Contrast ratio of LCD monitors

On Sep 3, 2:00*am, da...@cs.ubc.ca (Dave Martindale) wrote:

>
> In the case of the printing paper, I don't believe that the contrast
> figures include specularly reflected light. *After all, the paper
> gelatin surface will reflect something like 4% of the incoming light.
> But glossy paper, properly dried on a polished metal plate, gives a nice
> specular reflection and you naturally hold the print *to direct that
> reflection away from your eyes*. *So the black you see is determined by
> the *diffuse* reflectance of the paper with the specular reflection
> removed.
>
> On the other hand, a paint rated as 2% reflectance is likely talking
> about total reflected light, including any specular component.
>
snip
>
> * * * * Dave
Good point. I don't remember if those paper specs even mentioned which
type of reflectance measurement it was. Of course, what people used to
do with glossy prints was hold the print so that the area they were
looking at faced a dark background region. The result made glossy
prints higher contrast than matt ones.

The tests we did on sunshade paints was specular reflectance. The
values I mentioned were kind of averages- the values of course changed
with incidence angle. None were very good for grazing incidence. But
I think most printed papers are similar (though we generally don't
view photos at grazing incidence anyway).

Incidently, with photo print paper the "black" reflectance came from
the emulsion, so no matter how much silver was in there, the topmost
layer of the emulsion had an irrireducible reflectance. I would like
to see a good discussion on the physics of inkjet prints and the
limits to reflectance.

On Aug 30, 11:45 am, "Victek" <Vic...@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> I'm wondering about the contrast ratio spec of new LCD monitors. It varies
> between 1,000 and 3,000 in many cases, but with the screens all lined up and
> displaying images in the store I don't see much difference. Any opinions
> about how much difference this makes in the real world, and how you can
> actually assess the difference?

Many photoshop users find the Apple Cinema LCD dispalys work best,

The basic specs are:

Display colors (maximum) 16.7 million
Viewing angle (typical) 178° horizontal; 178° vertical
Brightness (typical) 300 cd/m2 or 400 cd/m2
Contrast ratio (typical) 700:1
Response time (typical) 14 ms
Pixel pitch 0.250 mm

I find the best deal from Planar model PX 2611w - it works great for
photoshop and everything else except video games.
Lud