lcd display viewing angle supplier

Viewing angle is a very important factor when evaluating LCD display"s performance. Understanding how to locate the optimum viewing angle and choose the right LCD display will make your product looks sharp without extra cost.

LCD viewing angle is the maximum angle from which customer can view the screen well. "Viewing well" is commonly recognized as having at least 10:1 contrast and without grayscale inversion.

At time of manufacturing, LCD manufacturer designs LCD panel in a way that it is best viewed from an angle (called Bias) offset from the perpendicular by certain degrees, to accommodate as many applications as possible. Viewing angle is the angle covers both side of Bias angle, where the LCD is still "viewing well".

When reading an LCD"s specification, you will see the term "viewing direction". Viewing direction is defined following the format of a clock. Like figure below, Z axis is Normal, X axis is Horizontal and Y axis is Vertical. An LCD"s viewing angle "above" Z axis is having 12 o"clock viewing direction. So 6 o"clock viewing direction LCD is best viewed from "below" Z axis.

Theoretically, LCD manufacturer can produce LCD with 3, 12, 9 and 6 o"clock viewing direction. But in practice, we usually look at LCD display from 12 or 6 o"clock angle.

Using a simple TN type TFT LCD as example, its viewing angle is typically 45~65 degrees. Adding extra wide polarizer film (EWP) to the TN type LCD, the viewing angle may be increased about 10 degrees. Similarly, an O-film enhancement polarizer will widen the viewing angle to 75 degree in each direction. However, these enhancements bring along contrast reduction. Adjusting LCD contrast is necessary.

Using a liquid crystal display with proper viewing angle is very important to your product"s success. And we should keep in mind that optimized contrast is crucial, too. Both parameters define the visual appearance of the LCD display and the appeal of your product. Choices are based on cost performance trade offs.

For example, if your project requires a wide viewing angle 2.4" TFT LCD. TN TFT panel with O-film solution might be better than using IPS LCD. Topway engineers are here to help you making those design decisions.

This monitor will display a 250:1 contrast ratio when viewed head on or at a 90° angle from the surface of the monitor. The contrast ratio will decline as you view the display from the side eventually going down to 10:1 or 5:1 contrast ratio at an angle of 70° from head on. As you move away from the maximum contrast at the straight on viewing position, the brightness of the white may increase or decrease and the black may increase or decrease. However, the contrast (ratio of the two) will decrease as you move away from normal viewing. Please note, this is just a general representation and not factual for every monitor with 140° viewing angle. All values are estimates.

Other factors such as the display"s brightness, ambient light and contrast conditions all play a part in the readability of the display. As mentioned above, viewing angle is defined using only the contrast ratio. However, even within this standard viewing angle, the colors or tones on the display panel may look different from the real color/tone, or they may become invisible, depending on the combination of displayed colors (background color, text color and switch color). For example, if the background color is bright and you look at the screen from below, the colors may appear inverted so that the text color and switch color darken to the point where they become invisible. Or, when the background color is dark and you look at the screen from above, the colors may again appear inverted, so that the text color and switch color brighten to the point that they become invisible. As a result, be sure to choose your screen colors carefully, so they produce an effective combination for the LCD panel"s operation environment.

The view direction is the right direction marked with Φ which is with respect to the X-axis. The original location is the center point of the display panel surface, the Z axis is Normal, the X-axis is Horizontal and Y-axis is Vertical.

Normally it was defined 4 angles to correspond with 3, 12, 9, and 6 o’clock respectively. So, you can find the 6 o’clock or 12 o’clock parameter in the LCD datasheet.

Viewing Angle is the angle with respect to the Z-axis in a certain direction and marked by θ (θU means upper View Angle). LCD Viewing Angle describes the maximum watching angle, and it is one of the key indicators with the display module.

The LCD bias angle is the angle perpendicular from which the display is best viewed. (See Fig.2) This angle is determined when the display is designed and can be set at any angle or orientation. The orientation of the bias angle of LCD displays is often stated with reference to a clock face. If the offset is above the display, it is referred to as a 12:00 or Top view.

The LCD viewing angle is the angle formed on either side of the bias angle, where the contrast of the display is still considered acceptable. Generally, this contrast is specified as 2:1 for monochrome LCD and 10:1 for color LCD.

For example, assume the display is a 12:00 (topview) type. When the display is viewed from 25 degrees above the vertical, it will be at its maximum contrast and best look. If the viewer moves their eyes further above the display by an additional 30 degrees, they will see a contrast reduction, but the display will still be readable. Moving the view position any further above the display will reduce the contrast to an unacceptable degree.

