Best monitor for text clarity

[hedrl00]

I've spent hours trying to find an evaluation of 20-24" monitors by text clarity - and found nothing.... I don't care about gaming or photo/color capabilities - I spend hours editing text and need a new monitor! Thanks

 

[PhilFrisbie]

Just about any new monitor will be good at text as long as you use the native resolution.

 

[hedrl00]

Budget up to $500 or so... spend hours a day staring at it so want something easy on the eyes.... I've searched for terms like "cad" "word processing" "text" etc. all over the web and can't find an evaluation on those criteria.

 

[PhilFrisbie]

I've searched for terms like "cad" "word processing" "text" etc. all over the web and can't find an evaluation on those criteria.

Again, that is because any LCD monitor will do a good job displaying text as long as you use the native resolution.

 

[hedrl00]

Appreciate the point, but not all monitors are equal with regard to text if "run at native resolution"....

I'm looking for recommendation of model, etc. from folks that have evaluated against that criteria - which no web site I've been able to find has.

 

[MagicPants]

Apples are good for that because they match up glossy displays and IPS panels.

BenQ has a 27" glossy VA monitor called the EW2730V. It's no good for gaming because it ghosts heavily with fast moving images; and it's no good for photoshop because va panels have poor color consistency.

But it might be good for text for the following reasons:

1) It's 1920x1080 but 27" so text will be larger.
2) It's a glossy screen so Anti Reflective coating won't blur text
3) Va panels have the best black to white (non-dynamic) contrast of any panels.

 

[Guest]

I've spent hours trying to find an evaluation of 20-24" monitors by text clarity - and found nothing.... I don't care about gaming or photo/color capabilities - I spend hours editing text and need a new monitor! Thanks

Hi, my bet would be a VA panel. Mainly because of the non aggressive coating of the screen. An ips panel often have very aggressive coatings that blur text. I have used all kinds of panel, VA, IPS and TN. IPS provide lovely colors but can be a little blurry with text. A TN often look washed out, it lacks the contrast of a VA. I think i would choose a panel at size 24 at most, because a larger panel will get to big a pixelsize and hence make text a little blocky. Good luck. By the way, i have spent many hours behind the screen, writing and reading.

 

[A6AFC-416C-417]

Just about any new monitor will be good at text as long as you use the native resolution.

Not so, infact it is more accurate to say that there are absolutely no monitors on the market suitable for reading text. ZERO MONITORS.

Because we have the IPS family from LG with horrible AG coating which utterly DESTROY any chance you had reading text clearly. This is 2012 and I crap my pants just thinking about this.

Thanks for that major reviewer sites: I wouldn't expect you'd be bribed unless it was so ******* obvious (actually I would, but anyway...)! I blame you and your deep pockets. Without your paid reviews none would buy this junk. How is it that all the major reviewers fail to mention Anti Glare Coating, unless through some between the lines remark, and not dunk every single monitor with a coating that destroys what's beneath it in the garbage can? Clearly it should get -1 as rating, nothing else. And no, that was not a question. It's to obvious to be bothered by an answer. Keep your ridiculous rebutal about some people do not see it. You know what, even more people can see how LG pocket heaps of cash in your trousers and they're not even in your proximity.

Back to topic;
Sure, you might be able to find a good *VA or TN panel, or even an old CRT with nothing else that you'd go insane about...good luck with that. Or why not go hunt for a sony reference monitor for the price of a car, maybe text would be clear on such monitors, but then you'd have to compromise with a very low resolution. Hmm, maybe 2K traffic control monitors from Eizo would do, 20.000 euro but how to buy one? I can't imagine - in my wildest insanity - that such expensive monitors would present your content obscured by a layer of shimmering *** -- especially if you'd be controlling billions worth of hardware and countless of lifes through it -- but to be safe, please make sure you ask them first and at the slightest lack of clarity regarding the anti glare coating you must come to a full stop and demand any issue of clarity to be written, signed, not to forget stamped multiple times by officials, with a guarantee that you must not pay any return fees at any objections you have regarding the clarity of text.

@admin
OK, let's ban me now and remove this comment, surely it is too inconvenient for somebody to tell it how it is...

 

[MauveCloud]

Not so, infact it is more accurate to say that there are absolutely no monitors on the market suitable for reading text. ZERO MONITORS.

That's going too far. It's possible the anti-glare coating common on IPS monitors interferes with text readability, but I don't know, because I don't think I've used one, but I have used the following screens (listed in reverse chronological order), and found text to be quite clear at native resolution on all of them (especially with subpixel font smoothing):
- Sceptre E320BV-FHDD
- Samsung P2770HD
- Gateway XHD3000
- Samsung 305T
- Westinghouse LCM 22w2
- Samsung 930B
(before that one, I was using CRT)

 

[A6AFC-416C-417]

It's not too far at all, you might find a few examples and I do have few myself, yet it is not relevant because the main bulk of monitors that portray themself as good and perpetuated as good by reviewers are infact not good at all for text. I will only admit that they might be good for judging colors from a far distance, with a remark that they are totally useless judging anything from up close that includs colors or even black/white shades. A far distance basically means you must magnify what ever is displayed by the junk we call monitors today, by about 3200% to match what you'd normally be able to discern using an old fashin CRT monitor. What is there to talk about? Where are the tomatoes?

 

[MauveCloud]

When I have a chance, I will visit a local computer shop and find out if I can see the sparkle/glittering effect myself.

I'll admit that the Dell UltraSharp series that are often praised by reviewers use the LG panels with aggressive anti-glare coatings, but you stated that there are "absolutely no monitors on the market suitable for reading text", implying you refused to admit the existence of budget monitors with milder anti-glare coatings and with glossy panels - that is why I said you were going too far. Searching on prad.de, there are 79 monitors with glossy panels that it has german prices for, including a few IPS panels.

Also, there are ways to reduce or eliminate the anti-glare sparkle, such as by removing the anti-glare coating (though other threads mention that many users have ruined their monitors attempting this, and from what I can tell, this exposes the polarizer layer, because they're removing the coated top plastic rather than just the coating):
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1674033
or by adding something over the anti-glare coating to cancel out the anti-glare effect - this post has a picture showing the effects with clear packaging tape, but there are probably better materials to do this with:
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1036248628&postcount=13

Edit: I haven't found a good online picture for comparing text shown on an anti-glare-coated screen to text shown on a glossy screen, but I found this post with a picture that compares subpixel closeups:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1274622/asus-vg23ah-the-1st-semi-glossy-ips-panel
Also, I looked again at the text closeup photos shown in TFT Central reviews, and even there they don't look as sharp as they claim, and I notice they don't have text closeups in reviews of monitors with glossy panels, such as the Hazro HZ27WB, lending credence to your claim that review sites are being bribed.

Edit #2: I went to Frys, but the monitors they had up on the shelves for display had graphical artifacts from the multiplexer that overpowered any differences due to the anti-glare coating, and the only IPS monitor they had up connected to a single computer was an Asus model, which might have had a milder anti-glare coating than the dell ultrasharp series.