diy alternatives to lcd displays in stock

Editors" note, Aug. 14, 2018: Originally published July 2, 2017, this article has since been updated to include new DAKboard features and an open-source alternative to DAKboard, MagicMirror.

The ideal board for the job is the £9.30 or AU$14.96) for the board. To set up and connect the Raspberry Pi, you will need a short HDMI cable and a microSD card of at least 8GB.

The most important thing you need is an old monitor -- preferably a slim model with HDMI. Some computer monitors will work better than others. Specifically, those that have the connection ports facing downward instead of straight out from the back work much better.

You will also need an extension cable with at least two plugs at the end. Take note of whether your monitor"s power supply needs a two- or three-pronged plug and buy the appropriate extension cord.

Finally, you will need supplies to mount the Raspberry Pi, the monitor"s power supply, all the cables and the female end of the extension cord on the back of the monitor. I used two-sided mounting tape. And I used duct tape to keep the excess cord attached as tightly to the back of the monitor as possible.

Typically, there isn"t enough room to install a Raspberry Pi inside the original backplate -- unless you"re using a Pi Zero W. Even then, the excess cords and the power supply for the monitor won"t fit. The monitor will sit closer to the wall without the back cover, so it"s best to discard it.

Connect the Raspberry Pi to the HDMI port on the monitor and -- without plugging in the extension cord -- connect the power cables to both the Raspberry Pi and the monitor. Use this to figure out the best layout of all the parts to keep everything as slim as possible.

As for the picture-hanging wire, there were no decent places to connect on the Dell monitor I used, so I drilled one hole on either side of the rear bezel that held the back cover on. This is where you might have to get creative, since no two monitors are the same.

DAKboard is the web interface used to display all the information on the monitor. It can be set up from the Raspberry Pi or from a computer, phone or tablet.

Just go to dakboard.com and create an account. Then begin configuring the layout to your liking. There are five different screen configurations to choose from:Top/Bottom

Next, you must configure DAKboard to suit your needs. For instance, start by choosing your time zone, selecting either an analog or a digital clock. Select a date-and-time format.

For background options, you can choose between a host of different sources, such as Instagram, Google Photos, Dropbox, OneDrive, Bing, Flickr, etc. After that, you can connect up to two ICAL calendars for free, select between Yahoo and AccuWeather for the forecast source, add a single RSS feed for rotating headlines, and connect Todoist, Wunderlist or Microsoft To-Do as a task manager to display and add a custom message to the DAKboard.

By upgrading to DAKboard Premium, which starts at $4.95 per month (no specific info about international pricing and availability), you can unlock the ability to add additional calendars, set a Vimeo, YouTube video or website as the background, select

The idea is that, when powered on, the Raspberry Pi will automatically boot to your DAKboard. If you want to hang the monitor vertically instead of horizontally, you will also need to rotate the display.

First, power on the Raspberry Pi, open Terminal and type in sudo raspi-config. Once in the configuration tool:Go to Boot Options > Desktop Autologin Desktop GUI and press Enter.

Next, you will want to edit the config.txt file to rotate the screen 90 degrees. In Terminal, type sudo nano /boot/config.txt and press Enter. This opens the config file in the nano text editor. Add these lines to the end of the file (without the bullet points):# Display orientation. Landscape = 0, Portrait = 1

Finally, to force the screen to stay on and automatically boot with dakboard.com loaded in Chromium, type sudo nano ~/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart and press Enter. Inside nano, add these four lines (without the bullet points):@xset s off

Once the Raspberry Pi has fully rebooted, use a connected mouse and keyboard to log in to DAKboard. Click Login and enter your credentials. Your DAKboard should load with your previously configured settings. If you want to change anything, click the settings cog in the upper right corner of the display (move the cursor to make it appear).

Hang the monitor on the wall and you"ll have yourself a digital clock and calendar, the week"s forecast, important headlines and beautiful pictures on display all day.

If you would prefer the monitor to turn on and off at different times to save power, DAKboard includes instructions on how to set that up with a script.

DAKboard is a great way to set up a Raspberry Pi display in a hurry. It"s easy and user-friendly and it looks great. However, it has its limitations and encourages users to upgrade to Premium to unlock the best features.

That"s why MagicMirror is a fantastic alternative for those willing to get their hands dirty and spend a little more time and effort setting it up. MagicMirror is open-source and entirely free. It"s also installed with a single command and you can install modules for clock, calendar, weather, news, alerts and tons of third-party modules that include smart home integrations. You can even make your own modules if you"re so inclined.

This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data.

Adding a display to your Arduino can serve many purposes. Since a common use for microcontrollers is reading data from sensors, a display allows you to see this data in real-time without needing to use the serial monitor within the Arduino IDE. It also allows you to give your projects a personal touch with text, images, or even interactivity through a touch screen.

Transparent Organic Light Emitting Diode (TOLED) is a type of LED that, as you can guess, has a transparent screen. It builds on the now common OLED screens found in smartphones and TVs, but with a transparent display, offers up some new possibilities for Arduino screens.

Take for example this brilliant project that makes use of TOLED displays. By stacking 10 transparent OLED screens in parallel, creator Sean Hodgins has converted a handful of 2D screens into a solid-state volumetric display. This kind of display creates an image that has 3-dimensional depth, taking us one step closer to the neon, holographic screens we imagine in the future.

Crystalfontz has a tiny monochrome (light blue) 1.51" TOLED that has 128x56 pixels. As the technology is more recent than the following displays in this list, the cost is higher too. One of these screens can be purchased for around $26, but for certain applications, it might just be worth it.

The liquid crystal display (LCD) is the most common display to find in DIY projects and home appliances alike. This is no surprise as they are simple to operate, low-powered, and incredibly cheap.

This type of display can vary in design. Some are larger, with more character spaces and rows; some come with a backlight. Most attach directly to the board through 8 or 12 connections to the Arduino pins, making them incompatible with boards with fewer pins available. In this instance, buy a screen with an I2C adapter, allowing control using only four pins.

