I am currently using Dell Ultra Sharp LCD 1905FP monitors. They must be 10 years old but still in good condition. I sit in front of the screens all day long. Recently I have been getting mega sore eyes. If I invested in the latest monitors currently on sale do you think it would have a benefit. Has anyone else who has recently upgraded there monitors noticed a difference.
Advice on Buying New Monitors (Sore Eyes)
- Thread starter robbo
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Seems this is a proper PVA or P-MVA panel, so unless it's broken it shouldn't be any worse than a modern screen, for trading purpose. I still have plugged in an old NEC1860nx IPS, which despite poor contrast is still the most comfortable to watch, due larger pixel-size/pitch. Of course it's very important that text and graphs must be 100% crisp. If it's tuned off I also get eye strain.
On Windows 7 you should not use smoothed font edges. It makes all text blurry. So:
Start > Adjust the appearance.... > uncheck "Smooth edges of screen fonts"
Distance to screen, if too far or too near, will stress the eyes. But that you should feel naturally.
One sure thing I have changed to reduce eye stress is to make all charts darker. Ideally no whites on the screen at all. My charts have black background, with boring dark gray and light gray bars. In my experience the amount of light your eyes take in is proportional to their stress. Other earth-tone colors may work well too. This also relates to light source behind your screens, a window is nice, but if too bright may be stressful.
Finally, if these things were already in order, I'd look to health, fitness and nutrition, for the source of your problem. And other life stress factors. Taking breaks, short and long, obviously is also helpful.
I just bought electric legs for my desk, so I can alternate standing and sitting. Long hours sitting is not really good for the lower back. And it's great exercise to stand compared to sitting. Who knows, it may even heal your eye strain. The body is one.
On Windows 7 you should not use smoothed font edges. It makes all text blurry. So:
Start > Adjust the appearance.... > uncheck "Smooth edges of screen fonts"
Distance to screen, if too far or too near, will stress the eyes. But that you should feel naturally.
One sure thing I have changed to reduce eye stress is to make all charts darker. Ideally no whites on the screen at all. My charts have black background, with boring dark gray and light gray bars. In my experience the amount of light your eyes take in is proportional to their stress. Other earth-tone colors may work well too. This also relates to light source behind your screens, a window is nice, but if too bright may be stressful.
Finally, if these things were already in order, I'd look to health, fitness and nutrition, for the source of your problem. And other life stress factors. Taking breaks, short and long, obviously is also helpful.
I just bought electric legs for my desk, so I can alternate standing and sitting. Long hours sitting is not really good for the lower back. And it's great exercise to stand compared to sitting. Who knows, it may even heal your eye strain. The body is one.
Too much screen time. Take a break in between.
Eye sore / eye strain may not be the result of monitor technologies. If they are not, changing out the monitors would not resolve your issue.
Some common poor practice that likely stress your eyes (thus your brain):
#) Exposed to bright background for prolonged period.
A lot of the charting software use white background and black or primary color (red, green) to plot the charts as default. Many users don't change the default. They stare at red color charts on white background all day long, on multiple monitors. Suggestion is to change all charts to default to a black background. Dim the ambient lights to reduce glare.
#) Poor color contrast:
Your brain works extra hard to differentiate the objects from the background when the color contrast is poor. For example, a red color object on a brown color background. When you plot an indicator on top of something else, try to use a good contrast pair for coloring. It is less likely to stress out your eyes/brain.
Google images for "color contrast" for more info, like this:
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en...2.0....0...1ac.1.43.img..0.14.831.Ho_HLYgwtPI
Some common poor practice that likely stress your eyes (thus your brain):
#) Exposed to bright background for prolonged period.
A lot of the charting software use white background and black or primary color (red, green) to plot the charts as default. Many users don't change the default. They stare at red color charts on white background all day long, on multiple monitors. Suggestion is to change all charts to default to a black background. Dim the ambient lights to reduce glare.
#) Poor color contrast:
Your brain works extra hard to differentiate the objects from the background when the color contrast is poor. For example, a red color object on a brown color background. When you plot an indicator on top of something else, try to use a good contrast pair for coloring. It is less likely to stress out your eyes/brain.
Google images for "color contrast" for more info, like this:
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en...2.0....0...1ac.1.43.img..0.14.831.Ho_HLYgwtPI
I use Dell 1908FP-BLK monitors (compared to your 1905FP) daily and love them. No eye strain but the desk is setup properly with proper distances. Below is an OSHA link to what they consider ideal viewing distance from a monitor. They say 20-40" between your eyes and the screens. For reference I find it most comfortable to be about 25-30" away and it's just over 20" from the edge of the monitors to the edge of the desk where I sit.
I have a five monitor setup at one of my desks (5x 1908FP) and a quad setup on the other. For a brief time each of the computers were running half VGA pigtails and half DVI pigtails off NVIDIA 285 or 295 video cards. I noticed a huge difference between the VGA and the DVI. When I finally switched over to all DVI it was much better. If you aren't running a video card pushing digital video I'd try that first (don't use adapters go straight DVI all the way to the monitor.)
https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/computerworkstations/components_monitors.html#Viewing Distance
I have a five monitor setup at one of my desks (5x 1908FP) and a quad setup on the other. For a brief time each of the computers were running half VGA pigtails and half DVI pigtails off NVIDIA 285 or 295 video cards. I noticed a huge difference between the VGA and the DVI. When I finally switched over to all DVI it was much better. If you aren't running a video card pushing digital video I'd try that first (don't use adapters go straight DVI all the way to the monitor.)
https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/computerworkstations/components_monitors.html#Viewing Distance
I didn't even catch what you guys were saying. YES!! I'll 3rd that motion! Change your background away from a picture or anything bright and flashy and keep it darkish, softer tones, easy on the eyes. I use black because I thought it was published once that it saves electricity. Could be wrong though...
Try a bigger monitor and sitting further away. I sit 36-38" away from my 24 inch LCD with setting at 1024 x 768. Have had zero eye issues set up
This way for over 4 years.
This way for over 4 years.
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