Adjusting the contrast voltage, VL, effects the Bias Angle to some extent, but not the Viewing Angle. A top view 12:00 display can be optimized for a bottom view 6:00 viewing position by adjusting the contrast voltage. A 12:00 display set for a 6:00 viewing position will not have as great a contrast as a 6:00 display set for 6:00 viewing position and vice versa.

Generally, displays are optimized for straight-on viewing. Either a 6:00 or 12:00 module may be used, and the contrast voltage can be adjusted slightly to optimize the display for that viewing position. In the above example, the viewing angles of both 6:00 and 12:00 modules actually overlap the perpendicular (or straight on) viewing position.

The LCD is positioned at the nominal viewing position and the pot is adjusted to obtain the desired LCD appearance. The voltage on the VL pin is now measured and a pair of resistors are chosen to produce this voltage in the production units.

By adjusting driving voltage and contrast is the most cost-effective way to improve the viewing angle. Different viewing angles need different driving voltage. It is compromising. In discussing the best viewing angle, we have to fix the voltage angle first.

– The higher the efficiency, the better of the contrast. It is especially important for negative display. Changing from 98% to 99.9% polarizer will do the work.

– Positive LCD to Negative LCD (When the LCD is used indoor or dark environment, the contrast will increase a lot, but it will not display well with ambient light only, it is also more expensive)

When a LCD is high density with the segments/icons or very crowded, some customers also complains the viewing angle or contrast are not good. The reason is for crowded display, the layout can be long and thin. The voltage drop along the layout can be big. The solutions are:

Want to find out more about LCD, OLED & TFT solutions? – Check out our knowledge base, where ypu can find tips on electronics operating temperature and differences between LCD and TFT!

In this episode of the Display 101 series, we explain the viewing angle of smart displays. How to choose the right viewing angle for your project? Read on to get the answers.

This concept is closely related to the grey scale inversion phenomenon. When the user exceeds a certain angle (monitor viewing angle), one can note a sudden change in displayed colors. It mainly emerges with the grey color’s domination in the displayed image.

The viewing angle monitor has is measured from the display’s normal axis to each of the four directions. Theoretically, the maximum LCD view angle is 90° and might vary for each measuring direction. The three-dimensional angular range is called a viewing cone.

TN type is the most cost-efficient technology. In TN type the angles are in most cases narrower, compared to other types.  Low prices and short matrix reaction time compensate for the smaller viewing cone. To extend the monitor viewing angle, you can add theO-film to the display. When buying a TN-type display you should always pay attention to the viewing direction expressed in an hour angle. It describes the direction from which the user should look at the display.

IPS matrix technology has most of VA’s advantages. It also has incredibly good color reproduction and the highest viewing angles on both axes. The most common IPS disadvantage is the black color depth which is lower than in the VA type.

If the application requires a high viewing angle monitor, choose the display with full viewing angles (178.5°~180° on each axis). In this case, you should look for MVA and IPS type displays.

NOTE: Do not mistake the viewing direction with greyscale inversion. Greyscale inversion is always opposite to the viewing direction. For example, the 12 o’clock display will have a color inversion at 6 o’clock.

The in between solution is the TN type with viewing angles extended by adding O-film. We described the O-film solution in one of the earlier articles:

We hope you enjoyed this post from the Display 101 series. If you would like us to explore a particular topic in this series, send us a message or comment on our social media.

A TN or Twisted Nematic TFT LCD is a cost-effective high performance LCD. It offers good brightness performance and fast response times. However, it suffers in one key area and that is its viewing cone. TN LCD’s typically have three good viewing angle directions. In these directions the image is typically clear and colors are consistent up to 80 degrees from the center of the LCD. The remaining viewing direction is usually good through 40-50 degrees from center. Afterwards, the image is likely to invert, almost appearing like an x-ray.

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Industrial displays are a very important device for marketing in any given environment. Its quality and reliability are hinged on the design employed. Despite the fact that both are used for display, the criteria for industrial displays are higher than those for consumer displays.

Hence it is important to partner with a high-tech industrial display solutionexpert who will supply you with the product that suits your application scenes.

Updated: Oct 28, 2019:Despite all the advances in LCD display technology viewing angle is still an important topic, panel viewing angles are still poor, good, better and best, but none are 100% perfect.

The viewing angle of an LCD panel is typical given based on the normal aspect ratio which is generally landscape for the types of LCD panels we work with. It is quoted for both horizontal and vertical in degrees from perpendicular to the display or as a total of left & right and up & down. So for example the newer IPS panels now claim up to 89 degree viewing angle from perpendicular for both horizontal and vertical.

Specifications are no replacement for actually seeing and evaluating an LCD panel, the reason is that there can be characteristics that the specifications don’t mention. For example I have seen an LCD panel with excellent viewing angle specifications but when testing it I could see a color shift at around 45 degrees from perpendicular.

