lcd screen eye strain factory

In the visible light spectrum, blue light has wavelengths adjacent to ultraviolet light. Compared to the factory preset setting of 6500 K of typical LCD monitors, Paper Mode is closer to the spectral distribution with long reddish wavelengths so it reduces the amount of blue light, a cause of eye fatigue, and helps prevent eyestrain when reading documents. When used in conjunction with Auto EcoView dimming function, blue light can be reduced by as much as 80%.

Due to the way brightness is controlled on LED backlights, a small number of people perceive flicker on their screen which causes eye fatigue. FlexScan Frameless monitors utilize a hybrid solution to regulate brightness and make flicker unperceivable without any drawbacks like compromising color stability – even on low brightness settings.

The monitor uses an LED-backlit IPS (in-plane switching) LCD panel with 178° viewing angle that minimizes color shift and contrast changes when viewing the screen at an angle. This means that two people sitting at the one computer can easily see the screen with high image quality.

If you’re always surrounded by displays—PCs, smartphones and tablets—are you placing too much strain on your eyes, neck and shoulders? If this sounds like you, read this article and take steps to address it right away before your symptoms worsen.

Information technology has made our lives more convenient, but at the same time, eye fatigue caused by continuous viewing of displays has increasingly become a social problem. If you feel fatigue in your eyes, neck or shoulders, it"s important to properly address it rather than letting it go. If you let it go and your symptoms worsen, you could damage your mental and physical health, so be careful.

Some of the names for the various problems associated with displays and eyes are "computer vision syndrome," "VDT (visual display terminal) syndrome" and "technostress ophthalmopathy." They"re unavoidable problems when it comes to PC work in particular. There are various ways to address the problems, and the effects vary from person to person, but if you try one at a time, you"ll undoubtedly be able to experience a more pleasant digital life. It will also contribute to improved productivity in the office.

We"ve put together a list of 10 points about measures to address eye fatigue. We recommend checking the items that catch your eye first and then going back to the start and reading through all of them.

Have you ever been on a train and had the sun shine on your book from behind you making it hard to read or on your smartphone screen creating a glare and making it hard to see?

When you"re working on your PC, similar poor conditions may develop without you realizing it. For example, if the lights are near the center of the room, and your PC is set up with you facing the wall, although the level of brightness is different, you could experience something similar to sunlight shining on your screen from behind you like on the train. If that"s the case, consider changing the layout.

What can further worsen your eye fatigue in a situation like this is the light reflected from your display. Shiny glare panels are made to provide accurate blacks and colorful display, so they are good for watching videos, but they also tend to reflect outside light. In an office or similar setting, lights and other displays can be reflected on your screen, throwing off your focus and causing eye fatigue.

For regular PC work, an LCD with a non-glare panel that does not reflect light is easier to use. If the product you"re currently using has a glare panel, you can affix low-reflection film to the screen.

Fluorescent lights are brightly reflected on the glare panel, making the screen hard to see. These conditions can easily strain your eyes (left). A non-glare panel can substantially reduce the reflection of fluorescent lights and reduce the strain on your eyes (right). The difference is as plain as day.

It’s also important not to make the lights in the room too bright. It"s common for advice to focus on not letting the room be too dark, but if the lights are too bright, it creates a difference between the screen brightness and ambient light, and that"s also no good. More specific details on screen brightness are provided in Point 5. Also pay attention to the temperature setting on your air conditioner and the direction in which it blows. These things can cause dry eyes, and your seat should never be positioned so that the air conditioner is blowing directly in your face.

Generally speaking, the distance between the user and the screen should be at least 40 centimeters or 50 centimeters in the case of a wide screen. The reason you should be further away from a wide screen is that the wider screen will not fit completely into your field of vision unless you sit further back. The conditions will vary slightly depending on other factors as well, including screen resolution, text size and your eyesight.

No matter what the situation, if you are viewing a screen at a distance of less than 30 centimeters for long periods of time, your eyes are obviously going to become fatigued. If you have an A4-sized sheet of paper, hold it up longways between you and the screen on which this article is displayed and see if there is enough room for it to fit. An A4-sized sheet of paper is about 30 centimeters (297 millimeters) long, so if you"re viewing the screen from a shorter distance than this, you"re too close. If you"re viewing it at a distance of about 1.5 times that length, you"re safe for now.

Once you"re at the proper distance from the display, try to have it so that your line of sight is directly ahead or slightly downward when viewing the screen. You should avoid looking up at the screen, because that can cause dry eye.

Your posture sitting in your chair is also important. Sit back in the chair, sit up straight using the back rest, and keep the bottom of your feet completely on the floor. This eliminates extra strain on your neck, shoulders and lower back. Sitting hunchbacked can lead to health problems in the long run, so you need to exercise caution. If your feet don"t reach the floor, consider using a footrest.

Displays that do not allow sufficient adjustment of the angle and height of the screen can lead users to adjust their posture to the screen position, which prevents them from working in the correct posture. Choose a display that has rich features including a tilt function allowing the screen to be tilted up and down and a height adjustment function.

The adjustment mechanism of the LCD is also important for working on a PC in a posture that does not strain the eyes, neck and shoulders. Choose a product that allows the screen to be lowered just above the table top and flexible tilt adjustments (photograph: EIZO"s FlexScan EV2436W.

Even if the installation location of the display and your posture during use is proper, working in the same posture for extended periods of time is not good for your eyes. The reason is that constantly looking at something at a fixed distance causes a gradual decline in your eyes" ability to focus.

Take a 10-15 minute break at least once an hour. Look into the distance and move your eyes up, down, left and right to adjust your focus. It"s also good to regularly use eye drops.

A common mistake people make is looking at smartphone and tablet displays during their break. This does not allow your eyes to rest. Stretch to relieve tension, stand up and walk around, and look near and far either indoors or outdoors to adjust the focus of your eyes.

The suggestions up to this point have been predicated on the assumption that you have sufficient eyesight or that you use glasses or contact lens to properly correct your eyesight.

Eyesight changes gradually during daily life activities. Even if you wear glasses or contact lenses, if you stay at the same prescription for many years, your eyesight will change without you realizing it, and this could cause eye fatigue or migraine headaches. Using eye drops and adjusting the focus of your eyes during breaks does not help this problem.