Available for only a few dollars (or as little as a couple of dollars on AliExpress with included I2C adapter), these simple displays can be used to give real-time feedback to any project.

The screens are capable of a large variety of preset characters which cover most use cases in a variety of languages. You can control your LCD using the Liquid Crystal Library provided by Arduino. The display() and noDisplay() methods write to the LCD, as shown in the official tutorial on the Arduino website.

Are you looking for something simple to display numbers and a few basic characters? Maybe you are looking for something with that old-school arcade feel? A seven-segment display might suit your needs.

These simple boards are made up of 7 LEDs (8 if you include the dot), and work much like normal LEDs with a common Anode or Cathode connection. This allows them to take one connection to V+ (or GND for common cathode) and be controlled from the pins of your Arduino. By combining these pins in code, you can create numbers and several letters, along with more abstract designs—anything you can dream up using the segments available!

Next on our list is the 5110 display, also affectionately known as the Nokia display due to its wide use in the beloved and nigh indestructible Nokia 3310.

These tiny LCD screens are monochrome and have a screen size of 84 x 48 pixels, but don"t let that fool you. Coming in at around $2 on AliExpress, these displays are incredibly cheap and usually come with a backlight as standard.

Depending on which library you use, the screen can display multiple lines of text in various fonts. It"s also capable of displaying images, and there is free software designed to help get your creations on screen. While the refresh rate is too slow for detailed animations, these screens are hardy enough to be included in long-term, always-on projects.

For a step up in resolution and functionality, an OLED display might be what you are looking for. At first glance, these screens look similar to the 5110 screens, but they are a significant upgrade. The standard 0.96" screens are 128 x 64 monochrome, and come with a backlight as standard.

They connect to your Arduino using I2C, meaning that alongside the V+ and GND pins, only two further pins are required to communicate with the screen. With various sizes and full color options available, these displays are incredibly versatile.

For a project to get you started with OLED displays, our Electronic D20 build will teach you everything you need to know -- and you"ll end up with the ultimate geeky digital dice for your gaming sessions!

These displays can be used in the same way as the others we have mentioned so far, but their refresh rate allows for much more ambitious projects. The basic monochrome screen is available on Amazon.

Thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal displays (TFT LCDs) are in many ways another step up in quality when it comes to options for adding a screen to your Arduino. Available with or without touchscreen functionality, they also add the ability to load bitmap files from an on-board microSD card slot.

Arduino have an official guide for setting up their non-touchscreen TFT LCD screen. For a video tutorial teaching you the basics of setting up the touchscreen version, YouTuber educ8s.tv has you covered:

With the touchscreen editions of these screens costing less than $10 on AliExpress, these displays are another great choice for when you need a nice-looking display for your project.

Looking for something a little different? An E-paper (or E-ink depending on who you ask) display might be right for you. These screens differ from the others giving a much more natural reading experience, it is no surprise that this technology is the cornerstone of almost every e-reader available.

The reason these displays look so good is down to the way they function. Each "pixel" contains charged particles between two electrodes. By switching the charge of each electrode, you can influence the negatively charged black particles to swap places with the positively charged white particles.

This is what gives e-paper such a natural feel. As a bonus, once the ink is moved to its location, it uses no power to keep it there. This makes these displays naturally low-power to operate.

This article has covered most options available for Arduino displays, though there are definitely more weird and wonderful ways to add feedback to your DIY devices.

Now that you have an idea of what is out there, why not incorporate a screen into your DIY smart home setup? If retro gaming is more your thing, why not create some retro games on Arduino?

The great thing about portable movie projectors is that the party goes wherever you do. The backyard? Your school auditorium? If you"ve got something sturdy to mount the video projector on, you can try any cheap projector screen alternative on this list.

We love this cheap projector screen alternative for outdoor patio situations especially. Think: tiki lights, inflatable furniture, astroturf, and Sleepless in Seattle, blown up to titanic proportions.

If this is the way for you, try to find something white and as matte as possible for the sake of your final picture quality. A matte movie projector screen is much less likely to glare during the show.

Stucco and plaster exteriors make a great alternative projector screen. The side of any white house will usually be big enough for an entire crowd to enjoy.

We"ve never tried using a house with siding as a projector screen alternative, but when you"ve got no other choice, it might be worth a shot. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

This one is handy to keep in mind because it may happen totally out of the blue, no planning or extra work required. If you happen to have your portable movie projector or even a video projector for a phone on-hand, you"re good to go. Let the cards fall where they may.

A white garage door or fence is probably the best alternative for projector screens if you"re throwing a large, outdoor party. A patriotic movie playing in the background of your 4th of July she-bang sets a great mood, for example. Your neighbors will thank you for it.

This one is self-explanatory. If you"ve got no stand, no tape, or nowhere to drape a bed sheet, this is the perfect, rigid, low-maintenance option for you. You can stick it anywhere without worrying about it flopping over.

A cardboard, posterboard, or paper projector screen, much like a shower curtain projector screen, should be matte for the best picture quality possible. If all that you have is ordinary cardboard, you can alternatively make a DIY painted projector screen if you"ve got the stuff on-hand.

If you and the gang are kicking it in Joshua Tree for the weekend, you"re going to need some way to keep yourselves occupied while you wait for the psychedelics to take root in your innermost selves.

Some outdoor camping venues may present ample opportunity in this category. It"s one of the largest possible output resolutions you may be able to find in the wild for free. You didn"t hear it from us.

Rock formations in the desert or near the shoreline, the faces of cliffs, or any other large, sufficiently broad surface will do. For rocks that are big enough but too dark or uneven, you can give the aforementioned bed sheet or shower curtain treatment a shot, too. If you use your mini projector a lot, keeping either in your car or kit might be one wise emergency provision.

Depending on your set-up, this might give you neck strain. For off-beat alternative projector screen content, such as constellation-spotting apps or even multiplayer gaming, it might work in a pinch.

