Easy on the eyes

Apart from turn the brightness as lowly as tolerable, what other ways can 1 adjust an external monitor to be easy on the eyes?

 

It would depend on the monitor, but you could probably also try adjusting the saturation or hue to less saturated colors. Your colors will no longer be accurate, but they'd be easier on the eyes.

 

Err your post is quite general, you were just talking about generally or like resolution, DPI?

 

A good way is, if you have the right software for Windows or are running Ubuntu/Mac, invert your colours. It'll save you power too.

 

I have noticed that when I hardware colour calibrate a monitor the first time (I usually let a monitor 'burn-in' for a week or so before I calibrate it), the subsequent times I spend even 'browsing' the 'net' is so much more easier on my eyes than before.

How much easier? Depends on how 'off' the monitor ships at in it's default state.

 

F.lux: software to make your life better

Try this.

 

I'm a heavy nighttime computer user - laptops and desktops all run F.lux. Linux, Windows, and Mac compatible, and it adjusts my colors to be much more tender on my eyes at night. I still do a bit of a squinty-eye thing when I fire up my computer for the first time in the evening, but this software makes it much easier to adjust.

It's more for self managing color adjustment as the ambient light changes, but you can also fiddle with your daytime color settings. Rather than affecting your brightness, which can cause eye strain, it just mellows the colors to a comfortable level.

 

Agreed. A calibrated monitor is always easier on the eyes, and is a must first step on any computer I work with.

Also, you can deliberately lower not only brightness, but contrast and color intensity so that the monitor will have a luminance level closer to that of printed paper.

In effect, you simply lower the slope of the gamma ramp. You can use Powerstrip for that, it's a very nice utility with extensive controls.

This is TERRIBLE! it tuned my screen red, at 1:40PM, very hard to read, and its even dingier later in the day!!! I finally got daylight white lighting in my house so that I can SEE properly, and that last I want is my computer screen to look like it's lit by a candle!!!

This is fit for the the bin...

I guess it's all very personal. I just can't stand the color balance!!! Instead, I lower the gamma ramp. So I still get full dynamic range, but the brights are not so burning intense. Very important to reduce brightness at the top end if you want to keep your eye's light sensitivity. That's what we've been losing when we switched from CRTs to LCDs. How many of us will become prematurely blind because of constant exposure to super bright LCDs?

 

F.lux = good idea, with horrible implementation.

I installed, tried and uninstalled this utility in less than 30 seconds.

 

Did you have performance problems, or did the app get in the way of gaming?

 

No gaming, didn't give it enough time to notice lag - the adjusted colour balance was headache-inspiring though.

 

That's a shame, I find the colour rather pleasant. It is a very subjective need, however.

 

Very, very subjective (I agree).

I had a client that was arguing with me about the look of a photographed scene and he was insisting that I should 'warm it up' a little more.

I tried explaining that even though it may look good on my equipment (with the saturation at '11', I shouldn't have shown him!), on lesser equipment the colour will just be too saturated to display properly and will essentially appear 'washed out' with regards to apparent detail.

Didn't want to hear about it! lol..

A little further back and forth revealed the truth - he was mostly colour-blind.

With the grudging approval of his jr. staff - my original version prevailed that day.

The colour that you find pleasant, I saw as pinkish/orange on my system (with dual monitors).

I much prefer turning down the Brightness control or, turning on the room lights (if the monitor is uncalibrated and is physically tiring my eyes) rather than play with the colour temperature in ways that the monitor cannot properly display.

 

Yeah... I call that 'dingy' or 'candle-backlight' :laugh:

I agree. But if I have to work a long time on a white background, to reduce the glare, I simply switch to a 'Soothing" color profile in Powerstrip.

Here are the two Powerstrip gamma curves I use most on my 8730w: "Soothing" and "Perfect". You will notice from the shape of the curves that "Soothing" has low contrast and color intensity. You will also notice that I tend to like my screen on the cool side, compared to the factory setting.