Where you get in trouble is your eyesight doesn"t change suddenly one day, so even if you have symptoms like eye fatigue and headaches, it"s hard to identify the cause. If you let it go, it could lead to glaucoma and other worsening symptoms, so you should have your eyes checked at least once a year, which may be included in your company or school health examinations. Be vigilant about checking to make sure your prescription is not off.

The brightness of your display should not be left at the default setting but adjusted according to the brightness of the room where it"s installed. This can greatly reduce the strain on your eyes. For example, in an office with normal brightness of 300-500 lux, the display brightness should be adjusted to around 100-150 cd/m2.

But when you give specific numbers like this, most people have no idea what they mean. So what you want to remember is that the trick to adjusting the brightness is using white paper like copy paper. Compare the paper under the lighting in the room to the screen, and adjust the brightness of the display so that the brightness matches as closely as possible. This will put the brightness at about the right level.

Particularly, when using the display for work, you"ll often be comparing paper documents with documents on the screen, so by adjusting the brightness of the screen to the brightness of the paper under the lighting, you"ll reduce the strain on your eyes, making this an effective measure against eye fatigue.

Put white paper next to the screen as shown, and adjust the display brightness while comparing it to the paper. Screen too bright compared to the paper (left), and display brightness adjusted to appropriate level so that the brightness of the paper and the screen are roughly the same (right).

What you need to remember is that if the brightness of the room where the display is installed changes dramatically in the morning, afternoon and evening, the brightness of the screen needs to be changed accordingly, or there"s no point. If you have to adjust it frequently like that, doing it manually is bothersome, and keeping it up becomes difficult. Consider purchasing a display that comes with a function to automatically adjust screen brightness to the optimal setting according to external light.

The majority of LCDs today have LED backlights. In some cases, the brightness adjustment mechanism (dimming system) causes eye fatigue. Specifically, caution is required with the system called PWM (Pulse Modulation), which is employed by most displays. In this system, the LED element blinking time is adjusted to control the display brightness — extending the time that it"s on makes it brighter, and extending the time that it"s off makes it darker.

For some people, this blinking of the screen is experienced as flickering, leading to eye fatigue. There is a difference among individuals in how this flickering is experienced. Many people using the same display will not notice anything at all, so even in an office where the same model is purchased in bulk, it"s difficult to figure out that the display is the cause.

The only way to prevent this is to address it with the display itself. Some displays prevent flickering by employing special dimming systems such as DC (Direct Current), a system that, in principle, does not produce flickering, and EyeCare Dimming, a hybrid system used in some EIZO products. By purchasing a product like this, you may eliminate eye fatigue for which the cause was unknown.

We"d like to add a note about the EyeCare dimming system. This hybrid system uses DC dimming at high brightness settings and PWM dimming at low brightness settings as it does a better job than DC dimming at reproducing colors at low brightness. PWM dimming is only used at low brightness settings, so the blinking luminance difference is smaller, thereby controlling flickering.

If you feel like your eye fatigue has worsened since starting to use your current display, this could be the cause. If you"re in an office, switching out displays with another member of the staff is another effective way to identify the cause.

EIZO"s FlexScan EV series employs the unique EyeCare Dimming system. We put a small USB fan in front of the screen to check for flickering. At high brightness, DC dimming is used, and the light emitting elements do not blink, so the shape of the blades appears circular (left). At low brightness, PWM dimming is used, and the blades appear separate from each other, so you can see that high-speed blinking that can"t be perceived is taking place (right).

Recently, it has become common to hear blue light pointed out as a cause of eye fatigue. This refers to light that is visible to humans (visible light) with a wavelength close to that of ultraviolet rays. Because it has a high level of energy, it is generally said to place a strain on the eyes.

The reason it has recently been the subject of attention is that there are many LCD products with LED backlights that have a high color temperature display (white appears bluish), and there are more cases where the user is subjected to stronger blue light than with conventional displays, so this type of problem has come under closer scrutiny.

Some methods to address the problem are to wear blue light blocking glasses or to apply blue light reducing film to the LCD screen. Also remember that on products that allow the display picture quality to be adjusted, you can lower the color temperature on the display.

For example, results of an experiment (results of EIZO study) show that if you change the 6,500-7,000K color temperature used in common displays to 5,000K, the 400-500nm wavelengths corresponding to blue light can be cut by about 20%. Furthermore, by adjusting the screen brightness to a proper level that does not cause eye fatigue, you can reduce blue light by a total of 60-70%. Many of the aforementioned blue light blocking glasses only cut up to 50% of blue light, so this is more effective.

However, lowering the color temperature causes the screen display to change to reddish or yellowish in color, and color reproducibility is lowered. For that reason, it"s best if you can lower the color temperature for working with office documents and put it back to normal when doing creative work dealing with photographs and images.

It"s a little painful to hear, but in many cases, changing your lifestyle habits is a fundamental way that you can address eye fatigue. If you have poor lifestyle habits that can bring about poor physical health like lack of sleep, lack of exercise or nutritional deficiency from poor eating habits, take this opportunity to re-examine them.

Cutting down on PC and smartphone use before bedtime is also a surprisingly important point. The light put off by PC and smartphone screens, including the aforementioned blue light, is said to be effective in waking you up. Looking at these screens before bedtime tends to make it harder to fall asleep. Considering this, it"s actually not a good idea to read e-books on smartphones or tablets before bedtime.

If you"ve taken the above steps and your eye fatigue has not gotten better or there are signs that it"s getting worse, you should consider undergoing an examination by an ophthalmologist. Not only will you receive expert advice on your symptoms but it may also lead to early detection of inconceivable eye diseases like the aforementioned glaucoma.

As you can see from the points we"ve already gone over, if you really want to address eye fatigue, you obviously have to put in effort yourself, but your choice of display is another important point. No matter how much you as the user address eye fatigue, if your display does not meet certain quality standards, the effectiveness of your efforts will be limited.

If you"ve checked off items 1-9 but your eye fatigue has remained unchanged for a long period of time, you may want to turn your attention to the display itself.

