BenBishop.me.uk

I have recently taken the plunge and purchased a new 19 inch LG Flatron monitor. Using the excuse that I am doing much more Photoshop and Dreamweaver work I decided that it would be a good idea and am pretty happy with outcome. Moving from a 17” CRT, you can imagine the difference and it has been quite refreshing experience. With the higher resolution (1280 x 1024 compared with 1024 x 768), the monitor has undoubtedly made a significant improvement to my productivity.

I can take the marginal drop in quality with the advantages gained (in desk space alone) but really wanted to make the most of it of my LCD display.

A little known feature built right into Microsoft XP is Clear Type. Clear type is a technology that was developed by Microsoft which significantly improves the quality of text appearing on LCD screens. Until this technology was introduced, the finest edge to detail was a single pixel. Now, fractions of pixels are available by utilising the vertical colour stripe elements available in the area surrounding the text. This has a similar effect of anti-aliasing the fonts displayed and results in much clearer, more legible text.

To turn this feature on;

1. Right Click on your desktop and click ‘Properties’ or double click on the ‘Display’ icon in the control panel.
2. Click on the ‘Appearance’ Tab at the top of the dialogue box
3. Click on the ‘Effects’ button.
4. Ensure the check box is ticked for ‘Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts:’
5. From the drop down menu ensure that ‘Clear Type’ is selected and click ‘OK’.

To further refine the process try the Clear Type Tuner that is a free power toy available from the Microsoft website.

If the benefit of this isn’t immediately apparent, use it for a few hours and then toggle it on and off. The results are really impressive and I am quite sure eases the strain put on our eyes.