Everyone who buys a new computer monitor needs to decide on the best display technology for their uses. This doesn’t just mean the size or resolution of the screen – you also need to decide on the panel type you want to get. That’s especially true for photographers, graphic designers, and anyone who works with color; the wrong decision could mess up the colors you see. This article explains IPS monitors and why you might need one for your work.

A screensaver is a good alternative if you can't turn your display off. For displays that don't need to be ON at all times, it's helpful to let the screen rest when not in use.

Decrease screen brightness whenever possible. More illumination (brightness) requires more current, which reduces LED lifespans.

OLEDs are unique because they don't need a backlight to light up. Each pixel on the display is a self-illuminating LED, so they generate their own light. However, the pixels inevitably lose their brightness over time. The longer an OLED pixel is illuminated, the dimmer it will appear next to lesser-used pixels.

Remember that image burn-in is not reversible and can not be fixed once it happens. Whether it is a scrolling effect, rotating pixels, using a screensaver, or turning off the screen when not in use, it's essential to establish image burn-in preventive measures to help extend the lifespan of your display.

Monitors with better contrast ratios let you discern more details in the dark region of the display, with more tonality in the shadows. This is a big deal for photography and graphic design, where you may be dealing with subtle differences in dark regions of the image.

This TFT display has a USB interface Resistive Touch screen overlay on TFT panel. We designed a connector part no. WWHDMI-00# for option, the customers can use ...

IPSMonitor 144Hz

We know that in some instances, you will require an "always-ON" display, or your display will need to stay ON for extended periods.

We've seen many misleading articles, videos, and guides about "fixing" image burn-in or removing it from a display. Image burn-in is completely irreversible once it occurs on your display screen.

This technique is a lot like rotating the tires on your car. The goal is to distribute the wear across the entire display evenly.

Chances are you've encountered image burn-in and image retention before, but you didn't know which one you were seeing. They both have the same visual effects, so it's easy to mistake them for each other, but there's one key difference: image retention is temporary, and image burn-in is permanent.

This is the information you’ve probably heard if you see a monitor advertising “100% of sRGB color space” or “98% of AdobeRGB colors space” – they’re referring to the subset of colors which they can display. A larger gamut is preferable since it increases the range of colors it can display accurately from your photos (yes, most monitors can’t display all the colors in your photos).

If you want to understand the behind-the-scenes side of how IPS and TN displays work, you first need to have a concept of LCDs in general. LCDs can be complex, but the four components that matter for this discussion are simple: a backlight (or sometimes mirror), a polarizer, a liquid with crystals suspended in it, and another polarizer. The last component is simply the front glass of the screen, although there are other components and layers as well (such as electrodes and rear glass). Take a look at the diagram below for a simplified concept:

I am considering between Dell U2720Q and U3219Q to go with a new Dell 8940 XPS system i9 processor 32GB RAM using an Nvdia 3060 graphics card. Price difference and space are not an issue. I use PS/LR. I am an intermediate level photographer, Which of the two would you recommend? Thanks.

But there are other displays on the market which are “true” LEDs, meaning that each individual pixel is a separate LED. These are a completely different technology that doesn’t have a liquid-crystal component at all. They are often advertised as AMOLED or OLED, and they’re much less common on the market. However, some Samsung Galaxy phones have an AMOLED display, and the upcoming iPhones are rumored to have them as well. As the technology becomes less expensive to produce, we may see it become more common in computer monitors, too.

Because TN panels are less expensive than IPS monitors, it’s no surprise that they are more common. If you bought a desktop computer that shipped with a free monitor, it’s almost certainly TN. The same is true if you bought most laptops, aside from the higher-end options.

Truly crystal-clear displays of phone with ips display are available covering various brands and models such as the Samsung Galaxy Edge 2, OnePlus 7T, Samsung ...

Before you assume your screen has burn-in damage, try these tips and wait to see if it's just image retention. Image retention is a harmless and common occurrence on many screens.

Image

IPSMonitor 32 inch

If you want to display a larger subset of colors (gamut), IPS is the way to go. Although there are no monitors on the market capable of displaying the entire gamut of colors humans can see, good IPS panels get you closer than TN.

We have already written an article on monitors we recommend for photography, all of which have IPS panels. In short, for high-end applications, two of the best brands are NEC and EIZO, particularly when it comes to uniformity. But you can also find good monitors from Dell and other companies if the price is a priority. Because IPS monitors range in price from a couple of hundred dollars to several thousand, there are options available regardless of your budget.

