Slashdot Mirror
Reducing Eye Strain?
torok asks: "Recently my optometrist prescribed corrective lenses, which is new for me. Being a programmer and staring at a screen all day doesn't help anyone's eyes, of course, but the default white backgrounds appear to be particularly troublesome. I wonder if others on Slashdot have noticed the same thing, and what they've done to help alleviate the problem. Is a grey or black background with white or grey text easier on the eyes, or worse due to lack of contrast or imperfect foreground colors? What about different lighting conditions and, of course, LCD vs. 100Hz CRT?"
Well, You might start here
In particular all of your questions are answered here , the second entry on Google's list.
On a more practical note, assuming that your existing monitor and video card are in good working order, and that the monitor is positioned properly, the one thing that you need to do is to focus your eyes somewhere other than your monitor at regular intervals - say every five minutes.
Look at the wall, look out the window - anything to break from focusing only at that screen 18 inches in front of you.
Understand that the lighting should be dimmer than the usual office setting.
And sad to say, your need for eye-glasses may just be a reflection of the aging process, not your work environment.
Besides, who says glasses aren't a good thing?
Three Squirrels
We do this every six months or so.
Find a timer, set it to 45 minutes, and each time it goes off, get up and walk around for a couple of minutes. Make sure while you're walking, you try to focus on something in the distance.
Problem solved.
(not satisfied? more)
[o]_O
I always find some some darker colors help my eyes immensely. I use a black background with some dark green text, and I'm sure not to have high contrasting colors among the code for different syntax hilighting. I'll usualy get rid of bright reds, yellows, and greens, and stick to more dull colors. Also, using ambient light seems to help in my case. Point your lights, if you can, towards the walls and use the light that bounces from there instead of the direct lightbulb. I find this usually eases my eye strain. I've worn glasses since I was a freshman in high school, but lost them about 3 years ago. I've never gotten a replacement pair, but I've noticed my eyes are feeling much better than before when I work in the above conditions.
Try actually thinking for yourself. It's quite refreshing.
A couple tips:
1. Bright white text on a black background. Yellow or green also works. Less glare, good contrast, etc. Great for x-terms. Harder in Word. Find what works for you.
2. Dialup your font sizes and/or zoom in. My friends used to tease me about using "fonts for the blind" on my x-terms, but I like not squinting and leaning into the screen to read stuff. Yes, you cannot fit as much stuff on the screen, but what you can see is readable.
3. Bigger is better. Get at least a 21" CRT monitor or a 19" LCD. It helps make (2) easier -- you're less tempted to use small fonts to see everything you need to see.
4. LCD's seem to experience less glare, be clearer, flicker-free, and have a myriad of other benefits. I like them, but I still appreciate a nice, big flat-screen Trinitron CRT monitor. The moral of the story is to spend a few extra bucks for bigger, clearer, and higher-quality. Money comes and goes, but you only lose your eyesight once.
5. Your eye doctor can prescribe "computer glasses". For the older folks among us, this can be a huge help. The problem is that most computer users sit about 3' from the screen. This is too close for your distance/driving glasses but too far away for your reading glasses. Finding a mid-range prescription can make a huge difference and reduce eye-strain.
6. Don't work in the dark. Don't work under really bright lights. I find the best computer lighting to be just a little too dark to comfortable read by.
7. Follow all those ergonomics suggestions that your HR department hands out. For example, get up and walk around every hour or two. This gives you a chance to stretch, focus your eyes at a distance, etc. Drink more water -- it's good for you and you'll have to pee more, which makes you get up more. You'll actually be more productive, despite the breaks.
My tips from my experiences - or: how I prefer to work.
Bright Workspace: How: At home, I light my workspace with a 40W fluorescent ring lamp (made by Philips, type "TLE 40W/25") with a cold light color. Its advantage is that it illuminates the entire room very homogenous. The disadvantage is that food looks ugly, especially meat. I work on a white desk.At work, I have to live with two bands of linear flourescent lamps (22W each, I guess) each, shared for four tables. They produce enough light, but it is not as homogenous as the ring lamp. The desk at work has a light wood decor. Not optimal, but it works, because it is usually burried under heaps of paper.
Why: The low contrast between monitor and work environment reduces stress for the eyes. Try it: find a dark room and look onto a bright PC display (TFT or CRT) for a few minutes. I can't stand it longer than a few minutes. Proper Monitor: I prefer high quality CRTs. I own and use several Eizo Flexscans, 17 and 21 inches, and I recently ordered a new 17 inch Eizo Flexscan for my work place, even if (or perhaps because) the company policy is to buy low-cost TFTs. Sure, CRTs are large and ugly, and they need a lot of energy. But IMHO, the image on a good CRT is smoother than on a TFT. There is no color problem when you look from the side onto the CRT. CRTs don't have to interpolate the image to display different resolutions. Proper Resolution and Refresh Rate: For TFTs, look into the manual, but usually, you have to use 60 Hz refresh rate for best quality. And you have to use the native resolution of the display (see manual), or else it will interpolate the image or does not use the entire screen.
For CRTs, adjust the refresh rate to something between 85 Hz and 120 Hz. Depending on the light, there may be some flicker effects if the frequency of your light's power supply and the refresh rate are small integer multiples of a common base frequency: 50 Hz power supply for the light and 75 Hz refresh rate (2 : 3) cause massive flicker on my monitors, followed by a headache after a few minutes. Setting the refresh rate to 85 Hz removes this effect. Use the resolution recommended by the manufacturer of the monitor, or the next smaller resolution. Do not use the theoretical maximum resolution from the data sheet or the catalogue, this is the resolution that just does not kill the monitor, but it is not the optimum resolution.
I recommend to use not more than 1024 x 768 on a 17 inch CRT / 15 inch TFT. Buy a larger monitor if you permanently need higher resolutions. Proper Setup
Denken hilft.
control-option-splat-8 is your best friend. One simple key combination to switch the screen to inverse greyscale. (Unless, of course, you're in emacs. Then it'll start up the spellchecker or a game of textmode Quake or something.)
Personally, I think it's a lifesaver - 8 hours of using my computer without it, and I feel like I've spent the day staring into a flashlight.
There were already some excellent posts on this subject a week ago. See: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=130257&thresho ld=-1&commentsort=4&tid=129&mode=flat&cid=10864866 (the post starts out saying "IAAVN (I am a Visual Neuroscientist)")
For a simple fix try Workrave. It's primary use is to prevent RSI, however it also works to prevent stress on the eyes. It has a spiffy popup list of streching exercises and eye exercises to do at your desk.
Workrave