Monday Email Question – Display Screen CRT or LCD Crispness?

I received an email from a customer this morning that I thought I should share my answer.

The question: “My company uses Autodesk AutoCAD and we still have many of our designers that are using older 21" CRT monitors.  They really like these older CRT monitors because they are so sharp.“

  OR

You can now purchase a LCD display that are as crisp (at native resolution) as a CRT without out the headaches, magnetic radiation, the heat, or the wasted energy consumption.

It has been many years since the LCD not as sharp or crisp has been applicable unless of course you buy the cheapest LCD. A $300 – $500 21” LCD will be fine. Make sure you run at the native resolution of the device otherwise the image will be stretched thus fuzzy, but I actually see better CAD on a LCD than CRT.

I have not seen too many CRT units being used in a long time and my headaches and eye fatigue went away when I switched years ago as a CRT is a flickering constant refreshing screen, and a LCD is not. The extra space and less heat was an excellent benefit. I cannot make a recommendation but I do use 20” LCD monitors of Samsung Synchmaster 244T, Sony and Dell and have been very happy and never looked back to a CRT. One thing much better is running multiple LCD monitors side by side and setting the screen to cover both or as separate screens or even 4 or more and wrapping them around you like a 360 degree desktop.

One more important benefit of the switch is the extra desk space and not having to move a 21” CRT as a opposed to the light LCD units. CRT monitors are difficult to dispose of due to the materials considered hazardous in them so check around before just throwing them in the dumpster.

Some random references but note most are around 2005 back in the days when you could easily get a CRT:

• LCD vs. CRT Monitor Comparison
• Monitors – LCD vs. CRT
• CRT vs. LCD
• LCD vs CRT
• LCDs are most popular but CRT monitors offer some advantages

Both LCD and CRT have their positives, but overall the LCD wins in my book on many comparison points and I use CAD applications as well as raster editing or photo editing software. I would suggest to get a couple LCD models in and make sure they are good models and run at native resolution even set two side by side one on DVI and other at SVGA and watch the coworkers drool over the bright, crisp and modern screens and all the extra room to place things on their desk.

Happy Monday,
Shaan