Joined: 29 May 2002 Posts: 2027 Location: Groningen, the Netherlands
Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2005 4:27 pm Post subject: Thread to advise Reinder on purchasing a new monitor.
As described in the blog, my home monitor has just given up the ghost. What do you recommend I buy to replace it? I use linux at home, have little interest in gaming and often produce art on the machine although the bulk of my work is not done at home. _________________ Reinder Dijkhuis
Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan | Blog |
Preorder Headsmen minicomic now
Monitors are pretty much standardized, and differences in monitors is mostly handled by the video card. As long as you know the specs (size, resolution, color depth), you can configure Linux for pretty much any monitor you get. Video cards are a bigger concern, but if you're using your old one it won't be a problem. _________________ Join the Nightstar IRC Network
New to IRC? Read my Quick & Dirty Guide to IRC
Check out #talkaboutcomics, the official TAC chat channel!
Joined: 29 May 2002 Posts: 2027 Location: Groningen, the Netherlands
Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2005 5:55 pm Post subject:
Unfortunately, if I start a donation drive to finance one of those beauties, hundreds of generous donors fail to show up. I'm not Maritza Campos, alas. _________________ Reinder Dijkhuis
Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan | Blog |
Preorder Headsmen minicomic now
Joined: 29 May 2002 Posts: 2027 Location: Groningen, the Netherlands
Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2005 10:55 am Post subject:
Okay... I've gone and bought a new monitor. Against the expert advice of reader Mithandir, I've opted for an off-the-shelf TFT monitor.
Mithandir argued that unless you got a really good TFT screen, you'd have problems with the color accuracy and contrasts that you wouldn't get with a CRT costing much less. This would have clinched the argument in favour of a CRT if it had been the studio monitor that broke down, but as I thought about it, I realised that
a) I really didn't want to have another big heavy monstrosity to drag onto my computer desk (which is ancient and might well collapse under its weight)
b) any screen would be better than the old home screen considering the state it was in by the time it gave out. It was dark.
c) I could experiment with a TFT at home and then make a more informed decision about the studio screen by the time that breaks down (which is imminent).
So I got a relatively cheap Sony TFT screen. I'm seeing the leaf backgrounds in Mithandir's site for the first time, validating point b). I have already decided that the screen is usable but will take some adjusting and getting used to, validating point c). And I took it home on my bike, validating point a), the most important one.
My idea for the studio is that we should go with CRT for that if it breaks down in the next few months, but might want to try a top-of-the-line TFT if the old one lasts longer for technology and/or our income position to improve (subscribe to Modern Tales! It makes me happy!) and/or I've got used to working with the backlit brightness that I've got now. _________________ Reinder Dijkhuis
Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan | Blog |
Preorder Headsmen minicomic now
Joined: 29 May 2002 Posts: 2027 Location: Groningen, the Netherlands
Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2005 6:41 pm Post subject:
Addendum, and I hope I'm not just talking to myself here, because I'm not a good conversationalist:
Despite having a nice new monitor myself, I'll have to keep solliciting monitor advice. What I've found now is that the limitations of the studio monitor become very clear when I look at the same things on the home monitor. Look at this ad graphic:
Note the black strips down the bottom, in the Modern Tales logo. I didn't mean to mutilate the logo in that way, but on the old home monitor or the studio monitor, I could not see that the Modern Tales logo wasn't in fact black, so I thought I was filling the tagline area, unreadable at that size, with the background colour when I was in fact filling a grey area with black. While working on re-scanned old comics on the studio machine today, I ran into the same problem with some lettering: I had accidentally picked a not-very-dark grey as the colour for the text, when it needed to be black. Like the old home monitor, the studio screen is too dark. And it's dying.
We'll soon need to shell out for a good monitor to do our work on. Jeroen actually gets better colour accuracy on his laptop than in the studio. So I'd still like to hear from people about their monitor preferences, especially those of you who work with colour graphics a lot. _________________ Reinder Dijkhuis
Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan | Blog |
Preorder Headsmen minicomic now
I don't know if this will help you Reinder but the monitor I use is a ViewSonic PF790. Its a CRT monitor with what ViewSonic calls "PerfectFlat Technology." So it provides a flat viewing area. I've had this one for several years and can vouch for the quality of their product. TFT screens are neat but I think CRT is superior for making art. _________________ Smilodon
Anyway, my brother bought his office a bunch of cheap LCD monitors. Great little screens, with a very nice range of colours, but with only one optimal resolution. All the other resolutions look blurred. Is that not a problem for you? Do you ever switch screen sizes for anything more time consuming and more important than a quick check of web page sizes?
Joined: 29 May 2002 Posts: 2027 Location: Groningen, the Netherlands
Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 3:33 pm Post subject:
These days, I never switch screen sizes. I have utilities on my system reporting the size of my browser viewport so if I want to know what a web page looks like at a smaller screen size I resize the browser and simulate it that way. _________________ Reinder Dijkhuis
Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan | Blog |
Preorder Headsmen minicomic now
I can see the black strips just fine on my CRT, so your studio monitor is either pretty bad, or badly set up. The other day I had built a website, and the customer complained about colour differences. Only when I peered very hard could I see them, but on the customer's TFT's they stood out clearly. So if this rotten CRT can show me the black from the grey in the MT logo...
My brother bought his cheap TFTs at Xoldes.nl. (Acer, for less than 200 EUR excl. VAT.) He does have different needs than an artist though; his PCs are mainly used for office tasks.
Joined: 29 May 2002 Posts: 2027 Location: Groningen, the Netherlands
Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 4:01 pm Post subject:
Now that I know the black strips are there, I can see them on the studio monitor as well. I definitely didn't see them on the old home monitor though.
It looks like TFT screens exaggerrate the difference a bit. Good, that means I'll notice things like that, whether I want to or not. _________________ Reinder Dijkhuis
Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan | Blog |
Preorder Headsmen minicomic now
Joined: 29 May 2002 Posts: 2027 Location: Groningen, the Netherlands
Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2005 12:13 pm Post subject: Hopefully final bleg
Well, what do you know? The thing I was jittery about gave me no trouble at all, but bringing back a scanner that used to be hooked up two years ago and worked fine is likely to make me tear my remaining hair out. I'm still investigating the problem but if anyone has experience with getting Epson USB scanners to work in SuSE linux 9.0, I'd love to hear what I'm supposed to do. _________________ Reinder Dijkhuis
Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan | Blog |
Preorder Headsmen minicomic now
Addendum, and I hope I'm not just talking to myself here, because I'm not a good conversationalist:
Despite having a nice new monitor myself, I'll have to keep solliciting monitor advice. What I've found now is that the limitations of the studio monitor become very clear when I look at the same things on the home monitor. Look at this ad graphic:
Note the black strips down the bottom, in the Modern Tales logo. I didn't mean to mutilate the logo in that way, but on the old home monitor or the studio monitor, I could not see that the Modern Tales logo wasn't in fact black, so I thought I was filling the tagline area, unreadable at that size, with the background colour when I was in fact filling a grey area with black. While working on re-scanned old comics on the studio machine today, I ran into the same problem with some lettering: I had accidentally picked a not-very-dark grey as the colour for the text, when it needed to be black. Like the old home monitor, the studio screen is too dark. And it's dying.
We'll soon need to shell out for a good monitor to do our work on. Jeroen actually gets better colour accuracy on his laptop than in the studio. So I'd still like to hear from people about their monitor preferences, especially those of you who work with colour graphics a lot.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
