CRT vs. Flat Panel .... Problems!!

[JTC]

I designed the layouts for a large system on a standard CRT monitor (PC). I have spent countless hours perfecting the user interface. I was running a test on my clients network and was horrified when I viewed my files on one of their flat panel monitors (PC). It looked terrible! It's almost as if the flat panel could not display the "depth" of the layout elements. My 3D elements look 2 dimensional. Does anyone know why this is happening? Is there a simple fix? Thanks in advance for your help.

Regards,

John

[falkaholic]

I've kind of had the same problem.

LCDs show stuff much lighter and/or brighter then CRTs. I've had a whole set of layouts ruined (but I only spent and few minites making it). So one fix would to make all the colours darker (the select-all commmand might be handy here If that doesn't work there are only a couple of ways around this that I can think of.

-Change the gamma of the LCDs to be darker. I wouldn't recommend this.

-Make 2 layouts, one for each. Have the user choose on start up which monitor and then take them to the relavent layout (which has the colours darker)

[LiveOak]

We've had excellent luck with all graphics on LCD monitors on the Mac side. On the PC side some of the LCD's are of a much lower quality and don't offer very accurate display of low contrast elements (some Compaq branded for instance). Just part of the general rule that someone can always make something sooo much cheaper that it doesn't work anymore.

-bd

[Kundinger]

Hi John,

This is not an issue with Mac VS. WinTel. It is more an issue of the quality of the LCD display.

Apple happens to use 'higher' quality LCD displays on their notebooks and flat-panel displays. Some WinTel manufacturers (IBM & HP) will also use 'higher' quality LCD displays on some of their models. You will certainly pay more for these models. That is why they look good.

Try this:

- Use a non-Apple 'lower' quality LCD on your Mac... you will encounter the same issues

- Use a 'higher' quality LCD on your WinTel... you will not encounter the same issues

Bottom Line: "You Get What You Pay For!"

NOW... some ideas:

- use a 'lower' quality LCD display for solution development and testing

- use the following functions in a start-up script to change to an 'appropriate' layout

-- Status (CurrentHighContrast)

-- Status (CurrentHighContrastColor)

-- Status (CurrentPlatform)

-- Status (CurrentScreenDepth)

-- Status (CurrentScreenHeight)

-- Status (CurrentSystemVersion)

- use the above functions in a start-up script with 'Warning' messages to the user to make 'display' changes

Hope this helps!!!

Bob Kundinger

[JTC]

Thanks much for the insight!