Most people have at least one white wall in your home. If you"re one of the few and the proud, you"ve got everything you need, ready to go. All that"s left? The perfect mini movie projector.

Portable projectors are the most convenient way to make the best of your viewing environment, wherever you may be. You can customize the experience to the best possible configuration of factors at your disposal.

Once you"ve been using a movie projector for long enough, the opportunities that surround you will become more than apparent. Try these cheap projector screen alternatives out the next time the TV in your living room just isn"t cutting the mustard.

Projectors have become a popular way to watch movies without a television. The awesome thing about these devices is you can set them up virtually anywhere, as long as you have a screen.

Projector screens can be made using homemade materials. Some examples of what you can use for your display include a blank wall, a bedsheet, wrapping paper, and projector paint. Most DIY projects can be used inside or outdoors and are relatively cheap and quick to make and assemble.

Today, we are going to look at seven cheap projector screen alternatives so you can still watch movies without investing a ton of money into an expensive projector screen. We will also discuss each options’ pros and cons so you can have a clear understanding of which option is the best choice for your needs.

A projector is a device that projects images from the machine onto a surface. These devices have been around for years, but they are only recently used for everyday personal use.

A projector needs an appropriate background, or screen to display your images correctly. For the best results, your background needs to be a smooth, flat surface. You will want to be sure the surface is plain, without any type of decorations.

Lighter colored items will work than dark colors. White works best, but you can use a colored material if it is not too dark. Pick something pale but bright, so the images are not washed out.

Many people prefer to do DIY projector screens rather than spend a bunch of money on one that is pre-manufactured. Most DIY projects are easy to do and do not cost much money.

Some screens can be made with items you already have lying around your house. We have multiple suggestions for homemade projector screens using everyday household items.

Projector screens can be set up indoors, or you can assemble them outside for a movie under the stars. Depending on your design, setup can be as quick as positioning your projector, or it may take some time.

Some people prefer to set their projector screen upon a mount. When they are ready to use it, they can simply position the screen where they want, and they are ready to go. This option works great if you are using a bedsheet or wrapping paper.

But there are also options for permanent screens, such as painting your wall with specific paint designed for screens. Or you can apply this paint to a solid surface that can store away when you are not using it.

One of the easiest DIY options you can use for a projector screen is a bare wall. This option is the most cost-effective solution possible, and it’s incredibly versatile.

You can set your projector up anywhere you go, and it won’t cost a penny. And an even more impressive feature of using a blank wall as your screen is that you don’t have to worry about your image being cut off due to size.

Your image can be as large as you want, within the boundaries of your projector, that is. When you use a real projector screen, you will have limits to the size of your images. And let’s face it, we’d all prefer a giant screen over a small one.

However, if you decide you want to use a bare wall for your screen, there are some factors to consider. For the best image quality, you’d do best with a solid white or light-colored wall.

Many people find that using a blank wall results in a dark picture that might be difficult to view certain scenes. And the quality will lack what you would get out of a real projector.

Another issue that can affect the quality of your images is texture. For the best results, you want to use an entirely smooth wall. Textured walls can cause your image to appear grainy or distorted.

A simple bed sheet is an effective and cheap solution to use as a projector screen. Read my article to know about the advantages and disadvantages of this.

When you use a sheet for your background, you may notice that your images aren’t as bright as they would be with other experiences. If you want a vivid picture, you may want to consider other alternatives.

To create your screen using a sheet, you can hang it up anywhere you want to watch your movie. You can place your sheet over a bare wall or build a frame that can work as a stand.

Sheets work great as a travel screen because you can fold or roll them up for easy transporting. And the setup doesn’t take long, so you can be ready to watch a flick in just a few minutes.

The thread count of your sheet will play a significant factor in how well your images will display. The lower the count, the thinner the layer, which means more light will filter through, disrupting the displayed images.

Or you can also choose to paint the background behind the sheet a dark color so light can’t bleed through the fabric. But most people want to use a darker colored fabric to place behind the layer. You could also use a piece of cardboard.

When using a sheet for your projector screen, you want to be as picky about the color as you would if it was going on your bed. Look for a plain sheet without any patterns or decorations, as this would be too much noise for your images.

A white sheet gives you the brightest images, but you will lose out on the darker parts of the picture. What this means is you won’t see the entire movie without missing some parts. If your projector is bright, you may not have a good picture.

One of the biggest problems you can face with using a sheet as your projector screen is wrinkles. If your cloth is not entirely flat and smooth, it can affect the way your images are shown.

For the best results, iron your sheet before hanging it up. When you’re storing your sheet screen, roll it up instead of folding it, so you have fewer creases.

You also want to be sure you hang your sheet up stiff and tight, so there’s no movement. Bungee cords work great for stability. Wind or any type of disruption can distort your images.

Wrapping paper is another product that you frequently have just lying around your house. If you don’t, you can certainly pick some up for a low price at any store.

You want to be sure you pick a thick, sturdy wrapping paper with a glossy white bottom. Do not use wrapping paper if it is thin and tears easily, or if the white side is dull or unshiny.

To use wrapping paper as your screen, tape appropriately sized pieces to a wooden frame or onto a piece of cardboard. The issue with using wrapping paper as a projector screen is that it is incredibly flimsy so it can tear easily.

A slight wind will cause rips or tears in the paper, distorting your final picture. Any damage to the paper, even just a wrinkle, will show up on your screen.

And you absolutely cannot get this type of screen wet, as water will damage the material, which makes it limited to use outdoors or around areas where there’s water.

Window shades can also be used as a makeshift projector screen. Roll down shades are a great option because they can pull double duty and keep your room dark while displaying your movie.

Using window shades, you will get a decent picture quality, but don’t expect it to stand up to the high quality you would get using a real screen. You’ll need either white or pale gray shades.

This option is more pricey than some of the others at around $25 to $50. But the final costs will still be lower than what you would spend on an actual screen. For the best results, you need to ensure your shades overlap your windows by at least 6″ so no light bleeds through the sides.