Image burn-in can not be fixed, repaired, or reversed; once it happens, the display screen will suffer from continual image quality degradation.

TN panels also have more minor benefits over IPS panels, which may matter for your particular use. On one hand, they tend to have lower power consumption, making them useful for laptops. They also tend to be brighter at their maximum, which you may prefer if you work in an area with lots of light. You might also find other benefits on a monitor-by-monitor basis.

By putting color filters over each pixel (red, green, or blue – RGB) and making the pixels small enough, the monitor can then give the appearance of full color by varying the voltages applied to each part of the LCD.

Shenzhen Oric Electronics Co., Ltd. is engaged in liquid crystal display LCD) and liquid crystal display module (LCM) research and development, ...

Get those pixels moving! The longer a pixel stays activated in a static position, the closer it gets to being burned in. You can exercise your screen's pixels with scrolling text, moving images, or changing colors.

Image burn-in, also referenced as screen burn-in or ghost image, is a permanent discoloration of sections on an electronic display caused by increasing, non-uniform use of the screen.

After showing a static image for long periods of time, the crystals in a liquid crystal display become weaker to move, and have more difficulty turning from the fully "ON" position to the fully "OFF" position

I'm Spencer Cox, a landscape photographer based in Colorado. I started writing for Photography Life a decade ago, and now I run the website in collaboration with Nasim. I've used nearly every digital camera system under the sun, but for my personal work, I love the slow-paced nature of large format film. You can see more at my personal website and my not-exactly-active Instagram page.

A term that refers to the number of pixels on a display or in a camera sensor (specifically in a digital image). A higher resolution means more pixels.

On Photography Life, you already get world-class articles with no advertising every day for free. As a Member, you'll get even more:

If you ever get the opportunity, run a complete power cycle on your display. This will reset pixels and help avoid burn-in.

Image

Then again, the advantage here is not as much today as it was in the past. IPS monitors are catching up to TN in terms of refresh rate. Plus, given the color reproduction and viewing angle benefits of IPS monitors, many people are starting to prefer them for gaming applications anyway. The better option overall depends upon your personal priorities.

When pixels fail to activate or deactivate entirely, it results in faded images that won't clear from the screen. This is common in applications using character LCDs where the alphanumeric characters are updated less frequently.

As you probably gathered, you cannot have an IPS panel when your display doesn’t even have liquid crystals, so no, there are no IPS AMOLED/OLED displays.

Displaying a static image on a display for an extended period of time can cause the image or text to be visible even when the displayed image is changed or turned off. The residual static image or text will appear to be “burned” into the display and is still visible when other images or text is displayed on the screen.

If you have any questions about IPS monitors or other panel technology, feel free to ask below! Also, you may want to look at the following articles on Photography Life, which cover many more technical details about monitor technology and calibration (also crucial if you want accurate colors):

So, should you get an IPS monitor? It depends upon the work you’re doing. For anyone in the field of visual art, it is all but essential. Personally, as a photographer, IPS is the only panel technology I would use right now (or a variant – there are many, all of which generally go by the moniker “IPS”). It simply is the best way to get accurate colors that show, as much as possible, how your image really looks. And if your budget is limited, you don’t need to get one of the most expensive IPS panels, either. Even the lower-end options can be quite good, certainly with better colors than similarly priced TN displays.

The term burn-in dates back to when old monitors using phosphor compounds that emit light to produce images lost their luminance due to severe usage in specific display areas.

Calibration is important regardless of the gamut of your display. It’s always best practice to re-calibrate yearly because any monitor can fade over time, not just Adobe RGB.

Truly high-end IPS displays can cost thousands of dollars. These products tend to have greater resolution and a larger color gamut (capable of displaying a wider range of colors), among other improvements in image quality or features. This includes things like better uniformity, backlighting technology, built-in calibration tools, a larger screen size, and so on.

If you’re familiar with polarizing filters in photography, you may have a good idea of where this is going. Quite simply, when you put two polarizers on top of one another (the second one flipped) and rotated perpendicular, little to no light passes through. If the same two polarizers are rotated to be parallel, light passes through just fine. This, in fact, is how vari-neutral density filters work (see our filter article).

