Eye-Strain on LCDs is a Myth (or missunderstood)

[schmolch]

Eye-strain is not caused by the fact that a screen is backlit.
A Paper-Book shines light into your eyes the same way, by reflection.

Eye-Strain is caused by:
- too much brightness. Your screen should not be much brighter than your Surroundings.
- other bright Light-Sources in your viewing area. Bright Lights should be above you or behind you and shine straight down only. Look at Office-Lights, they have Grid-Reflectors for this reason.
- Wrong Distance to monitor. If you have read alot of Books, your eyes might have permanently adjusted to this small Distance for reading (thus the eye-glasses to correct this) and reading at a bigger distance requires eye-muscle work and those get tired quickly causing the sensation of eye-strain.

Eye-strain is always a muscle-issue, there is nothing else in your eyes that could cause this sensation.

I had huge eye-strain issues myself and even gave up Desktop-PCs completely (Laptops were fine) until i noticed the importance of all these 3 Factors.

[searcher]

Eye-Strain on LCDs is a Myth

It is a dirty apple propaganda.

People that claim this should be jailed for 10 years in Guantanamo.

It's the same as to say that cigarettes doesn't cause cancer.

[schmolch]

Originally Posted by searcher

It is a dirty apple propaganda.

You failed at your own little joke. It would be propaganda from the other side, the e-ink manufacturers.

People that claim this should be jailed for 10 years in Guantanamo.

You should consider the art of reasoning, animated GIFs are not a appropriate substitute.

[searcher]

Originally Posted by schmolch

You should consider the art of reasoning, animated GIFs are not a appropriate substitute.

Lies makes me angry. Especially lies against human health.

[schmolch]

Lies makes me angry. Especially lies against human health.

So your argument is

a.) it is a lie

which is accredited and made even worse by the fact that

b.) it is a lie against human health

Now i understand your point.
I want to thank you for your bright contribution to this topic and remain respectfully.

Next?

[Tamara]

Originally Posted by schmolch

Eye-strain is not caused by the fact that a screen is backlit.
A Paper-Book shines light into your eyes the same way, by reflection.

Eye-Strain is caused by:
- too much brightness. Your screen should not be much brighter than your Surroundings.
- other bright Light-Sources in your viewing area. Bright Lights should be above you or behind you and shine straight down only. Look at Office-Lights, they have Grid-Reflectors for this reason.
- Wrong Distance to monitor. If you have read alot of Books, your eyes might have permanently adjusted to this small Distance for reading (thus the eye-glasses to correct this) and reading at a bigger distance requires eye-muscle work and those get tired quickly causing the sensation of eye-strain.

Eye-strain is always a muscle-issue, there is nothing else in your eyes that could cause this sensation.

I had huge eye-strain issues myself and even gave up Desktop-PCs completely (Laptops were fine) until i noticed the importance of all these 3 Factors.

Exactly .

People easily get sucked into myths. Another one that comes to mind is the megapixel myth.

[TallMomof2]

I'll tell my eyes that eyestrain from backlit screens is a myth.

Meanwhile, I'll avoid reading on backlit screens both handheld and monitors because my eyes believe the myth.

In other words, I can tell the difference and will stick with non-backlit screens for most of my reading.

[dadioflex]

Edit.

[Madam Broshkina]

Here is an article from the New York Times titled:

Do E-Readers Cause Eye Strain?

A couple of quotes:

Professor Alan Hedge, director of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Laboratory at Cornell University, said that reducing eye fatigue is less a matter of choosing a specific display than of taking short breaks from looking at the screen.

“The new LCDs don’t affect your eyes,” Mr. Taussig said. “Today’s screens update every eight milliseconds, whereas the human eye is moving at a speed between 10 and 30 milliseconds.”

Read the whole article here:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/0...se-eye-strain/

[kad032000]

I vastly prefer e-ink devices for leisure reading, but it has nothing to do with eye-strain.

I think people confuse the different feelings they get from e-ink and back-lit screens as strain.

An avid reader who is used to paper books will feel different when they read on a back-lit screen. Paper isn't back-lit so they feel more comfortable reading on something that isn't back-lit, simply because it's familiar.

When I read on an e-ink device I will often "forget" that I am not reading a paper book. When e-ink first came out, several people would make comments about how they would find themselves attempting to turn a page instead of clicking a button.

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by schmolch

Eye-strain is not caused by the fact that a screen is backlit. <snip>

The net effect is that a reflective screen in good light will effectively never cause eyestrain, which is simply not true with LCD's.

Anyway, why did you feel this needed another thread?


Madam Broshkina - Except for the minor fact that eyes do NOT refresh in a linear manner. Actually, pushing CRT refresh rates much above 100Hz causes a "shimmering" effect for many people.

[Kemp]

I think that my issue is that when staring at a backlit screen, I focus very intently and forget, on occasion, to blink as often as I should.

[kad032000]

Originally Posted by kad032000

I vastly prefer e-ink devices for leisure reading, but it has nothing to do with eye-strain.

I think people confuse the different feelings they get from e-ink and back-lit screens as strain.

An avid reader who is used to paper books will feel different when they read on a back-lit screen. Paper isn't back-lit so they feel more comfortable reading on something that isn't back-lit, simply because it's familiar.

When I read on an e-ink device I will often "forget" that I am not reading a paper book. When e-ink first came out, several people would make comments about how they would find themselves attempting to turn a page instead of clicking a button.

This is somewhat of a leap in logic, but it certainly wouldn't surprise me that people would feel (often subconsciously) more stressed (easily confused with eye-strain) when reading a book on a back-lit screen for a variety of reasons:
(1) Using a back-lit device for an unfamiliar purpose
(2) Doing something familiar on an unfamiliar device (converse of 1)
(3) They retain the "computer" mindset when looking at a "computer" screen (i.e. the feeling that you need to be doing several different things at once)

[schmolch]

@TallMomof2

i want everyone to read comfortably, but ask yourself what is the difference between Backlights and reflected Sunlight.

If its not the "Nature" of the light, then it must be something else, and the only differences i can see are these:

- Reflected Light can not gain Intensity (-> lower Brightness)
- E-Readers are much closer to the eyes than typical LCDs (-> adjust distance)
- avoid additional eye-strain (muscle-fatigue) from other Light-Sources (tightening the iris is additional muscle-work for the eye, thus the muscles get tired even quicker)

It would be interesting to know if those who suffer from eye-strain also dislike too much sunlight. I do.

[schmolch]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

Anyway, why did you feel this needed another thread?

Because i have not seen anyone mention the importance of Distance or the surrounding Light.