And since most people prefer to have window treatments, that money is well spent. When you’re not watching a movie, your shades will still be functional by providing you privacy.

Blackout shades are a mix of shades and blackout cloth. These shades will keep all the light out of your room when closed, keeping your room cooler and helping you sleep better. And because they’re blacked out, they also work best as a projector screen.

Blackout cloth is an excellent material to use for a DIY projector screen. This material is specifically designed to block out light, making it an attractive backdrop for movies.

This material is thick and sturdy, so you don’t have to worry that it will rip or tear if there’s a lot of movement. Once you’ve pulled the material tight against the frame, it holds tight, so there’s no wrinkles or creases.

Another great option to use as a projector screen is a photo backdrop. These backgrounds are typically white, with finished edges and a non-reflective surface.

Light cannot shine through a photographer backdrop, making it ideal to use for a projector screen. This material is sturdy enough to be moved around without being damaged, so it’s great for watching movies on the go. You can take it camping or set it up in your backyard.

And it usually comes rolled up, so it’s easy to transport. Set up is pretty simple, depending on which product you buy. Some are already mounted, so all you have to do is unroll it. Others may require you to set up your frame.

This type of paint is specifically designed to create a projector screen. And you get great quality images similar to what you would expect from an actual screen.

There are different paint colors and glosses available, so you want to know what type you need. We’ve broken down the best recommendations for gloss and color.

For the best results for your projector screen, you’ll want to use flat or matte paint, as a glossy would be too reflective. Semi-gloss is also not recommended.

Since a projector uses light to display the images from the machine to your screen, it’s essential to ensure your paint isn’t shiny and reflective. Otherwise, your picture can appear washed out or too dark to make out certain tones.

When it comes to the color, you will first need to consider the brightness of your projector. In rooms with little ambient light, a projector with 1500 lumen will suffice for a good image.

But in bright rooms where it’s hard to block out the ambient light, you’d want a projector that has a higher lumen, such as 2500 or higher. For gray paint, you’ll need a projector with lumens higher than 3000.

The ambient light in the room also affects which paint color you should choose. For bright rooms with lots of ambient light, white paint would work best. White can reflect enough light to keep your images from becoming dull or washed out.

But gray screens work better with a projector that puts out more than 3000 lumens. Gray paint would work in rooms where there is less light, as it is dark enough to not reflect all the ambient light in the room, from sources such as the walls or ceiling.

Projectors can be an expensive device to purchase, so it makes sense that many people prefer to use DIY projects as cheap projector screen alternatives. In this article, we have given you seven great and simple solutions to design your own screen.

Each of these options will allow you to enjoy projector movies, regardless of if you are indoors or outside. However, there are some downsides to using a homemade projector screen. The biggest problem is that in most cases, you won’t have excellent picture quality.

Out of all the options we have listed, you will get the best results using a screen made of blackout cloth or projects that use projector paint. Using a sheet should be your last resort. Although cost-effective, sheets often wash out most of the images. Happy streaming!

If you have ever wondered what it took to make your own custom graphic LCD from scratch, this video from [Applied Science] is worth a watch. It’s concise and to the point, while still telling you what you need to know should you be interested in rolling your own. There is also a related video which goes into much more detail about experimenting with LCD technology.

[Applied Science] used microscope slides and parts purchased online to make an LCD that displays a custom graphic when activated. The only step that home experimenters might have trouble following is coating the glass slides with a clear conductive layer, which in the video is done via a process called sputtering to deposit a thin film. You don’t need to do this yourself, though. Pre-coated glass is readily available online. (Search for Indium-Tin Oxide or ‘ITO’ coated glass.)

The LCD consists of a layer of liquid crystal suspended between two layers of conductive glass. An electrical field is used to change the orientation of crystals in the suspension, which modulate the light passing through them. Polarizing filters result in a sharp contrast and therefore a visible image. To show a particular shape, some of the conductive coating is removed from one of the layers in the shape of the desired image. The process [Applied Science] uses to do this is nearly identical to etching a custom PCB.

Parts of LCD technology can be quite hackable. Neither of these videos are brand-new, either. Have any of you taken on the challenge of DIY LCD displays? We’ve seen experiments with electrochromatic glass using old LCD displays, as well as experiments in playing with polarized light to hide secret messages on LCD screens.

This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data.

This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data.

Smart displays can act as hubs for your smart home devices, like security cameras and bulbs, so you can control everything with your voice and quickly call up video feeds. And because they"re made to be displayed, you don"t have to get an extra stand—as you would if you wanted to use an iPad in this way, for example.

The biggest pro for me (Medea) is the ability to see and hear recipes when I"m getting my hands dirty in the kitchen. Before trying a smart display, I was scrolling through my phone with greasy fingers, continuously unlocking and locking it. Seeing the step-by-step instructions displayed prominently on the 10-inch screen of the Nest Hub Max in my kitchen is a step above what my smart speaker can do.

Better yet, if you connect your Google Photos account to Google-powered displays, you can cycle through your pictures and memories, like a slightly less sophisticated digital picture frame. (You can do this on Amazon"s smart displays too.)

The biggest con I found in almost all smart displays is the fact that they have to be plugged in. I"d love to be able to move my display around from room to room when I need to. If you think the same, and aren"t interested in buying a Portal from Facebook, take a gander at our favorite tablets.

Smart displays can act as hubs for your smart home devices, like security cameras and bulbs, so you can control everything with your voice and quickly call up video feeds. And because they"re made to be displayed, you don"t have to get an extra stand—as you would if you wanted to use an iPad in this way, for example.

The biggest pro for me (Medea) is the ability to see and hear recipes when I"m getting my hands dirty in the kitchen. Before trying a smart display, I was scrolling through my phone with greasy fingers, continuously unlocking and locking it. Seeing the step-by-step instructions displayed prominently on the 10-inch screen of the Nest Hub Max in my kitchen is a step above what my smart speaker can do.