For example, EIZO"s FlexScan EV series of LCDs places emphasis on addressing eye fatigue and has features to address points 1 (installation environment), 2 (posture during use), 3 (proper rest), 5 (brightness), 6 (flickering) and 7 (blue light) above.

The FlexScan EV series requires almost no cumbersome manual adjustments, offering the major advantage of automating features that address eye fatigue. If you"re someone who knows the tricks to addressing eye fatigue but are finding them difficult to implement due to being busy, we recommend that you seriously consider the FlexScan EV series.

In Paper mode, the color and contrast display is similar to paper. With this excellent feature, the color temperature is lowered instantly with the touch of a button, and blue light is substantially reduced (left). If you use the Auto EcoView function, the built-in illuminance sensor detects ambient brightness and automatically takes the display brightness down to the optimal level in real time (right). The aforementioned EyeCare Dimming system suppresses flickering of the screen display at the same time.

Paper mode display features color and contrast similar to paper. EyeCare Filter software applies filter pattern that controls brightness and contrast.

We"ve looked at various measures to address eye fatigue, but in cases where the user is required to remember to do them daily as they work, particularly when busy, people tend to neglect them. Moreover, when people make the effort to do these individual things to address eye fatigue but then don"t get much of a benefit due to the quality of the display, it"s really a waste if you think about it. Purchasing a replacement display requires an adequate expenditure, so people tend to hesitate, but if you"re purchasing a product that has excellent basic performance, eliminates the need for cumbersome manual settings and automatically lessens eye fatigue, isn"t it worth it?

The value of considering replacing the display itself is significant as a trump card for addressing eye fatigue. At home, it will help protect your eyes and the eyes of your loved ones, and at the office where you sit in front of the screen for long hours, it"s sure to contribute to greater efficiency and an improved working environment.

The picture above is a screenshot of my monitor’s display. Below is one small portion of it. Look carefully at the New York Times article and compare it to what you see on your own monitor, here.

Furthermore, this 21.5″ 1920×1080 monitor is 34 inches from my eyes, so that I can’t distinguish individual pixels. The enlarged text appears very crisp from this distance, and this means easier reading and less eye fatigue.

Sit far from the monitor and increase screen font size to increase effective resolution. See “Reduce Eye Fatigue” section below for how to calculate this distance for your monitor.

Can a widescreen monitor be used effectively for the first two uses? Yes. Many people do. And it may be ideal in certain homes where the display is used for both entertainment and light work. But if you’re trying to work without distraction for hours at a time, you may find that a widescreen monitor will lead you down the dark path of multitasking unrelated activities.

I tried for two years to use a 24”, 1920×1200, widescreen monitor effectively at my office, because I often find myself flipping back and forth between writing and researching. I failed. With the combination of a widescreen monitor and a tabbed browser, I too often succumbed to multitasking unrelated activities.

I had other issues with the wide screen. The short monitor height required too many clicks to scroll through long articles. I couldn’t use fullscreen mode because text stretched super wide. And though tools like Readability or Readable could be used, much of the screen space was wasted with wide margins.

I did distracted myself with many experiments to try to improve the situation, including various utilities or plug-ins designed to manage large screens or block distraction. It turns out that most content is meant to be displayed vertically, and this is assumed in computer software and operating systems. I found myself constantly battling this vertical display assumption, and often losing. So after two years of reduced productivity I gave up on widescreen monitors.

Now I have the best of both worlds. I have a widescreen monitor, but it can pivot into a vertical position. It is in vertical position over 95% of the time.

Steve Jobs claims that you can’t distinguish individual pixels on a device with more than 300 PPI such as the iPhone 4 or iPod Touch 4g, which both have a 326 pixels per inch (PPI) “Retina Display.” He’s right. That is likely the main reason my eyes get less tired with this device than any other LCD display I’ve used.

Have you ever noticed how a massive HDTV looks great 6 or more feet away, but not so great close up? You can see the individual pixels on a 46” HDTV if you’re 3 feet away, but not if you’re 6 feet away. The same principal applies to an LCD display. Move it twice as far away, and you’ll only be able to distinguish half the detail.

In other words, you cannot distinguish individual pixels on a 326 PPI Retina Display that is more than 10.55 inches away from your eyes unless you have better than 20/20 vision. The same applies to my 103 PPI monitor at a distance of greater than 33.4 inches.

Enlarged text nearly three feet from my eyes is very easy to read. Another subtle benefit is that page elements such as tabs, menus, and status bars do not get larger. They look tiny relative to the enlarged text, so they’re less noticeable and less distracting.

Note that by enlarging your web pages or documents, you do end up with less information on the screen. I find that I don’t usually need 1920×1080 pixels worth of information on a screen at one time. But when I do, I can simply move the screen closer to my eyes. Yes I lose the benefits of having the equivalent of a Retina Display, but the trade-off is sometimes worthwhile, particularly with large spreadsheets.

On a vertical monitor, you have much more vertical space than on a horizontally positioned widescreen monitor. So you’ll need fewer clicks to scroll through the vertically arranged content, and you’ll be able to see more of it at a time.

For example, my Dell 21.5″, 1920×1080 monitor (HDTV resolution) can pivot between vertical and horizontal positions. The vertical position means 1920 pixels of vertical space devoted to a web page, while a horizontally positioned screen means only 1080 pixels of vertical space

You could theoretically get the same amount of text on the screen by filling up the entire monitor with your browser, but that stretches the text very wide. It is very difficult to read text which has 150 characters per line. Various studies show that people can read fastest at somewhere between 60 and 95 characters per line, which is what I get by positioning my monitor vertically, 34 inches away, with enlarged text.

The advantages of working using the cloud are numerous, but endless web distractions can lead to wasted time and feelings of information overload. I’ve discussed tools for reducing distraction for both writing and reading on the web. These tools work well on vertical monitors but poorly on widescreen monitors.

For example, the simplest distraction blocker is to simply put your browser into fullscreen mode by pressing the F11 key. Try it on a widescreen monitor and you’ll see your text stretches so wide that there’s more than 150 characters per line. This is difficult to read.

