PRODUCT
TABLE
|
20-21" Monitors
A full breakdown of product features, prices and contact information. |
|
Image is Everything
Whether you're developing a Web site or multimedia project, image quality is of prime importance. "The sharpness and color accuracy of the image are very important in our line of work," says Charles Runfola, president of Airport Graphics, an all-Mac prepress and graphic design studio in Costa Mesa, California, outfitted with eight Viewsonic PT810 and PT813 21-inch monitors.
Sony GDM-500PS
 |
Numerous factors influence image quality. The monitors in our list use either flat-square shadow mask or cylindrical aperture grille CRTs (Mitsubishi's DiamondTron and Sony's Trinitron) that are vital for demanding graphics applications.
In the past, aperture grille tubes have been the first choice for graphics professionals due to its ability to produce bright, crisp graphics across the whole screen. In aperture grille technology, thin vertical strips of metal are stretched from the top and bottom of the CRT surface. The shadow mask system consists of a thin metal plate pierced with small holes. Previously, as the metal shadow mask heated up, it was prone to distortion, which affected image quality. But today's flat-square shadow mask tubes use an alloy that is less prone to overheating, as well as electromagnetic lenses and in-line guns to position the electron beam accurately. These generate brighter images and better colors. Nowadays, both high-quality shadow mask tubes and aperture grille-based models are good choices. A quick test of image quality is to look at the corners of a display to see if the colors are as crisp, bright, and clear as they are at the center of the screen.
Resolutions go as high as 1,800 by 1,440, useful for finely detailed graphics. We recommend 1,600 by 1,200 for general work, which represents a good balance between real estate and readability. The ability to support multiple resolutions was a must for Richard McLain, president and CEO of CyberNet Adventures in Schaumburg, Illinois. The first of the company's interactive entertainment centers offer gaming, training and Internet access and houses 21 21-inch Cornerstone monitors. "Some of the games we run automatically switch resolutions, so we needed a monitor that provided the best image quality at different resolutions. Some of the monitors we looked at had a lot of pixelation," says McLain. Support for multiple resolutions is also important for developers working with media in a variety of resolutions and for shops that work on both on-screen multimedia and high-resolution print projects. Look for non-interlaced support of all resolutions for a flicker-free image. Interlacing means that the CRT only scans every other line, which results in flicker.
Currently, most professional-level video cards from manufacturers such as ELSA, IMS, Matrox, and Number Nine are capable of delivering the highest resolutions 20- and 21-inch monitors can support. But make sure your card has enough memory -- 8MB of RAM is often required to support high resolutions for 24-bit color graphics. Some companies, like Sony, offer optional customized graphics cards.
High refresh rates are also important for comfortable viewing, especially if you spend many hours in front of the screen. The refresh rate, also known as the vertical scan rate and measured in Hertz, shows the time it takes the electron beam to scan all the lines on the CRT until the image on the screen is complete. The higher the refresh rate, the quicker the image is drawn on the screen, and the easier it is on the eye. Your monitor of choice should support all resolutions with at least 75Hz (the rate at which most users no longer notice flicker). Several companies in our chart make monitors from $1,000 and $1,300 that have lower refresh rates, if you must economize.
A monitor's dot pitch (for shadow-mask technology) or aperture-grille pitch, which measures the distance between phosphor dots of the same color, determines the sharpness of the on-screen image. Both dot pitch and aperture grille pitch are measured in mm, but the numbers are not directly comparable. In shadow-mask technology the dot pitch measures the distance from the middle of the three holes that form a pixel to the middle of the next triad. The aperture-grille pitch measures the distance between the vertical strips of metal inside the CRT. Generally, the lower the number, the closer the dots are together, and the crisper and cleaner the image. A 0.26mm shadow-mask dot pitch equates roughly to a 0.28mm aperture-grille pitch. This is a very acceptable measurement for multimedia and graphics users.
|