Better yet, if you connect your Google Photos account to Google-powered displays, you can cycle through your pictures and memories, like a slightly less sophisticated digital picture frame. (You can do this on Amazon"s smart displays too.)

The biggest con I found in almost all smart displays is the fact that they have to be plugged in. I"d love to be able to move my display around from room to room when I need to. If you think the same, and aren"t interested in buying a Portal from Facebook, take a gander at our favorite tablets.

The principle of the LCD1602 liquid crystal display is to use the physical characteristics of the liquid crystal to control the display area by voltage, that is, the graphic can be displayed.

I2C uses only two bidirectional open-drain lines, Serial Data Line (SDA) and Serial Clock Line (SCL),pulled up with resistors. Typical voltages used are +5 V or +3.3 V although systems with other voltages are permitted. It can be operated as long as it supports the I2C development board.

Features: Easy to use; Less I/O ports are occupied; Support IIC Protocol; The I2C LCD1602 library is easy to get; With a potentiometer used to adjust backlight and contrast; Blue backlight; Power supply: 5v; I2C address is: 0x27.

When done right, screen sharing makes it easy to remotely collaborate on documents, co-browse, demo products, onboard new customers, and more. When done poorly, screen sharing can give you a huge headache and send nightmare incantations of "Can you see my screen yet?" ricocheting through your brain.

That"s why choosing the best screen sharing software matters. I"ve worked remotely for more than six years and have used all sorts of screen sharing tools in that time to collaborate with team members and clients. I"ve seen the good, the bad, and the very annoying of screen sharing apps.

To help you avoid the annoying, I looked at dozens of apps designed for screen sharing—extensively testing almost 40 of them—to find the best of the best. Below, I"ll share the top six: the best screen sharing software for a variety of use cases.

All of our best apps roundups are written by humans who"ve spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software. We spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app as it"s intended to be used and evaluating it against the criteria we set for the category. We"re never paid for placement in our articles from any app or for links to any site—we value the trust readers put in us to offer authentic evaluations of the categories and apps we review. For more details on our process, read the full rundown of how we select apps to feature on the Zapier blog.

Screen sharing software can be used for anything from webinar presentations, to sales calls, to a quick gut check on a design with a colleague. At its most basic, it"s software that allows users to share their screens with other people online. But the best software offers more—so I weighed a number of factors when making my picks:Ease of access for participants. The best software includes no-install web access and can be used across devices.

While many remote access tools are also capable screen sharing apps, I"ve omitted any software that"s built primarily for remote access, like TeamViewer and Windows Quick Assist. I also haven"t tested every single video conferencing app out there (that"s a different article!), so if you already use a video conferencing tool that isn"t on this list, it"s worth looking into the screen sharing functionality it offers.

After the first round of testing, I narrowed my list further and spent more time with the top contenders. I tested out collaboration features (like annotation, whiteboarding, remote control, multi-screen sharing, and co-browsing) and tried sharing different parts of the screen (e.g., a particular browser tab, window, or app).

Even over choppy networks, Zoom manages to maintain a video connection by adjusting quality depending on bandwidth. This is especially useful for screen sharing, which is something Zoom makes easy, no matter the circumstances.

Zoom provides a lightweight installer for practically every operating system, Linux distribution, and mobile OS, so hosting a screen sharing session for a non-Zoom user isn"t likely to cause compatibility issues or awkward waiting periods.

Zoom users can host screen sharing meetings from apps for desktop or mobile. On the mobile apps, participants can take control of the presentation tools to share documents or co-annotate.

Since Zoom is a sophisticated video conferencing tool with screen sharing built in, the calling and meeting features are enough to support businesses of any size: 50 people can join a room on the free plan, and paid plans allow up to 500 participants. This is great for putting on a webinar with multiple hosts who each need to access the same presentation screen to annotate.

You can automate your screen share sessions for an even more seamless process by connecting Zoom with Zapier, which allows you to do things like automatically email Zoom links for new bookings. You can also automatically upload Zoom recordings to Google Drive or another cloud storage platform, so even people who couldn"t make the meeting can see your screen.

Webex is a great Zoom alternative for screen sharing—especially for large-format sessions—but I didn"t include it in this year"s list because I found the UX a little less easy to use compared to Zoom.

Slack is probably where you and your team already hang out. With so many integrations with the other apps you use at work, it"s like a dashboard and universal activity feed. Since so much is already going on inside Slack, why not use the same tool to host and record your meetings?

For internal collaboration, there"s no need to pay for another screen sharing tool if you"re already paying for Slack. Sessions can be held privately or kept open for the members of a channel to hop in and out of. Each session is recorded and kept archived in the channel—and it"s searchable, like the rest of your communication logs.

Slack"s screen sharing includes host switching, collaborative annotation, and the ability for each participant to use their own cursor on the host"s screen. The host simply clicks the cursor icon while sharing their screen to allow access.

However, teams that need a solution for mobile and Linux will find these features restricted: screen shares with a video element aren"t supported on mobile, and the Linux desktop app doesn"t support remote access or others annotating the screen. That said, Slack recently added a video recording feature that makes asynchronous screen sharing super easy.

Slack also integrates with Zapier, meaning you can do things like automatically send approaching calendar events to a Slack channel, so you"re ready when it"s time to screen share.

Microsoft Teams is an excellent Slack alternative for screen sharing—if you already use Teams, definitely don"t switch just for screen sharing purposes. I didn"t include it in this year"s list because, during testing, I ran into some bugs with the desktop app.

Built for business use and living right inside your Gmail inbox, Google Meet marks a huge improvement over its predecessor, Hangouts. It has a robust free plan (unlimited hour-long meetings with up to 100 people), and it"s part of the deal if you already pay for Google Workspace.

From your Gmail inbox, it takes just two clicks to start or join a meeting, and only two more clicks from there to start sharing your screen. Follow the same process from the Gmail mobile app to screen share on the go. Plus, the mobile app will remind you to turn Do Not Disturb on as soon as you share your screen.

