I work as web designer, and have always used old school CRT monitors – found the display crisper – my 22″ 30kg Compaq has just died on me, so am after recommendations from anyone who regularly has to carry out detailed graphics work as to which monitor to buy.

The problem I’ve had with any LED monitors I’ve tried is that a pixel doesn’t always display as a single dot – see image below

The top line is supposed to be a one pixel crisp line, however I find on LED monitors that it often display it stretched and blurry like the bottom line. Makes designing stuff a nightmare, plus hurts my eyes after a while.

Anyway can anyone recommend a 21/22″ minimum LED monitor that will display as crisp as a decent CRT?

Thanks in advance

Someones going to say it but the apple screens are nice for a very steep price. I would ask on a graphic design forum.

My Sony GDM 900 died about a month ago, and after extensive (!) research I went for the lovely Dell U2410.

Lots of useful info (on a huge number of good monitors) at tftcentral.

http://tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u2410.htm

Eizo. the CG range reproduce nearly the whole adobe1998 colourspace, but for web you will run into issues with some browsers and how they handle sRGB/untagged images when viewing on wide gamut monitors as the reds/greens go super saturated but you can switch to sRGB mode on the front panel (well you can on my CG241W).
Eizo do a ‘cheaper’ model in the CG range with HD pixel dimensions but a 22in panel, think it’s about £550?

the panels are all evenly illuminated and they bypass the graphics card and deal with colour with inbuilt circuitry. 5year warrenty too.
you will have to budget for a calibrator (eye-1 or spyder-pro) some of the newer Eizo’s have them built in.

i would not buy an apple screen for proper graphic/photography colour critical work.

Someones going to say it but the apple screens are nice for a very steep price. I would ask on a graphic design forum.

I thought everyone here was a graphic designer?

http://shop.colourconfidence.com/product.php/3156/eizo-coloredge-cg223w/a36630e4bc383fcdd54ec08613831232

it’s not HD but the cheapest CG-class monitor, you could mail them with your budget, their market is print/design/photography so unlikely to recommend a lemon.

I think what you’re seeing are lines that straddle pixels on your monitor. Unless you are working at 100% with snap to pixel turned on then you are going to get some (almost all) lines that are not perfectly aligned to the pixels on the screen, these lines straddle between two pixels and create the two grey lines rather than one solid black line that your describing. I’m not sure that any monitor is going to cure that.

Generally if you’re after a monitor upgrade take a look at those that contain In-Plane Switching technology (IPS). IPS is used in the mac monitors but Dell and others do some more cost effective monitors containing the same technology.

The biggest influence that I’ve found on eye strain are reflections on the screen, once I managed to get everything set up so that I minimised the reflections on the monitor I greatly reduced eye strain.

Thanks for the advice guys, is much appreciated. Got some thinking to do – currently working on a 15″ blurry CRT.. not ideal!

I have a relatively cheap dell IPS panel (forget the model, 16:9 1920×1080 one), as above, IPS is a much nicer technology colour wise. I prefer 16:10, but for the price I got it and picture quaility I’m not complaining.

Nowhere near the Eizos and the like above, but a lot better than the usual TN panel guff.

Hazro HZ30W here, its awesome.

Thanks for the info guys – have just panic bought a Dell U2410 – quarter past 10 in the morning and this old 15″ monitor is already f*cking with my eyes, couldn’t wait any longer!

Cheers again for the advice, much appreciated!

Great choice.
I was just about to post…

I wouldn’t get less than 1920×1200 native resolution to be honest (usually found on 24″)
It’s perfect for running two windows side-by-side and allows lots of palettes to be expanded.

IPS is the best bet for design work.

there are issues with the dell’s as they are often unable to turn the brightness down to the recommended 110-120 lm2.
only an issue if you want to run a full colour managed system. probably not a problem for untagged tiny web jpegs.

Good choice! 😀

Thanks guys – hopefully my eyes will adjust to it ok!

Hey Joey, how’s the monitor working out?