Fullscreen mode works as intended on a vertical monitor. You eliminate menus, toolbars, address bars, bookmark bars, and status bars. You also get more vertical space so you’ll display more of what you’re reading, leading to fewer clicks to read a long article.

My favorite distraction blockers these days are tools like Readability or Readable. Readability is built in to the Safari browser and it can be added to Firefox or Chrome with plugins. You can also use Readability or Readable bookmarklets on any browser. These tools do work on widescreen monitors as you can specify the text width, leaving wide margins. But using these tools on a vertical monitor is better because much more text is on the screen, which means less clicks when reading a long article.

Get a widescreen monitor that has the ability to pivot. Keep it in vertical position most of the time. Rotate it horizontally only when having more than one window open at a time will really help your productivity.

Inexpensive 19″, 1280×1024 monitors will do. But with 86 PPI, these monitors need to be 40” away to achieve the equivalent resolution of a Retina Display that is 10.55 inches from your eyes. Worse, you’ll need to enlarge the text in order to read it and then won’t be able to see much more information than you can on an iPod Touch. More likely is that you won’t want to position your 1280×1024 monitor so far away, so you’ll notice the individual pixels.

Luckily, high quality 1920×1080 monitors can be purchased for $150 to $400 these days. The diagonal length of monitors with this resolution ranges from 21.5” to 26”, but the larger sizes of these monitors usually cannot pivot. Furthermore, the bigger the monitor is, the farther you’ll need to place it away from your eyes.

The 21.5” diagonal screen size was the smallest I could find on a 1920×1080 monitor. It needs to be only 33.4” from my eyes (to achieve the same effect as a Retina Display at 10.55 inches), as opposed to the 37.5” required for a 24” display. Closer is better so I don’t have to lean forward as far when I need to look at something small.

Having failed to make good use of a widescreen monitor after two years of trying, I’ve obviously given up on them in the office. But many people use them for home entertainment purposes. And some people are very productive with them. Maybe you’re one of them, and you’d like to share about it below.

In the modern world, our eyes are constantly bombarded with information from displays. Whether it be from a laptop, smartphone, or some other device, many of us spend a significant portion of our day staring at some kind of display. As such, it is paramount that we should understand the strain placed on our vision and some steps we can take to improve and protect the health of our eyes.

Our eyes are constantly fed information through screens. Most of us have jobs that require us to look at a computer display of some kind for several hours a day. After work, we head home and stare at screens throughout the evening and well into the night. It"s no wonder, then, that many people complain of eye strain, blurred vision, or headaches after a long day of work. These symptoms and others, collectively known as computer vision syndrome (CVS), may affect as many as 90% of people who use a computer monitor, tablet, or other electronic display during the workday.

So what can we do about CVS? There"s no escaping the fact that many jobs require computers and, thus, require staring at a screen. In this article, we will discuss a few things you can do to reduce eye strain and alleviate some symptoms of CVS. We will also offer a list of laptop features that may adversely affect our eyes and what facets of notebooks may lighten the ocular load. Finally, we will offer a short list of some recommended laptops with high-quality screens that have some of these vision-saving features.

The good news is that there are several steps you can take to minimize or outright prevent symptoms of CVS. Our eyes work like biological cameras; they are constantly focusing on an image, taking in light, and transmitting visual data to our brain for interpretation. By understanding how our eyes look at electronic displays, we can better control the stress placed upon them. The following list is by no means exhaustive, but these tips should help you if you consistently suffer from headaches, blurry vision, eye strain, or other common problems associated with CVS. Best of all, these are simple solutions that shouldn"t require you to buy new equipment or change your working situation.

Refocus your eyes periodically. Perhaps the best way to protect your vision is to give your eyes a break. If you spend an extended period of time in front of a computer monitor or other display, look away from the screen every 20-30 minutes. Pick out a distant object or spot on a faraway wall and focus on it for about 30 seconds. This refocusing removes the immediate strain placed on your eyes, and focusing on a distant object will help relax the muscles that control your eye.

Blink often. Blinking coats our eyes with tears and helps clear out any dust or particles that have found their way past our eyelashes. While blinking is an automatic reflex, some studies show that blinking rate is significantly reduced when we actively process information, such as when we are working at a computer monitor. This can lead to our eyes feeling dried out and may damage them over time. Like above, take a break every 20-30 minutes and intentionally blink your eyes very slowly 10 or more times. This will spread new tears over your eyes. You may also want to purchase lubricating eye drops if you suffer from very dry eyes.

Adjust your lighting. Some lighting situations can actively damage our eyes, particularly bright environments. There"s a reason why we squint when we step outdoors on a sunny day; our pupils contract, which requires some muscles in our eyes to stay flexed. If you can, turn down the lights in your office and partially block any ambient light coming in from outdoors. Turning off overhead lights or fluorescent bulbs can also help. Incandescent and halogen bulbs are easier on our eyes, and placing them lower down to offer indirect light can help reduce strain.

Adjust your display"s settings. Most modern LCD monitors and laptop displays allow the user to edit some settings. Lowering the brightness of your computer"s display will reduce ocular stress, similar to turning down ambient lighting. There is a threshold, though; if the computer screen is too dim, it can actually cause worse eye strain. Find a good sweet spot by incrementally stepping down the display"s brightness until your eyes aren"t squinting or straining too much to read text or view images. You can also download software to filter out blue light. Blue light has a shorter wavelength than red light and thus can cause greater eye strain, particularly if viewed at night. Blue-light filtering software shifts the color gradient of your computer"s display toward the red end of the light spectrum, increasing the wavelength of emitted light and reducing stress. A good app for this is f.lux, which can be set to automatically shift your display throughout the day. F.lux is free for personal use and is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS (jailbreak required).

In addition to the tips listed above, there are some laptop-specific factors that can directly affect our vision. Laptop screens vary widely from model to model, and there is no one perfect laptop screen when it comes to eye health. Still, here are a few things to keep in mind when you purchase your next laptop.