As a Google product, Meet works seamlessly with the rest of the Google suite, including Calendar, Drive, and the rest. That extends to the whiteboarding feature, which enables users to pull in any file from Drive or start a blank Jamboard session. The software also works with other popular calendar and scheduling apps, including Calendly.

Plus, Google Meet integrates with Zapier, allowing you to do things like automatically send Google Meet links to new leads or create a meeting link from a task, so you"re ready to screen share when it"s time.

Surfly is a co-browsing tool for remote support and sales that can be embedded into a website or SaaS app. It integrates with support widget tools like Intercom, Zendesk, and Olark to offer an easy way for users to connect with support agents.

Once connected, agents can highlight the elements on the page the user should click—and you can use it to video conference too. It"s an interactive way to train a customer using screen sharing, and it"s lower-friction, too, because you aren"t directing your user outside of your website or app. Plus, you can set your screen size to any device a user joins from, so you see what they see.

Screen sharing is enabled browser-to-browser without either party needing to download a tool. Since it"s confined to the browser, you can be sure that you"re only showing your website or software, instead of your personal photo library, bookmarks, and iMessage notifications.

Drovio (formerly USE Together) is designed with activities like pair programming and designing in mind. All Drovio screen sharing session participants get a cursor they can use to control the host"s screen, so multiple users can simultaneously work in different parts of the same screen while on a voice call.

Right now, the Mac, Windows, or Linux desktop app is required to host a screen sharing session or participate with your cursor, but viewers can watch from their web browsers with a secret link the host generates when starting a call. Users can restrict what others can see and do on their screen by sharing just one application instead of the whole desktop, and a host can take back control at any moment, preventing any abuse.

Demodesk is the best sales-focused screen sharing tool we"ve found. When you first sign up and log in, the software prompts you to connect your email (Gmail and Outlook 365 integrations available). Then you can start a screen share from right inside your inbox, directly from a playbook, or from the home dashboard.

Users can also make unique scheduling pages that create templated events, with the default playbook, duration, team members, booking questions, and more already set. For participants, a click of the link is all it takes to join, and the viewing experience is top-notch, even on mobile.

Unlike most screen sharing tools, the presenter"s view is almost like being inside a PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation, with notes and thumbnails visible while the attendee only sees the slide. Presenters have all the information they need front and center, and there are no random notifications popping in or embarrassing photos peeking out from your desktop.

The app also includes additional sales-focused features like playbooks and battlecards that help reps react in real-time to make the sale. Users can even search their battlecards by keyword from right inside the screen share. Plus, the new Lobby feature allows leads to queue for a demo whenever a sales rep becomes available.

Because screen sharing needs vary so much based on use case, you need to determine your deal breakers and nice-to-haves when it comes time to share your screen. Do you need an in-app support tool? Just a quick solution for sharing your screen with distributed team members? Each of the options above offers a unique angle in the screen sharing category.

The problem with many Windows laptops is that the screen is relatively low resolution, such as the popular 1366 x 768 resolution. When you share just a portion of the screen, the resolution of what you share appears fuzzy to many participants. Here’s what this looks like from a Zoom recording.

In Slide Show mode you can actually switch to Presenter View and share the hidden Slide Show window in the Zoom meeting. This way your attendees see high-res slides while you see your notes and have all the expert features of Presenter View. You can watch how to do this for Windows and for the Mac.

The best way to give your attendees a high-resolution view of your slides if you only have one monitor is to add a second ghost monitor using a Virtual Display Emulator plug. This device is the size of a large coin and plugs into the standard HDMI port on your laptop. It tells the laptop that you have a second monitor. You can tell PowerPoint to display the Slide Show on the ghost monitor and share that screen in Zoom. I have articles and videos that explain this method in detail for Zoom on Windows and Zoom on the Mac.

Another alternative that shows higher resolution slides to the attendees while still allowing you to see your notes is to separate the notes and the slides on your screen. Use Reading View to display your slides in the PowerPoint window while viewing your notes as a PDF. This article explains the general approach.

The challenge with a low resolution screen is that you don’t have much space for the notes if you want the slides to be large enough that they appear crisp and clear to the attendees. One option is to create narrow formatted Notes pages in PowerPoint. In the Notes master, reduce the size of the slide image and make the Notes text box narrower. Here’s what this would look like in the Notes master.

Save the Notes pages printout as a PDF and open it in your default PDF reader. I am using the Edge browser in this example. Position the PDF underneath the left side of the PowerPoint window so the slides are large but you can still see the notes to the left. You can use the zoom feature of the PDF reader to make the slide image and text larger in the PDF. Here’s what the screen would look like.

In Zoom, share the PowerPoint window. This shares higher resolution slides with the attendees. Use the arrow keys to advance through your slides. Use the mouse scroll wheel over the PDF document to move through your speaking notes. If you click on the PDF by accident, click on the bottom bar of the Reading View to return focus to the PowerPoint window so you can continue with your slides.

To see the difference in these two methods, here is a zoomed in comparison of sharing a portion of the Presenter View screen and sharing the larger Reading View window. See how much clearer the Reading View slide appears.

If you want to share higher resolution slides while still seeing your speaking notes when presenting PowerPoint slides in Zoom, try the approach of using Reading View and narrow PDF Notes pages.

Dave Paradi has over twenty-two years of experience delivering customized training workshops to help business professionals improve their presentations. He has written ten books and over 600 articles on the topic of effective presentations and his ideas have appeared in publications around the world. His focus is on helping corporate professionals visually communicate the messages in their data so they don’t overwhelm and confuse executives. Dave is one of fewer than ten people in North America recognized by Microsoft with the Most Valuable Professional Award for his contributions to the Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams communities. His articles and videos on virtual presenting have been viewed over 3.5 million times and liked over 14,000 times on YouTube.

