Picking an Accurate Monitor and Graphics Card

You want or need to buy a new monitor. You probably already know how to tell if one monitor is better than another for general purposes; that information is widely available. But if accurate, consistent color is your most important requirement, what do you really need to look for?

So Many Colors

First, don't buy more colors than you really need. For most desktop publishing applications, the 65,000 colors provided by a 16-bit graphics card are almost indistinguishable from the 16 million of a 24-bit board. Most business and home applications do just fine with a 256-color, 8-bit display. CD-ROM multimedia titles generally use only a 256-color palette, so paying extra for 16- or 24-bit video won't improve what you see on-screen.

Most graphics cards support 24-bit color, 1280- by 1024-pixel resolution, and 72- to 75-Hz vertical refresh rates--but not all three at the same time. This is another reason why most users still run Windows in 256-color mode, especially on large monitors, where flicker is more visible. This won't change until the cost of VRAM drops considerably or there's another design breakthrough.

Palette size isn't really an issue for monitor color fidelity. Multimedia and WYSIWYP (what you see is what you print) color printing works perfectly well for most applications in 256 colors.

However, it is a good idea to look for a monitor that offers some type of color calibration. Many come bundled with software-based color management systems. In addition, you should look for monitors (and video boards) that comply with VESA's DDC (Display Data Channel), preferably DDC level 2, which offers two-way communication between host and mon itor. Some monitors skimp by supporting only DDC level 1, which is adequate for Plug-and-Play-compliance but not as versatile.

Resolution vs. Brightness

A monitor's maximum potential resolution (e.g., 1024 by 768 pixels) is determined by its dot pitch--the center-to-center distance between openings in its shadow mask or grill. The smaller the pitch, the closer the openings; the more finer openings you have, the higher the resolution you can achieve.

But you probably should not buy the finest-pitch monitor you can find. An extremely small dot pitch cuts image brightness and contrast. Smaller openings in the shadow mask mean that fewer electrons actually hit the screen, giving a dimmer image. You can think of a monitor's contrast as the difference between its darkest black and its lightest white. The brighter the white, the greater the contrast. You can turn up the brightness to compensate for a fine dot pitch, but if you go too far, the pixels bleed or bloom, destroying the increased resolution that the fine mask tried to give you.

Ultimately, you want resolution and brightness. Why not just increase the electron guns' voltage to illuminate the phosphors more? Unfortunately, as beam current increases, the shadow mask absorbs more electrons, heats up, and deforms. Also, upping the juice makes it harder and more expensive to meet radiation safety standards.

Aperture grills are less susceptible to misalignment, so monitors using Sony Trinitron or Mitsubishi DiamondTron tubes can deliver more beam energy to the phosphors and tend to be bright. However, a new warp-resistant alloy for shadow masks, called Invar (for invariable), can withstand the higher voltages needed to produce a brighter display. Most high-quality monitors have Invar masks.

In trading off resolution and brightness, choose a brighter monitor for image editing, multimedia, or graphics work that's not particularly focused on WYSIWYG typography. However, for page layouts, word processing, or other line art and typographical tasks, favor higher resolution over brightness.