Matte screens are easier on the eyes. Perhaps the most noticeable facet of a laptop"s screen is the finish across the panel. Laptop displays have either a glossy or matte finish to them. Glossy panels allow more light to pass through from the LCD backlight and are typically brighter and more color accurate. However, glossy displays have a major weakness: reflections. A glossy finish will typically show reflections at lower brightness levels, which can distract our eyes and cause them to constantly shift focus, resulting in increased fatigue. Matte finishes, on the other hand, are made specifically to cut reflections. Matte displays typically show no reflections, making them highly usable in almost any lighting condition (provided the backlight is bright enough). Matte screens do sacrifice some color accuracy and brightness, but most are more than good enough for users that don"t routinely work with color.

Higher resolutions make everything sharper. Most modern laptops come with either a 1366x768 or 1920x1080 resolution screen, which is acceptable for most work. However, users that suffer from eye fatigue may want to consider getting a higher resolution display. A higher resolution means a higher pixel density, which can make text and images look much sharper. While a high-resolution screen will make icons and other UI elements smaller at the display"s native resolution, both Windows 10 and Mac OS X have excellent scaling options. Text on a 4K screen set to 200% scaling will look much crisper than text on a 1080p screen at native resolution.

Screen size affects pixel density. Related to point #2 is screen size. Obviously, a smaller laptop screen will subsequently be harder to see from a normal viewing distance than a larger laptop screen. That being said, a larger laptop screen will have a smaller pixel density than a smaller screen of the same resolution. For reference, a 15.6-inch display with a resolution of 1920x1080 has a pixel density of 141 pixels per inch (PPI). Choose a laptop with a screen large enough for comfortable viewing from your desk chair. A larger screen would need a higher resolution to match this pixel density. It should be noted that Apple"s "Retina Display" moniker is a classification used by the company to describe a pixel density high enough such that individual pixels are not visible at a normal viewing distance. The iPhone 4 had the first "Retina Display" with a PPI of 326. Apple"s Retina MacBook Pros typically have a lower pixel density (~220 PPI) but are viewed from farther away than a smartphone.

Backlight brightness matters. While it"s important to control the intensity of light coming out of a laptop screen, making sure that the LCD backlight is bright enough to remain visible is equally as important. A screen with too dim a backlight can be hard to see in some lighting conditions, causing our eyes to strain to view the display. A backlight that can climb to 300-350 nits should be sufficient for most environments.

Poor contrast muddies up the display. Also worth considering is the contrast ratio and black levels of a display. Poor contrast can result in blurry or muddy images with ill-defined boundaries. This can subsequently force our eyes to constantly refocus in order to make sense of the boundaries of an on-screen picture or text. A contrast ratio of 1000:1 or higher will be adequate for most users.

PWM can be a headache. Many laptops rely on pulse-width modulation to dim the LCD backlight. We have written a detailed article on the issue, so suffice it to say that higher PWM causes less strain on the eyes. Laptops with low PWM (<500 Hz) can cause eye fatigue, headaches, and other adverse symptoms in some users. We measure the PWM (or lack thereof) of almost every device that crosses our test bench, so be sure to check a specific laptop review before buying to see if PWM is problematic.

Now that we know what to look for in a laptop, here is a list of some suggested devices that meet most of the criteria listed above. Again, there is not one "perfect" laptop when it comes to eye health. Still, the following devices come close and should help alleviate eye strain. Remember, the best way to protect your eyes is to take action yourself.

The laptop display that ticks the most boxes perhaps belongs to the 14-inch HP EliteBook 840 G5. The FHD panel is reasonably pixel-dense (157 PPI), has a good contrast ratio (1170:1), and is fairly color-accurate. What really sets the EliteBook 840 G5 apart is its backlight, which is one of (if not the) brightest on the market right now. The screen shines at an insane 630 nits on average, and the backlight is very evenly distributed (93%). In addition, the matte finish across the panel eliminates reflections and allows for use in all but the brightest conditions. While the 14-inch display may be too small for comfortable viewing from a distance, the EliteBook 840 G5 offers one of the best displays for eye health on the market today.

The Dell XPS 15 has long been touted as the Windows alternative to Apple"s MacBook Pro line for many reasons, but the display is often one of them. While Dell offers an alternative SKU of the XPS 15 9570, its glossy panel readily shows reflections and is thus not as conducive to eye health as its FHD matte sibling. While PPI could be higher on the FHD panel, the screen is pixel dense enough for most users. What makes the FHD XPS 15 9570 a good choice is its bright and relatively even backlight, its excellent contrast ratio, and matte finish. PWM is high enough that it will not bother most users, although some very sensitive eyes may be affected. Despite these small compromises, the FHD XPS 9570 is perhaps the best balanced display when it comes to eye health.

For those that want a larger screen, it"s hard to beat the 4K Lenovo ThinkPad P71. The 17.3-inch display is large enough to be easily viewed from a normal working distance, and the 4K resolution packs 255 pixels into every square inch. The 4K P71 offers a good contrast ratio (1155:1), good viewing angles, great color accuracy, and a matte finish. Its main weakness lies in the display backlight, which is somewhat dim (~330 nits) and uneven, making outdoor use more difficult than with the EliteBook 840 G5 or the XPS 15. The P71 is perhaps the best large display and one of the best for eye health.

There"s a reason why Apple"s MacBook Pro devices are often praised for their displays. The panel on the MacBook Pro 15, in particular, is one of the brightest screens in the industry (~520 nits). The pixel-dense (~220 PPI), color-accurate screen has an excellent contrast ratio (1333:1). The device"s "Retina" display can be set to a wide variety of brightness levels for almost any lighting situation and has almost imperceptible PWM (>20,000 Hz). The one flaw in the display is its glossy finish. While the backlight gets bright enough to help reduce reflections in most lighting conditions, bright days outdoors turn the screen into a mirror, which can be highly distracting and fatiguing. If you rarely or never work outdoors or under bright lights, though, the MacBook Pro 15 should offer easy viewing.

Our eyes are one of our greatest resources, and keeping them healthy is important. As our lives focus more and more on electronic displays, the task of protecting our vision becomes increasingly difficult. Still, there are some laptop displays that are noticeably easier on the eyes than others. That being said, the most important thing to remember when it comes to keeping your eyes healthy is to take action yourself. Look away from your screen periodically and give your eyes a rest. This is the best way to ensure your eyes keeping looking good (pun intended) for years to come.