Gaming monitors are designed to make the output of your graphics card and CPU look as good as possible while gaming. They"re responsible for displaying the final result of all of your computer"s image rendering and processing, yet they can vary widely in their representation of color, motion, and image sharpness. When considering what to look for in a gaming monitor, it"s worth taking the time to understand everything a gaming monitor can do, so you can translate gaming monitor specs and marketing into real-world performance.

Display technology changes over time, but the basic goals of monitor manufacturers remain consistent. We"ll break down each group of monitor features below to isolate their benefits.

Resolution is a key feature of any monitor. It measures the width and height of the screen in terms of pixels, or “picture elements”, the tiny points of illumination that compose an image. A 2,560 × 1,440 screen, for example, has a total of 3,686,400 pixels.

Common resolutions include 1,920 × 1,080 (sometimes called “Full HD” or FHD), 2,560 × 1,440 (“Quad HD”, QHD, or “Widescreen Quad HD”, WQHD), or 3840 × 2160 (UHD, or “4K Ultra HD”). Ultrawide monitors are also available with resolutions such as 2560 x 1080 (UW-FHD) and 3440 x 1440 (UW-QHD), 3840x1080 (DFHD), and 5120x1440 (DQHD).

Sometimes manufacturers only reference one measurement for standard resolutions: 1080p and 1440p refer to height, while 4K refers to width. Any resolution higher than 1,280 × 720 is high definition (HD).

The pixels being counted in these measurements are usually rendered the same way: As squares on a two-dimensional grid. To see this, you can either move closer to (or magnify) the screen until you perceive individual blocks of color, or zoom in on an image until it becomes “pixelated”, and you see a staircase of small squares instead of clean diagonal lines.

As you increase your display resolution, it gets harder to pick out individual pixels with the naked eye, and the clarity of the picture increases in turn.

Beyond increasing the detail onscreen in games or movies, there"s another benefit to higher resolutions. They give you more desktop real estate to work with. That means you get a larger workspace on which to arrange windows and applications.

You might already know that a screen with 4K display resolution doesn"t magically make everything it displays look 4K. If you play a 1080p video stream on it, that content usually won"t look as good a 4K Blu-ray. However, it may still look closer to 4K than it used to, thanks to a process called upscaling.

Upscaling is a way to scale lower-resolution content to a higher resolution. When you play a 1080p video on a 4K monitor, the monitor needs to “fill in” all of the missing pixels that it expects to display (as a 4K monitor has four times as many pixels as 1080p). A built-in scaler interpolates new pixels by examining the values of surrounding pixels. HDTVs often feature more complex upscaling than PC monitors (with line-sharpening and other improvements), as the latter often simply turn one pixel into a larger block of the same pixels. The scaler is likely to cause some blurring and ghosting (double images), especially if you look closely.

Monitors can also change resolution. Modern screens have a fixed number of pixels, which defines their "native resolution" but can also be set to approximate lower resolutions. As you scale down, onscreen objects will look larger and fuzzier, screen real estate will shrink, and visible jaggedness may result from interpolation. (Note that it wasn’t always this way: older analog CRT monitors can actually switch between resolutions without interpolation, as they do not have a set number of pixels.)

Screens with 4K resolution and higher introduce another scaling concern: at ultra-high definition, text and interface elements like buttons can start to look small. This is especially true on smaller 4K screens when using programs that don’t automatically resize their text and UI.

Manufacturers measure screen size diagonally, from corner to corner. A larger screen size, in tandem with a higher resolution, means more usable screen space and more immersive gaming experiences.

Players sit or stand close to their monitors, often within 20”-24”. This means that the screen itself fills much more of your vision than an HDTV (when seated at the couch) or a smartphone/tablet. (Monitors boast the best ratio of diagonal screen size to viewing distance among common displays, with the exception of virtual reality headsets). The benefits of 1440p or 4K resolution are more immediately perceptible in this close-range situation.

Basically, you want to find a screen where you never perceive an individual pixel. You can do this using online tools that measure pixel density (in pixels per inch), which tells you the relative “sharpness” of the screen by determining how closely pixels are packed together, or the alternative pixels per degree formula, which automatically compares its measurements against the limits of human vision.

It"s also worth considering your own eyesight and desktop setup. If you have 20/20 vision and your eyes are around 20” from your screen, a 27” 4K panel will provide an immediate visual upgrade. However, if you know your eyesight is worse than 20/20, or you prefer to sit more than 24” away, a 1440p panel may look just as good to you.

A monitor"s aspect ratio is the proportion of width to height. A 1:1 screen would be completely square; the boxy monitors of the 1990s were typically 4:3, or “standard”. They have largely been replaced by widescreen (16:9) and some ultrawide (21:9, 32:9, 32:10) aspect ratios.

Most online content, such as YouTube videos, also defaults to a widescreen aspect ratio. However, you"ll still see horizontal black bars onscreen when watching movies or TV shows shot in theatrical widescreen (2.39:1, wider than 16:9), and vertical black bars when watching smartphone videos shot in thinner “portrait” mode. These black bars preserve the original proportions of the video without stretching or cropping it.

UltrawidesWhy opt for an ultrawide screen over regular widescreen? They offer a few advantages: They fill more of your vision, they can provide a movie-watching experience closer to the theater (as 21:9 screens eliminate “letterboxing” black bars for widescreen films), and they let you expand field of view (FOV) in games without creating a “fisheye” effect. Some players of first-person games prefer a wider FOV to help them spot enemies or immerse themselves in the game environment. (But note that some popular FPS games do not support high FOV settings, as they can give players an advantage).

Curved screens are another common feature on ultrawide monitors. These can correct one typical issue with larger ultrawides: Images at the distant edges of the screen look less distinct than those in the middle. A curved screen helps compensate for this and provides a clearer view of the extreme edges of the screen. However, its benefits are most noticeable on larger screens over 27”.

