Does it hurt the eyes?

[snipenekkid]

Some have spectulated that eye strain is not soley limited to the current convention wisdom of the mere presence of the backlights in LCD panels. A few folks are now pondering is if this eye strain is a function of DPI and/or PPI. And that the backlight only making the lower pixel density screens more obvious to some people thanks to the increased "dot pitch" (essentially the space between the pixels on the screen.)

Here are some interesting pages detailing the various screen charistics.

• Pixel densities for different devices: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._pixel_density
• How these numbers are calculated: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_density
• Dot Pitch (still relevant but not as oncce upon a time with CRT's: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_pitch
  {Dot pitch vs. pixel pitch gets twitchy as there is a difference between dot pitch and pixel pitch but, there is only so much room and time to comment}
• Definitions of the various screen resolutions and related jargon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_resolution

Interestingly the iPad has roughly the same pixel per inch (PPI) values as my 17" laptop. I have no problem with either display. The iPad screen is about 8%-9% higher than my laptop LCD display. Difference is it has a matte finish panel vs. the über glossy panels on iPads. The matte finish seems to diffuse reflections far better than the reflections visible on super glossy screens like that of the iPad. But in defense of the iPad once there is a nice bight image on the screen the reflections pretty much are a non-factor save for bright overhead or lights behind the user.

Oh, something we all seem to misuse is the word glare when referring to various screens. Yeah, we all do it as what we are seeing is likely better termed a refelection. Glare is a different beast all together.

JSWolf mentions this here in an old 2009 post:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Please do not incorrectly use the term glare to mean reflection. The 600 does not have a glare issue. In fact, the the touch layer diffuses glare more so then a plain Vizplex screen.

What you are doing is using the term glare to mean reflection. And this will cause people who have not seen a 600 to think it has a glare problem when this is in fact, not true.

That is a good point as glare can be a type of reflection so in a way it's fine to use the terms interchangeably but in reality they are different animals as a reflection is not dependent on the intensity of the light emitting from the offending light source or object. Glare refers to an intensely bright light source. But as we all know what's being discussed I doubt it matters. Still I sense it can't hurt to at least be aware there is a difference.

[butterbescotch]

Originally Posted by butterbescotch

Topic Starter

Thanks I pretty much get the idea but I have one more question.
Since I cannot buy an ereader immediately, Can I make any actions to enjoy my reading experience in the PC?

I just wan't to repost. It might not be seen.

[LCF]

f you can read a book all day long, chances are that any eInk device will have the same effect.

[LCF]

Originally Posted by butterbescotch

Topic Starter

Thanks I pretty much get the idea but I have one more question.
Since I cannot buy an ereader immediately, Can I make any actions to enjoy my reading experience in the PC?

• You can adjust the brightness to match the light in the room.
• You can experiment with soft background colors.
• You can get flux, which is a program, that softens or hardens the colors of the screen depending on the time of day. It's definitely improved my reading and browsing experience.
• Use bigger font size, so your eyes don't strain so much.

[butterbescotch]

ED: Oh I think I missed that.

1. I have reduced the brightness to the lowest and it is still bright.
2. How can I do that? And by soft back ground colors do you mean gray?
3. Thanks will check it out.

[LCF]

2. It depends on your reading program.

Coolreader has all colors as background. (drm free epub, fb2, txt and probably more formats).

Adobe kind of sucks, but you can mark all the text, thus making the background around it blue. Might be better, might be worse, you have to see for yourself.

Soft colors are (for me) dark orange, blueish (like the dark blue on this forum), something like that. If the screen is bright, what you want is to actually reduce the contrast between text and background, so it will be easier on the eye (my theory). Grey might also work.

[Caltsar]

When reading on my iPhone or iPad in dark conditions, I like to set the background to black and the text color to a light grey. The biggest issue I have with reading on an LCD is in the dark when the screen can be far too bright. Using darker colors helps to block out most of the light making it more comfortable to read.

[ShooterMcGee]

I personally get headaches when I read too long on anything backlit (desktop monitor, laptop screen, Droid, Blackberry). I do not get headaches from reading on my Sony PRS-350. But I have not tried adjusting color schemes on backlit devices to see if that helps (I'm a lazy person and that sounds like work ).

I also tend to read on backlit during the day (reading docs for work, surfing the net, etc) and usually wear contacts during that time period.

Me + contacts + reading on computer (or playing WoW for hours on end ) = sahara desert eyes

[SlowRain]

I imagine E Ink screens would be pretty easy on the eyes. My phone was a little difficult to get used to at first, but then I set the background color to black and the text to grey. I also have an app called Screen Filter (Android) which lowers my screen's brightness to below the manufacturer's minimum setting. All of these combined make reading on it very pleasant. (However, in bright sunlight, I use a white background and black text with the brightness maxed out)

[raac]

Personally I don't find any of these displays hurt my eyes. That said, I do prefer e-ink. I find reading it more restful.

[OtterBooks]

It hurts the eyes..my preciousss.