Using a laptop is not without its problems as there can be side effects such as eye strain. Due to this side effect, there have been several questions as to which laptop screen can reduce eye strain.

To be frank, there is no specific laptop screen which can reduce eye strain.Instead, what you can look out for in the process of purchasing a system is the components of the laptop screen.

Purchasing a laptop without doing proper research on the screen properties can lead to constant eye strain. However, this does not mean you cannot find a way around it. With the following tips, you can reduce the level of discomfort on your eyes during the use of your PC.

The way your body is positioned during the use of a laptop can lead to eye strain. According to an articleby the American Occupational Safety and Health Association, the placement of the laptop and the posture of the body can affect the eyes.

Instead of slouching your body or craning your neck use the laptop, using a table or stack of books to raise the screen to the eye reduces the strain. On the other hand, if you have a chair that is lower than the desk, change it for another one that you can increase its height.

Tweaking the settings of your PC is another way to guard against eye strain. Sometimes, the brightness or contrast level of your system can be set too high or too low. Changing them to the optimum setting should help if not totally alleviate the problem.

Glare from the laptop screen can irritate the eyes and also affect your mood. If the light is cast directly at the eyes, it will cause eye strain. Therefore, to prevent it, either purchase a laptop with pre-installed anti-glare or place anti-reflective protectors over the screen.

A light source is needed to display content on the screen. In most laptops, the type of display panel used is LED. The panel has to maintain light intensity and the only way to achieve that is by switching the light on and off.

The constant flicker of the lights can lead to eye strain. The duration of this flicker is called the refresh rate. A laptop with a high refresh rate is able to diminish the flickers.

The first thing you ought to look out for when purchasing a laptop is the type of display panel. Some screen displays can cause discomfort while others make it easier to work with your PC.

In laptops, the most common panel to find is LCD. LCD is an acronym for liquid crystal display. More often than not, you will see an LCD panel with LED (light-emitting diode) which is a different method of backlighting a PC.

3IPS PanelsBetter viewing angles than all LCDsCrystal alignment always lines up the viewer’s eye level thereby reducing eye strainLess brightRefresh rate is slower than TN panelsResponse time is slower than TN panels

4OLED PanelsGreat contrast ratioNo risk of light bleeding through the screenExpensiveSlow refresh rateColor molecules degrade quickly thereby affecting screen brightness over a period of use.

A matte screen surface is an applied finish during the manufacturing process that diffuses ambient light rather than reflecting ambient light back to the viewer, resulting in a reduced glare and what is commonly marketed as an ‘Anti-Glare’ screen among best selling laptop computers.

A glossy screen surface is curated to have a smooth outer layer that reflects ambient light directly back to the viewer rather than diffusing it, ultimately resulting in a higher glare.

Yes, the screen resolution of a laptop can affect the eyes. This is mostly common when the display screen of the laptop is quite small thereby affecting the alignment of the display with the eye level. Therefore, when possible always opt for a laptop with a larger resolution.

Staring at your laptop screen for long intervals can lead to eye strain. This side effect is easily avoidable if you put in place preventive measures such as the use of anti-glare goggles and screen protectors.

Many of us can thank our monitors for eye strain that lasts well after we have logged off of work for the day. We spend dozens of hours every week staring at these glowing rectangles and it takes a toll on our eyeballs. Some monitor manufacturers have taken steps to try and reduce the harmful impact that artificial illumination inflicts on us. Some safety features have more impact than others, but anything is better than nothing. We have curated this list of the best monitors for eye strain that are also good for creative work.

Here are some terms and features you’ll find when you’re out looking for the best monitor for eye strain. Even if you don’t choose one of the monitors from our list, this info can help make sure you get what you need.

This is always the first topic that comes up when people talk about eye strain. Blue light has a bad reputation for causing eye strain, sleep problems, and all sorts of other seemingly avoidable problems. The reality is much more complicated than that. The actual science regarding blue light as harmful is complicated. It has shown that it can mess with sleep if you get too much blue light too close to bedtime, but anti-blue-light filters and display modes typically skew the on-screen image heavily toward a warmer color, which is terrible for photo editing. The best thing you can do if you’re worried about blue light is moderate your screen exposure and try to avoid screens for a while before bed. If you’re just using a screen to consume content rather than editing photos or videos, you can use a blue light filter or blue-light-reducing features and deal with the orange tint if you think it helps.

Most modern monitors fall between 24 and 32 inches. Some ultra-wide monitors throw off those numbers with their odd aspect ratios. I personally find 27 inches to be the sweet spot for a typical monitor setup. Some people prefer a larger 32-inch display or a smaller 24-inch model. You want something you can sit a reasonable distance from and still easily read the text on the screen without squinting or straining. If you want a very high-res monitor, going with a larger screen can make the on-screen text easier to read if only because it will be larger.

You’ll typically want to choose between 4K and 1440p monitors at the moment. 4K offers more pixels, which leads to sharper text and more detailed images. More pixels can also lead to smaller on-screen text and UI elements if you’re running at native resolution. 1440p only has a fraction of 4K’s total pixels, but the screens are typically cheaper than their 4K siblings. 27-inch, 1440p monitors offer the best value-to-performance ratio. For the sake of your eyes, get something large enough that the on-screen elements are easy to read without straining.

Monitor manufacturers typically indicate their model brightness using nits. There’s no hard and fast rule about how many nits you need, but there are some rules of thumb to follow. First, if you’re typically working in a bright area, you want a similarly bright monitor so the on-screen image doesn’t get overtaken by glare. If you’re working in a dark area most times, you likely won’t need the screen to get very bright. In fact, looking at a very bright screen in an overly dark setting can harm your eyes over time. Most monitors come in between 400 and 1,000 nits.

Some models offer features that automatically adjust brightness to match the ambient light in the room. This can be handy for consuming content, but it’s not great for editing photos. If your screen is constantly changing brightness, it’s hard to edit a cohesive set of images.

Photographers hate glare in camera lenses and it can be similarly annoying with monitors. Your eyes have to fight through reflections on the screen to see the actual display. That’s hard on the eyes. Glossy screens typically struggle the most with glare. Some manufacturers create textured, matte screens especially designed to fight glare.

