to me why a monitor that was only two years old (or less) displayed a completely different shade of green than what I had originally intended? Or why I found that an Internet cafe had monitors that also completely changed the shade of unsafe colours?

Read over my post one more time, and then once more for good measure - I never said that it had anything to do with IE6. I was using IE6 as an example of how *normal regular people* do not upgrade regularly.

Pixelcraft

Two shades of green is nothing to do with web safe colours. This is really basic, and I'm not here to tutor you. If your unsafe colours were appearing dithered, then someone deliberately set the colour depth to a low level. This hasn't been relevant for years, I'm talking nearly 10 years now.

You shouldn't offer advice on something your poorly informed about. The fact you're calling your self a web designer is worrying. I really don't need to read your post again, thanks.

I'd also have my doubts about a web designer who hasn't yet mastered the art of reading... or the primary school art of distinguishing between the words "your" and "you're"... but then again, maybe that's just me?

Also, I'm still a student who spends most of his time working on the backend side of things. So hold the elitism and the smart remarks.

"OLOLOL DID U GO BACK IN TIEM??? OOLOLOLOL"

Basic summary of what you said.

The fact that people are *intentionally* lowering the colour depth of their monitors surely means that this is still a relevant issue? Or are you the sole judge on what points towards relevance?

Pixelcraft

people aren't doing that, perhaps you hit a few wrong buttons? I'm not being elitist, I'm merely saying you shouldn't be giving out advice that's 10 years old based on 2 experiences you seem to have had. Part of designing for the web is knowing what %'s of users use what, and colour depth really doesn't come into it anymore. You can get as defensive as you like, but the fact is you're (thanks for the grammar policing, always needed & appreciated on a forum!) misinformed.

If you're still a student, perhaps you should eat a little humble pie, and actually study the industry before commenting?

Pixelcraft

Noah Mango Pacemaker wrote: »

art of distinguishing between the words "your" and "you're"... but then again, maybe that's just me?

Right I have had a long day, and may be totally missing it, but after re-reading what I wrote, where did I get this mixed up?

on something your poorly informed about

I didn't hit any buttons. I'm sure of it. And I'm also 100% certain that nobody changed the colour-depth on the two-year-old desktop computer that showed an almost illuminous-like green instead of the pale faded green that was showing on my laptop (and most of the other computers that I checked it on too). I read that 5% of computers still use HighColor as opposed to TrueColor? Could that have caused it?

Pixelcraft

right I'll answer this as you haven't thrown any insults this time. Unless you see dithering (small dots making up a specific colour much like print) then it isn't a colour depth issue. High color/true color shouldn't make too much of a difference in flat solid colours. Computers are going to display colours differently, for various reasons, some being brightness/contrast settings, gamma settings, gamma differences within different OS's, colour profiles (eg not all web browsers read sRGB) and different quality panels used for building the monitor.

Noone can guarantee any cross system colour uniformity to that degree when it comes to colours on the web, but this is a totally separate issue than web safe colours.

Web safe colours were more or less colours deemed to be acceptable on 8bit colour systems, anything outside that list would be made up using dithering (the dots I mentioned earlier). The last system I can remember having that didn't support at the very least True Color is going back atleast 10 years, probably even more.

DonkeyStyle \o/

Pixelcraft wrote: »

colour depth really doesn't come into it anymore.

What you've got with a lot of cheaper LCDs (TN panels) is that they use really bad dithering to produce 24bit colour because they support only 6 bits per channel instead of 8.
Still, probably nothing to do with web-safe colours, but might explain the effect.

But you still might as well go for the best quality monitor you can afford... and calibrate it... even if most people are using displays that're cropping off large chunks of white and black... I think it'd be worse if your site looked crap on a good display.
Like when you see a graphic where someone has unknowingly used black and off-black together, because they look the same on their display... that's just embarrassing.

Pixelcraft

yeah absolutely, and apologies to the OP for going way off topic!

Reamer Fanny

ah no worries, it was an informative debate