These benefits don’t really matter for photography and graphic design work, since you generally aren’t dealing with fast-moving objects on the screen, and it’s not a big deal if you have a slight amount of ghosting. But it can be important to other applications, especially fast-paced gaming, where a long response time or refresh rate can be annoying.

Image retention, also known as ghosting or image persistence, is the temporary effect of images remaining visible on LCDs or OLEDs for a short period, usually a few seconds.

“If color accuracy isn’t as important to you, and you want a less expensive monitor (or one with higher specs for a given price), IPS is the way to go.” Really?

Image retention will fade away, but there are some tips you can use to speed up the process. Simple actions like using a screen saver, cycling various graphics on the screen to exercise the pixels, and powering off the display whenever possible will help clear the image retention on your display.

IPS monitors often cost more than other panel technologies. This is especially true compared to TN monitors. If you want a desktop IPS monitor, the typical price range for a lower-end option is around $300 new, sometimes lower or higher depending upon size.

By default, the crystals in this layer are oriented in a particular way that either rotates light from the first polarizer or doesn’t (it depends upon the monitor technology). Here’s the key: When voltage is applied to the crystals, they change their orientation to rotate light in the opposite of their resting state.

Image burn-in affects all screen displays, including LCDs and OLEDs in mobile phones, monitors, wearable devices, televisions, and all electronic devices with a display screen. This article will cover everything you need to know about image burn-in and ways to mitigate it.

In the example below, you'll notice a faded permanent impression of the text left behind on the LCD screen after the display is turned off.

20151228 — LCD vs. TFT vs. TN vs. IPS vs. LED vs. OLED vs. AMOLED vs. Super AMOLED vs. Plasma vs. MVA vs. PVA monitor ; k1114. Titan. May 2, 2010. 14,239.

However, although this is a natural question to ask, it requires more specificity in order to answer. What do you mean by LED? Are you referring to any screens that are advertised as LED, or specifically to the “true” LED displays – frequently called AMOLED/OLED displays – where each pixel itself is an LED, that are much rarer and found on fewer products today?

Different screen manufacturers advertise their “contrast ratio” for a particular display – something like 1:1000. Those numbers aren’t comparable across brands, and they don’t really matter when you’re buying a monitor. However, that doesn’t mean the concept of contrast ratio is useless.

IPSMonitor 27 inch

Given that we have only talked about IPS monitors so far within the context of LCD screens, some people may wonder if IPS technology is also possible with LED (light-emitting diode) displays. After all, LED monitors are becoming more and more popular these days, both for phones and desktop monitors.

Here at Hitaltech, we stock a range of PCB pin header and PCB socket connector solutions to meet the exacting demands of a variety of industrial ...

When LCD or OLED pixels stay activated in a static position, they'll eventually become "stuck" in that position. When this happens, you'll notice a faded, stubborn image that persists on the screen.

PL provides various digital photography news, reviews, articles, tips, tutorials and guides to photographers of all levels

Image burn-in is caused by screen pixels that stay activated in a static position for long periods of time. Think of a TV in a lobby or waiting area that's always playing the same news channel. The news channel footer and logo get burned into the screen permanently, even when you change the channel.

If a power cycle isn't an option, you can use the display ON/OFF command to turn off the display. Alternatively, you can put the display into sleep mode while retaining the display data in RAM.

If a static image stays on an OLED display long enough, the pixels will leave a shadow behind the previous image, even when the display shows something completely different.

Great article Spencer, thank you. I bought an ASUS IPS sRGB Monitor last fall and I am very happy with the performance. One aspect of your review that might benefit from a little more explanation is the color gamut selection and the difference between Adobe RGB and sRGB given the price difference between the two. In researching the two options for colour reproduction the difference appeared to me to come down to one overriding factor, calibration. If you want the larger colour gamut using Adobe RGB be prepared for yearly calibration whereas sRGB comes factory set and in theory will not need re-calibration. The ASUS can be manually calibrated if required, I am not sure if other manufacturers provide this option. For me I was willing to sacrifice a larger colour gamut so I would not need to re-calibrate yearly, others with more technical prowess might not find this an issue.

Even the most advanced displays will experience burn-in at some point, but there are some simple actions you can take to extend your screen's lifespan before burn-in occurs. With the proper practices, you can get years of outstanding performance from your display without any burn-in effects.