You’ll also find that some pro-oriented displays come with detachable hoods that prevent overhead and other ambient light from creeping onto the screen and creating annoying reflections.

You may not be able to tell with the naked eye, but screens often flicker. When they do, eyes struggle to observe the seemingly constant on-screen image. Most high-end monitors avoid this effect, but you typically won’t find mention of it in a screen’s specs unless the model employs specific anti-flicker technology.

Here are some specific suggestions for the best monitors for eye strain. While we try to make our suggestions as specific as possible, people always have overlap when it comes to needs. Check out all the options before making your final decision.

This monitor is meant for professional creative work. It offers excellent color reproduction, which goes well-beyond the sRGB colorspace and covers 99 percent of the AdobeRGB space. The anti-glare screen fights off reflections all on its own, but it also comes with a detachable hood to prevent overhead lights from creating ugly glare that makes the screen harder to see. It’s also flicker free, which is good for the eyes.

If you’re particularly worried about blue light, this may not be the monitor for you. It’s meant to get color that’s as accurate as possible and blue-light-reduction doesn’t go well with that goal. Again, the science against blue light in general isn’t totally settled, so we typically recommend going with a high-end monitor like this and trying to moderate your usage to prevent eye strain.

This Viewsonic display comes with an Eye Care certification, which means it won’t flicker, resists glare, and reduces blue light output. Beyond all of that, it’s also a very solid monitor. It offers Viewsonic’s dedicated color consistency tech, which comes pre-calibrated from the factory but also assures consistent color over time.

At 32 inches, it has enough screen real estate to take advantage of that full 4K resolution. Sitting a regular distance away from the screen, you can run native 4K without rendering the text unreadably tiny.

Standard VESA mounting holes allow this screen to easily attach to just about any stand or monitor arm you may want to employ. That can allow you to fine tune your viewing distance to reduce squinting.

You’re probably noticing a trend here in that we don’t necessarily think you need to go overboard with specific eye care features in order to get a great monitor. This screen offers 4K resolution on a 27-inch screen, which translates into super-sharp text that’s easy to read. It also provides plenty of real estate for big image previews with room left over for editing tools.

LG equipped this screen with excellent color reproduction thanks to its IPS panel. That keeps brightness and colors consistent all the way across the screen.

Curved monitors attempt to mimic the shape of your eye and fill your peripheral vision with an image so your eyes need to move less during use. Fewer movements lead to better-rested eyeballs.

Measuring 34 inches, this display essential replaces a pair of screens that would otherwise sit on your desk. That’s a boon for creatives because it means no more trying to keep two screens calibrated to the same colors and brightness levels.

You can go truly wild with these ultra-wide curved monitors. Samsung makes a 49-inch curved model that’s likely overkill for everyone but the most intense gamers. But, if you’re looking for a screen that’s easy on the eyes and also a total flex, you can get it.

This screen checks in around $200, which makes it considerably cheaper than just about everything else on this list. Despite its low price, it offers some of the most eye strain features you’ll find. The dynamic lighting mode keeps track of how bright it is in your room and adjusts the monitor’s backlight accordingly. So, if you start editing in the afternoon and it turns to night, the monitor will adjust to get darker all on its own.

It promises Eye Care support, so it fights glare, blue light, and flicker as well. Color space coverage isn’t stellar, but this is an IPS monitor, so it will display consistent brightness and color all the way across the screen. It will also likely hold a calibration fairly well.

The 1080p resolution is rather low, but at 27 inches, the text should still render just fine. This is a solid option for someone just getting into an editing setup or for someone looking for a second screen.

Even models as cheap as $200 can offer some advanced features to help reduce eye strain. But, they can also go up over $2,000 if you’re looking for something with tons of features or professional performance. I typically find the best mix of value to performance in the $500 to $1,000 price points. Our best overall pick comes in around $650 and it offers just about anything you could need.

Not necessarily. Larger monitors can help reduce eye strain by making on-screen elements larger and easier to read. If you want a 4K monitor, we recommend going at least 27 inches in order to make sure everything is readable. Giant monitors also put out a ton of light, so if you’re going to regularly look at it in a dark room, that could cause eye fatigue over time.

We have seen this question around a lot and it’s not quite phrased correctly. LCD and LED aren’t mutually exclusive technologies. In fact, most modern monitors use both together. The LEDs provide the backlight for the TV. The LCD panel sits in front of the LEDs and creates the on-screen images. Chances are the monitor you’re looking at right now is an LCD with LED backlighting.

We recommend that people attach light strips to the back of their TVs to create a little bit of backlighting. This helps reduce eye strain, but it also maximizes contrast and impact for the picture. The same basic idea applies to monitors as well. You don’t want to be sitting in a dark room staring at a very bright display. A little bit of ambient light can help so light bars may help in that regard.

I have been evaluating monitors for PopPhoto and Popular Science for years using both subjective and analytical techniques. To curate this list of the best monitors for eye strain, we relied on a mixture of personal experience, editorial reviews, user feedback, and spec comparisons. We prioritized models that offer Eye Care certification. We also kept this list specific to monitors that are good for creative work. All monitors cause some eye strain. The harm isn’t worth it if the work you create on it doesn’t look its best.

We chose BenQ’s 27-inch display as our best monitor for eye strain. It offers a solid collection of eye-saving features, as well as excellent color reproduction and consistency. That’s crucial for creative work like photography, design, and video. While no monitor can totally reduce the amount of damage it does to your eyes, we think moderating your time spent with a display is the most effective way to protect your eyeballs in the long term.

However, staring at screens for long periods can lead to headaches, tired eyes and blurry vision — a condition known as Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS). While CVS doesn’t typically lead to serious long-term problems, it can cause discomfort and affect your sleep pattern.

Sitting in the same position for a long time can lead to feeling tense and achy, especially across your back, neck, shoulders and arms. And it can also cause headaches and dry eyes.

The 20-20-20 rule is a method that gives your eyes a regular break from looking at the computer screen, helping to reduce the risk of Computer Vision Syndrome. It involves taking a break for 20 seconds every 20 minutes, looking at something 20 feet away.

