- Computer monitor technology has advanced greatly over the years. When Texas Instruments sold its first home computer system in 1979 for over $1,000, you had to buy the monitor separate. The monitor was the largest of its kind at 13 inches and was actually color. Today a standard computer monitor could easily be 17 inches in diameter and, increasingly, is a flat panel monitor. This article will explain how flat panel monitors work.
- Flat panel monitors are also called Liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors. They are composed of two flat pieces of polarized glass. Inside the two pieces is liquid crystal that is backlight. When electrical currents are added to the crystal molecules, they allow certain colors and light to pass through them. They do this by aligning in specific patterns of either "on" or "off, depending on the command. Active matrix displays on an LCD monitor work by only letting the certain pixel rows use capacitors to receive an "on" charge while the others are turned off. A passive matrix display uses a metal grid to charge the crystal pixels, but is rarely used today. There is actually less eye strain when looking at an LCD flat panel since individual pixels, and not rows of pixels, are commanded. This keeps the screen from flickering like you would see in standard cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors.
-
Whether active or passive display, using two sheets of glass with crystals and an electrical charge uses much less weight and gives flexibility to the placement of an LCD monitor. In fact, LCD monitors can be displayed at various angles like portrait and landscape. Wider viewing angles are also possible, since LCD flat panel monitors typically have technology that compensates for color loss that would ordinarily happen when trying to look at the LCD monitor sideways.
LCD flat panel display technology has other advantages over CRT monitors. LCD flat panels are much lighter and consume less energy than CRT monitors (35 watts vs. 100 watts). With no flicker, it's much easier to read text on an LCD.
There are some considerations to LCD flat panel monitors. Whatever resolution you buy is the only one you can view. For example, a 20-inch LCD monitor that has a resolution of 1280x1024 means no matter what you add onto your computer, the resolution won't get any better. There also isn't much improvement in contrast ratio when compared to CRT monitors. And flat panels generally cost more. But if you really desire more space on your desktop and more efficient viewing and energy use, an LCD flat panel may be worth every penny.