IPS monitors have another major benefit over other options on the market: They can reproduce 8-bit color (256 shades of each primary color) naturally, without blending 6-bit colors (64 shades per primary color) for the same effect, as TN monitors generally do. To define it precisely, they can achieve 8-bit color, or sometimes more, without dithering. Dithering means that your display places two “almost correct” pixels adjacent to one another to give the illusion of correct color.

IPSmonitor vs VA

Hopefully, this article gave you a good understanding of IPS monitors and whether or not you need one for your own work. The simple takeaway is that photographers, designers, and other users who value maximum color accuracy will want an IPS monitor. If color accuracy isn’t as important to you, and you want a less expensive monitor (or one with higher specs for a given price), TN is the better option.

Just like with refresh rates, this is something that IPS monitor manufacturers are constantly improving. However, I can say from personal experience that the two low-end IPS monitors I’ve owned (both in the sub-$300 range) did exhibit some areas of glow, and it seemed to get worse over time.

For an OLED display, decreasing the contrast will lower the brightness and reduce the rate of image burn. More illumination (brightness) requires more current, which reduces OLED pixel lifespans.

However, if maximum color accuracy isn’t really important to your work, an IPS monitor may be overkill. And, for some applications, you may even prefer a TN monitor instead, since it has its own set of advantages. We’ll cover those below.

This round goes to TN panels, which don’t experience the issue to nearly the same degree. Screen glow poses a bigger problem to fields like photography and design, but the problem isn’t so large that it should sway those users away from the IPS panel. Instead, if it fits your budget, just get a higher-quality IPS display – one with minimal potential for glow.

Most of the time, these guides explain how image retention works and how you can speed up its recovery process. We want to clear up any confusion you might have about image burn-in and image retention on LCD and OLED displays.

IPSGaming Monitor

With lower-end IPS monitors, it is very common to see something known as “IPS glow.” This is when the backlight behind the IPS panel is brighter in some areas than others, generally along the edges of the screen.

The result of burn-in looks the same on all screen types, but the way it occurs on LCDs and OLEDs is slightly different.

The minimum magnetic field required to operate a relay remains constant (being a design feature), as the temperature rises and the available current to generate ...

On mobile phones for example, image burn-in can be caused by the permanent static postion of the battery, wifi and service signal icons.

The big deal with IPS monitors is color. If you care about color accuracy – not just coming close to getting things right, but absolute color precision as much as possible – IPS is the way to go. That’s the case for a few reasons:

TN panels are pretty bad in this respect. If you look at the monitor from the top, bottom, or sides, the colors will start to change, and may even invert completely! The screen also changes in brightness as you move, sometimes even small movements. This can make it tricky to know when you’re actually looking at the image how it is meant to be seen, leading to inconsistencies if you’re working with photos or other digital art.

Well thank you, Martin – I do always appreciate when readers like you find errors or typos that can be fixed! It helps make Photography Life as good as it can be.

IPSGaming Monitor 1440p

It’s important to make this distinction. Often, you’ll see regular computer monitors that have LED backlights rather than traditional CCFL backlights (cold cathode fluorescent lights). Although these still tend to be higher-end monitors, they’re not fundamentally different from what we’ve talked about so far. It should be no surprise that you can have an IPS panel even when your monitor backlight is LED.

Their fundamental design is quite similar, as we will cover later, but the differences are enough to put these two types of monitors into very different segments of the market. Although photographers and graphic designers generally prefer IPS monitors, general users and gamers often prefer TN panels instead. Which one is better for you? Here are some of the main advantages of each.

The real question, though, is whether we’re capable of seeing the differences. Although that depends upon the particular monitors in question, it certainly can be visible in some cases, particularly in gradients of color. 8-bit monitors simply tend to look smoother. But keep in mind that this varies on a screen-by-screen basis, and you may find some 8-bit IPS monitors that also have bad color gradients.

Before going into too much detail about the inner workings of IPS and TN displays, please note that monitors are more complex than the information found below, which is meant as an introduction rather than a comprehensive explanation. Still, this outline should help you conceptualize what’s happening at a deeper level with both types of panel technology. (If you want a deeper read, check out PC World’s explanation of monitor technologies.)

20071122 — With your camera, you can shoot while viewing a real-time image on the camera's LCD monitor. This is called Live View shooting.

These are the same tricks you'll see advertised as a "cure" for image burn-in, but don't be fooled. There's no fix for burn-in, only ways to prolong it from happening.

While LED has an excellent array of colors that it can produce, the difference in diode technology between it and an OLED allows the OLED display to create a ...