There are several apps and tools you can use to help you adopt this habit. Workrave is a free program that regularly alerts you to take micro-pauses and rest breaks, helping to prevent CVS and Repetitive Strain Injury, and F.lux adjusts the glow of your monitor based on the time of day.

The position of your computer monitor is important for both your posture and your eyes. Having the monitor too low, too high, too close or too far away can give your eyes a lot more work than necessary.

Most people find it more comfortable to look slightly down at a computer monitor, rather than up or directly ahead. Position your monitor at around 10-20cm below your eyes to keep your neck in an optimal relaxed state.

Having glare on your computer screen is not only irritating, but it can also wreak havoc on your vision. But there are a few easy ways to reduce glare:

Leaving your computer monitor on its factory settings isn’t the best idea when it comes to reducing the risk of CVS. Additionally, if you’re still using an old cathode ray tube monitor (your typical old computer screen), it’s time to upgrade to a modern LCD screen, as they’re much better for your eyes.

Your monitor should also have adjustable display settings. Adjusting the colour temperature to reduce blue colours can help to reduce vision problems. Short-wavelength light (linked with bluish colours) is more closely connected to eye strain than long-wavelength light (linked with reddish colours). Too much blue light can also reduce contrast, meaning your eyes must work harder to look at the screen.

Try to match your screen brightness to your surroundings – too bright or dark can put an unnecessary strain on your eyes. Further, avoid sitting in front of a window or other bright sources of light, as your eyes may be strained from having to constantly adapt between the two different light intensities.

We hope we’ve helped you to understand what causes digital eye strain and how to prevent it. If you’re suffering from symptoms of CVS, get in touch with your local optician.

Is there any way to increase the PWM brightness control frequency of the display or is there any way to make the OLEDS emit same brightness all the time without dimming them at periodic intervals? Similar to non flicker LCD screens?

Thanks to DC dimming the strain on my eyes have reduced a lot but not completely gone as the screen still flickers as OLED screens dim the individual LEDs to some extent periodically as this is by design and if I am not wrong it is termed as

One of the lesser known “white-collar” health problems is called computer vision syndrome, or “digital eye strain”. As you would expect, this is a chronic condition caused by staring too long into computer screens that manifests itself in symptoms such as dryness, irritation and even eye twitching.

Computer screens are harder to see in a brightly lit room, and many people turn their brightness up past the point of comfort to compensate without realizing. This can be very hard on your eyes. If you can, turn off desk lamps near your computer and dim any overhead lights (especially fluorescent bulbs).

You can also try to eliminate glare by closing the blinds and relying on indirect sources of lighting. After your eyes adjust, you may be shocked to find how bright your computer screen has been.

Most office workers have their computer screens on too bright. Whatever the reason, you will want to adjust the brightness down. Your computer screen should be roughly the same color as its surrounding environment (desk, cubicle, etc.). If the screen appears like a light source, it’s probably too bright.

You can also make things easier on your eyes by adjusting the size of any text you are reading on screen. This can be done by increasing the display percentage in a Word Document or a PDF, for example. Its better to read something at 16 point font or 200% resolution than to use reading glasses in conjunction with a screen. As for color, contrast is king. It’s always best to read dark color text on a light-colored background. The greater the difference, the better.

Make sure you have the highest quality computer screen possible. The best screen for eye health is a liquid crystal display (or LCD) screen, with the highest resolution and refresh rate for that particular device. And contrary to popular trends with tablets and mobile devices, you also want to have the biggest size screen available. Desktops are preferred.

Your eyes are less likely to become dry or tired if you move them around. Blink frequently throughout the day, and take occasional breaks from staring at your computer screen. Try to stay active with what you look at and how you move. A useful trick is the 20-20-20 rule. Every 20 minutes, spend 20 seconds staring at an object 20 feet away. This will help keep your vision strong throughout the day.

Many office workers have terrible posture when they are sitting at a computer. The angle at which you sit can not only cause joint pain, but can also make it more difficult to read off a computer screen. Maintain good posture, avoid leaning your neck forward, and try to keep your computer screen level with your eyes at all times. You can also do stretching exercises during any 20-20-20 breaks you take to help loosen up your shoulders and neck.

It is important to have a comprehensive and routine eye exam to check for any problems that may be developing. This will help cut off any serious problems before they start, and will avoid computer vision problems exacerbated by minor eye conditions.

For example, being mildly farsighted can cause you to squint at a computer screen, while workers who wear contact lenses are noticeably more likely to develop dry eye syndrome while working on a computer. Visit your local optometrist or ophthalmologist to get on a regular schedule of eye exams. Its never too late.

You don’t have to be incredibly tech-savvy to turn down the screen brightness on your laptop, but the process will vary depending on the model of your device. First, check the line of F keys on the top of your keyboard. If any of them have a little icon that looks like a light bulb, a sun, or any other light source, try pressing them to see if it adjusts brightness. Chances are that they, more likely than not, will do so. Keep in mind that you may need to use your Fn or Function key to trigger these effects.

If you want to lower your screen’s brightness for your desktop PC, there are a few ways to do so. Windows 10 makes it easy. Click the battery icon in your Windows 10 notification area, and adjust the brightness to suit your needs. To do so, open the Settings from the Start menu, select System, and choose Display. Adjust the slider to where you want your system’s brightness to be.

Windows 7 and 8.1 have a screen brightness adjuster in your system’s Control Panel. Select Hardware and Sound > Power Options. You’ll see the slider, which will be available at the bottom of the Power Plans window.

Windows 10 has the option to automatically adjust brightness in relation to your remaining battery life. To do so, open Settings > System > Battery save. Select Battery saver settings. You need to make sure that the Lower screen brightness while in battery saver is checked, and you can use the adjustable bar to select a percentage for when the screen will dim. By default, it will be set at 20 percent battery remaining.

While these tips will work on the software side of things, you can alter your monitor settings with the buttons on the side or front of the computer monitor. Most monitors have several different settings, including brightness, contrast, and color adjustments that you can tweak to make it easier on the eyes. We wish we could give you some specific tips for this, but virtually every monitor and manufacturer has slightly different configurations.

By keeping an eye on your screen’s brightness, you can keep your eyes healthy, experienc