Further to the previous point, even though LCD panel specification may quote H (horizontal) & V (vertical) viewing angles the performance in portrait model may be quite different to landscape mode.

I realize not every application needs or even suits having a wide viewing angle. Digital signage displays clearly benefit from a wide viewing angle if used in a poster or menu board but some overhead information displays need a good 6 o’clock viewing angle, ie when viewed from below, but the 12 o’clock viewing angle may not be critical.

IPS panels have had quite a few years of being a leading technology for excellent viewing angle with not only impressive specifications but genuinely excellent results. More recently companies like AUO have been showing panels with a new technology that appears to provide not only equivalent viewing angles but also excellent color fidelity over the range of viewing angles.

At this time the viewing angle of a LCD panel is not a tunable setting, it is a fixed part of the LCD panel design. Filters can be added by reworking the panel or adding to the front but these will typically limit rather than extend the viewing angle.

I was in a large computer store looking at computer LCD monitors and a lady was asking about which one was the better one to buy. A man (presumably her family) told her that the ones which indicated TFT (Thin Film Transistor) were the ones to buy. I then interjected that everything was TFT and it"s been that way since the extinction of those ugly STN passive matrix LCDs 8 years ago they use to sell with the cheaper laptops. Of course this invariably invited more questions as to which LCD was the better buy and better quality so I spent a few minutes showing them some of the shortcomings to many of these displays.

The first thing I noted was the poor viewing angle of every LCD on the display with the exception of a single model. To see this in effect, simply lower your head a few inches in front of the monitor and you will see the brightness of the entire display dim dramatically. Looking at the display from the bottom makes the image almost darken to the point of being black with some weird hues showing. Many of these displays don"t even look right when viewed at a slightly down angle since the color will change drastically. Case in point, look at the photos below of a typical LCD monitor which uses the most common TN (twisted nematic) technology.

What"s extremely frustrating is that the manufacturer claims that this display has a vertical viewing angle of 160 degrees. Yet the image above came from a photograph shot at 50 degrees above and below which indicates a 100 degrees spread. If we wanted to be extremely generous, we could say that the top-down view pictured bottom left is barely acceptable (it isn"t as far as I"m concerned), but the bottom-up view is flat out atrocious and there is no way in hell you can tell me that"s an acceptable image at this viewing angle.

In reality, the usable viewing angle of this display vertically is about positive 35 degrees to negative 10 degrees at best and that"s being generous. But looking at the vendor specifications, there is no way that you as the consumer would know this when you"re making the purchase. Now I don"t have a problem with the actual specs at the price they"re selling it at, but I do have a big problem with the deceptive advertising.

Only one of the LCD monitors out of about 30 models being shown on the show floor was viewable from all angles and it was most likely using PVA (Patterned Vertical Alignment) technology but it was about 30% more expensive than other displays of comparable size. It looked like something like the image below which is actually quite viewable at any angle. Furthermore, these displays typically offer true 8 bit per color or even 10 bits per color whereas the TN type displays are limited to 6 bits per color.

So the old adage that you get what you pay for holds true when it comes to LCD monitors, but manufacturers need to be honest with their customers. I purposely avoided singling out any single manufacturer because they all do the same thing, but this kind of deceptive advertising needs to stop.

Viewing angle refers to a range of angles where the image displayed on a monitor remains suitable to the user. Generally, all monitors will show an optimum image when you"re sitting near the center of the panel. However, things can quickly go awry when you shift the position of your head left, right, up or down depending on what type of panel your monitor users.

Regarding vertical viewing angles, it"s generally accepted that the center of the display should be somewhere between eye level and thirty degrees below your line of sight. Anything outside those parameters for vertical viewing angles could lead to eye strain. However, every person is different, and depending on your height, desk height and other factors, it might not be possible to hit this "sweet spot" in practice.

With LCD technology used in today"s computer monitors, the horizontal viewing angle typically maxes out at 178 degrees. But almost no one views a monitor at such extreme angles, and monitor manufacturers often fudge the numbers a bit when it comes to this specification. So, for example, two monitors could both be rated with a 178-degree horizontal viewing angle yet exhibit widely different performance which reaching the outer limits of that range.

So, what happens when you reach the edge of the viewing angle cone of a monitor? Depending on the monitor in question, you may see various amounts of brightness drop-off, a decrease in contrast ratio and color shifting. As you can see in the image above, IPS (in-plane switching) panels tend to have less color shifting off-axis than VA (vertical alignment) panels. TN (twisted nematic) panels, a much older technology, tend to be far interior to IPS and VA in both horizontal and vertical viewing angles.