IPSMonitor 4K

This is where light and dark pixels come from. A single backlight shines through the whole panel, and your computer applies a voltage to individual parts of the monitor. This changes the orientation of crystals suspended in liquid. Lastly, depending upon the monitor technology you’re using, this change in orientation leads the light to rotate and pass through the second polarizer unimpeded – or to be blocked by the second polarizer instead.

Did you know? Screensavers derive their name from their original purpose, which was an active method of attempting to mitigate screen burn-in.

However, this doesn’t mean that all screens, or even a majority today, are IPS. Standard desktop computer monitors tend to have less expensive TN panels instead (“twisted nematic”). And televisions often have VA monitors (“vertical alignment”) which can display dark tones with more detail. In short, although many displays on the market are IPS, it is not the only technology available.

To truly understand what an IPS monitor is, you have to dig into some details about how they’re built and manufactured. We’ll cover that later. To start, here is a more general definition that will help you learn the basics:

Right now, many products on the market have IPS panels, and the number is only growing. For example, most Apple products today include them, from phones to iPads to laptops. Although there are many reasons why companies want to produce IPS displays, the most important is simply screen quality.

LCDs don’t actually rotate the two polarizers. That would not be possible, since both are large sheets the size of your monitor – and they would need to be rotated on a pixel-by-pixel basis for any image to appear. Instead, they do something clever: They have a very thin layer of liquid with crystals between the two polarizers, and a voltage applied to the crystals can change their orientation.

Suitable, perhaps. It would be better than a non-IPS monitor of a comparable price. However, it is about the least expensive IPS display you’ll find, and it is meant to be a TV. I’ve never used one, but those two factors lead me to believe that it will not be an ideal display if you want a large color gamut, color uniformity, no light leaks, good contrast, and so on. And you’ll certainly want to calibrate it, as I suspect the defaults will not be very accurate.

IPS monitors aren’t perfect in this respect – they also can change when viewed from the sides – but they’re much better. It takes far more extreme angles for IPS panels to shift colors dramatically; typical IPS monitors claim about 178 degrees of viewing freedom in all directions (though you’ll still want to be centered to minimize whatever shifts there may be).

For a LCD display, lowering the contrast will put less stress on the liquid crystals and will help to reduce the rate of pixels becoming weak, or sticking.

IPS monitors almost always have better contrast ratios than comparable TN panels, even though newer TN panels are catching up. And the third type of display, VA monitors, often have the best contrast ratios of all (again, why they’re so common for televisions) – but they aren’t generally as good for color accuracy, so photographers tend to stick with IPS instead.

If the images fade away after a short time, you are dealing with temporary image retention. If the images stay permanently, you are dealing with image burn-in.

29 Jun 2023 — This article provides the structure and basic introduction of the LED display. Compared with LCD displays, LED displays have self-illumination ...

Although the end of this article has a more technical explanation of IPS monitors, the definition above is the most important thing to know. Once you understand it, read on to figure out if you need an IPS display for yourself.

IPSdisplay vs LED

Image retention doesn't require any intervention from the user to make it go away – it'll do that by itself. Retention will often occur before burn-in does on newer display technology like our TFTs and our new IPS displays.

IPS panels definitely have their share of benefits, but TN panels have some as well. In fact, they’re far more popular on the market, at least for most uses today – especially non-color-sensitive applications. Here are the most important reasons why:

Image

Remember: There's no way to remove or reduce burn-in after it occurs. If a stubborn image persists for extended periods or after restarting your display, you're likely dealing with image burn-in.

Of course, the price comes into play here again. IPS monitors can add a significant cost to your overall setup if you have a multi-monitor system, especially if you buy higher-end options with a fast refresh rate.

Although you may be tempted to get an IPS monitor if your budget allows, keep in mind that the lower price of TN panels means you can get bigger, higher-resolution monitors without spending a fortune. If it’s a choice between a large 4K TN panel or a smaller 1080p IPS panel, which would you choose? Personally, for photography, I would prefer a smaller IPS panel in this scenario – but if you don’t use your computer for color-sensitive applications, TN panels tend to offer a much better value.

Historically, one of the advantages of TN panels over IPS panels has been their refresh rates – the number of times per second in which the display refreshes its image. They also tend to have faster response times, the time it takes for a given pixel to change shade as quickly as possible (usually measured from gray-white-gray or black-white-black).