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?"
Old school Human Interface guidelines said that yellow text on a blue background was the easiest on the eyes.
It's still an option in MS Word from the good ol' text days.
Other tips (Walk around 5-10 mins. every 45 minutes or so.) have already been mentioned.
A programmer friend swears by having a non contrasting environment with his pc. Meaning, if one has a white background one ought to be working in a well lit bright room. If you find yourself in a darker environment, then darken the background. I don't know. Personally I prefer darker backgrounds.
"He was a wise man who invented beer." - Plato
I personally use green on black, with a red cursor.
There is method in this:
1) it uses a single gun on CRTs which means there are fewer alignment problems even on shonky monitors,
2) it's typically the brightest phosphor, on CRTs, and I think the brightest filter on LCDs too, to my eyes,
3) the human eye picks up green very well, (might explain (2) to some extent),
4) picking a single colour means spectacle lens-wearers don't get chromatic aberrations which arise when looking at an angle through the lens.
The other thing I'd say is, pay extra if necessary for spectacle lenses with the anti-reflective coating. Ambient lighting glare on normal specs is a nightmare especially if you're using a screen all day and the coating does work.
...an Englishman in London.
Someone wanted to sell his new CRT with a larger "inch number", and so he measured the size of the CRT across its mounting points. Et voila: 2 more inches! TFTs don't have that large mounting points because they are not as heavy as a CRT, so this trick does not work well.
CRTs have always been measured by the size of the picture tube. However, you can't project right to the edge of the tube, so they build the case over top of the unusable edges, and end up with a smaller viewable area (a stat most manufacturers have, although much harder to find). A 17" CRT often has closer to 15.5" viewable area. TFTs on the other hand are 100% usable. A 15" TFT has 15" viewable area.
It's still a dirty trick, but there is at least some merit to the measurement.
Speak before you think
Here's a caution...
I have a dual head setup using a CRT and an LCD, and the combination does _not_ work well together.
My LCD is brighter due to it's backlight, while my CRT is blurrier. Moving my gaze between screens causes a nasty context switch to my eyes.