Monitor manufacturers have attempted to compensate for some of these viewing angle deficiencies inherent with curved VA panels, which are popular in the gaming space.

LCD is a backlight display device. The light is provided by the backlight behind the LCD module. When the backlight passes through the polarizer, liquid crystal, and orientation layer, the output light has directivity. That means most of the light is coming straight out of the screen. Therefore, when you look at the LCD from a large Angle, you can’t see the original color, some time even just white or black color can be seen. The Angle (left and right, up and down) at which the original color appears on the screen is called the Viewing Angle of TFT LCD display Screens.

There are different visual effects from different view angle when viewed from the middle and side of the LCD display screen, the intensity of light entering the human eye is different. For the same picture, there is light and dark part, and the contrast is different. With the definition of perspective, the corresponding perspective of the LCD screen is perspective within the acceptable contrast range of human eyes.

As long as the horizontal viewing angle reaches 120 degrees and the vertical viewing angle reaches 140 degrees, the LCD on the market can fit the application needs of most users. The latest LCD screens are made with wide-angle technology, which can reach up to about 150 degrees, reducing the inconvenience caused by the small viewing angle.

There are 3 popular techniques for a wide display viewing angle so far, which are TN+FILM, IPS(in-plane -SWITCHING), and MVA(multi-domain VERTICAL alignment).

Add a layer of wide-viewing angle compensation film. This compensation film can increase the visual Angle to about 150 degrees, which is a simple and easy method and is widely used in LCD.TN+FILM may not be the best solution for manufacturers, but it is the cheapest solution, so most Taiwanese manufacturers use this method to build 15-inch LCDs.

The technology is the LCD panel technology introduced by Hitachi in 2001. The biggest feature of the IPS panel is that its two poles are on the same surface. Since the electrode is in the same plane and the liquid crystal molecules are always parallel to the screen in any state, the opening rate and the light transmittance will be reduced. Therefore, the application of IPS in LCD TV requires more backlights.

The advantage of the IPS panel is high visual Angle, fast response, accurate color restoration, cheap price. However, the disadvantage is that the light leakage problem. And the black purity is not enough, which is slightly worse than PVA. So it needs to rely on the compensation of optical film to achieve better black purity. Compared with other types of panels, the screen of the IPS panel is relatively “hard”, and it is not easy to appear water pattern deformation with a gentle stroke of the hand, so it is called a hard screen.

The idea is to add protrusions to form multiple visible areas. The liquid crystal molecules are not arranged vertically at rest, but horizontally when a voltage is applied, allowing light to pass through the layers. MVA technology improves viewing angles above 160 degrees and provides a shorter response time than IPS and TN+FILM.

In the MVA (multi-domain vertical alignment) display technology, horizontal and vertical viewing angles are wider than those of the first two technologies, and there is basically no blind Angle or bright spot. The viewing Angle is divided into horizontal and vertical viewing angles. The horizontal viewing angle is the viewing range from the center of the vertical central axis to the left and right. The vertical viewing angle is the viewing range from the center of the horizontal center axis to the up and down. Viewing Angle takes “degree” as the unit. Currently, the commonly used annotation form is to mark the total horizontal and vertical range directly, such as 150/120 °. At present, the lowest visual Angle is 120/100 ° (horizontal/vertical), which cannot be accepted if it is lower than this value.

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When customers compare your product with your competitor"s, correctly choosing the LCD viewing direction makes all the difference between a product that looks ‘okay,’ and a product that can grab and hold your customer"s attention. If the display on your product looks sharp, the whole product will look sharp. This can be accomplished at no extra cost simply by understanding how to locate the optimum viewing angle.

LCD display modules are built to provide the sharpest contrast and readability in one of four directions called the ‘the viewing angle’ or ‘optimum viewing direction.’ These four directions follow the format of a clock. With twelve o"clock viewing (12:00) being the top view and six o"clock (6:00) the bottom.

When specifying the best viewing direction for your new design, put yourself in the place of your customer. “From what direction will this display be viewed?” In other words, where will your end user be standing when they use your product?

Whereas a very tall person, say 6’5” or taller, pumping gas into their car, would look down at the LCD display, watching their dollars fly by as they fill up the tank. This would be a twelve o’clock (12:00) or top view.

Two other possible viewing angles include: Three o’clock (3:00 or left side view) and nine o’clock (9:00 or right-side view), however these angles are rarely used, 6:00 view is the default value for 80% of all monochrome displays. So, if you’re not sure which viewing angle to choose, go with 6:00.

There is no cost difference between viewing angles, but for TFT"s there may be a longer lead-time or MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity) than for monochrome displays.