When viewing two monitors side-by-side, it"s sometimes easy to see which has more brilliant hues, deeper blacks, or a more lifelike color palette. It can be harder to put the picture together in your head when reading specifications, however, because color in monitors is evaluated in many different ways. There"s no one spec to focus on: Contrast ratio, brightness, black level, color gamut, and more all come into play. Before moving on to larger color features, let"s define these terms one-by-one.

Contrast RatioContrast ratio, one of the most basic measures of a monitor"s performance, measures the ratio between the extremes of black and white that the screen can display. A baseline contrast ratio like 1,000:1 means that the white parts of the image are 1,000 times brighter than the dark parts.

When it comes to contrast ratios, higher numbers are better. A high contrast ratio, like 4,000:1, means bright highlights, inky blacks, and dark areas where details are still perceptible. A contrast ratio of 200:1, on the other hand, means that the blacks look more like grays, and the colors look faded and indistinct from each other.

Use caution when LCDs advertise very high “dynamic contrast ratios”, which are achieved by changing the behavior of the backlight. For gaming or everyday use, the standard “static” contrast ratio discussed above is a better marker of the monitor"s quality.

LuminanceBrightness is often measured in “luminance”, a precise measure of how much light is emitted by the screen. It"s given in candelas per square meter (cd/m2), a unit which is also called a “nit”. For HDR displays, the VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association) has standardized a suite of tests for luminance using specific test patches. When comparing luminance specs, check to make sure they use this consistent test platform, rather than a proprietary metric.

Black LevelIn all LCD screens, light from the backlight inevitably leaks through the liquid crystal. This provides the basis for the contrast ratio: For example, if the screen leaks 0.1% of the illumination from the backlight in an area that"s supposed to be black, this establishes a contrast ratio of 1,000:1. An LCD screen with zero light leakage would have an infinite contrast ratio. However, this isn"t possible with current LCD technology.

“Glow” is a particular issue in dark viewing environments, which means that achieving low black levels is a major selling point for LCD monitors. However, an LCD screen can’t reach a black level of 0 nits unless it’s completely turned off.

OLEDs have incredible black levels because they don"t use backlights. When an OLED pixel isn"t activated by electricity, it creates no light at all. OLED screens may advertise black levels “below 0.0005 nits”, as taking measurements more precise is usually prohibitively expensive. However, the black level is usually much closer to 0 than 0.0005.

Color DepthMonitors need to display many subtle shades of color. If they can"t smoothly transition between slightly different hues, we see onscreen color “banding” — a stark shift between two different colors, creating visibly lighter, and darker bands where we should see a seamless gradient. This is sometimes referred to as “crushing” the colors.

A monitor"s ability to display many slightly different colors, and thus avoid banding and inaccuracy, is measured by color depth. Color depth specifies the amount of data (measured in bits) the screen can use to build the color of one pixel.

Each pixel onscreen has three color channels — red, green, and blue — illuminated at varying intensities to create (typically) millions of shades. 8-bit color means that each color channel uses eight bits. The total number of shades possible in a screen with 8-bit color depth is 28 x 28 x 28=16,777,216.

True 10-bit monitors are rare — many monitors use forms of internal color processing, such as FRC (frame rate control), to approximate a greater color depth. A “10-bit” monitor could be an 8-bit monitor with an additional FRC stage, often written as “8+2FRC”.

Some inexpensive LCD panels use 6-bit color along with “dithering” to approximate 8-bit color. In this context, dithering means the insertion of similar, alternating colors next to one another to fool the eye into seeing a different in-between color that the monitor cannot accurately display.

Frame Rate Control, or FRC, alternates different colors with each new frame to achieve this. While this can be implemented more cheaply than 8-bit True Color, color accuracy suffers, especially in low-light environments. Some screens also feature 8-bit color depth with an additional FRC stage (commonly listed as “8-bit + FRC”) to approximate 10-bit color.

Monitors sometimes feature a Look-Up Table (LUT) corresponding to a higher color depth, such as 10-bit color. This helps speed up color correction calculations that take place within the monitor as it converts color input to a color output appropriate for your screen. This intermediate step can help create smoother color transitions and more accurate output. These are usually reserved for more professional grade monitors than general consumer and gaming displays.

Color SpaceYou"ll often hear about a monitor"s color "space" or "gamut", which is different from its bit depth. The color space specifies the spectrum of colors that can appear, rather than just calculating the number of them.

Your eye can see a much wider spectrum of color than current displays can reproduce. To visualize all visible colors, a standard called CIE 1976 maps them to a grid, creating a horseshoe-shaped graph. The color gamuts available for monitors appear as subsets of this graph:

Common, mathematically defined color gamuts include sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3. The first is a common standard for monitors (and the officially designated color space for the web). The second, wider standard is mostly used by photo and video editing professionals. The third, DCI-P3, is even wider, and is commonly used for HDR content.

Monitors advertising "99% sRGB" are claiming the screen covers 99% of the sRGB color gamut, which is often considered indistinguishable from 100% when viewed with the naked eye.

In LCD screens, the backlight and color filters determine the color space. All of the light created by the backlight passes through a color filter with red, green, and blue spots. Narrowing the “band-pass” of this filter restricts the wavelengths of light that can pass through, increasing the purity of the final colors produced. Although this lessens the screen"s efficiency (as the filter now blocks more of the backlight"s output), it creates a wider color gamut.

White LED (W-LED) backlight: A blue LED coated in yellow phosphors emits white light, which is filtered through red, green, and blue color channels to become the pixel"s final color. W-LED backlights produce a standard sRGB gamut color space. Sometimes an additional coating of special nanoparticles can be applied to a W-LED backlight to produce wider color gamut, often resulting in wider DCI-P3 color space coverage.

Quantum Dot Coating (QD): A blue LED backlight shines on green and red nanoparticles, which are manufactured to a tight tolerance. These emit a narrow frequency of green and red light. The nanoparticles don"t actually filter out light, which makes the process highly efficient. Instead, they convert and re-emit light on a narrow frequency range, which yields a wide color gamut.

HDR monitors display brig