atw: Dopey comparisons of monitors and paper

Michael:
> Consider these differences for starters (Well set
> up monitor versus well printed paper):
>     * Projected light (monitor / screen) versus reflected light (paper).
>   
Of course, the paper is dependent on the brightness and colour of the 
light source.  The monitor will have higher contrast, a major factor in 
legibility.
>     * RGB colour versus CMYK or five colour process.
>   
Yes, RGB can display more colours than CMYK on paper, as you have 
probably noticed when you printed out that gorgeous photo from on 
screen, only to find it looking rather duller and less contrasty on even 
special glossy "photo" paper.
>     * Different resolution: Monitor 72dpi. Paper to and beyond 600dpi.
>   
A typical LCD monitor has a dot pitch of 90 px/in.  On Windows, you can 
use  ClearType which causes each colour in a pixel to be addressed 
individually, raising the pitch to 270 px/in., not far off the 300 dpi 
of the original Apple LaserWriter.  However, we are not talking about 
halftones here, but solid shapes bounded by a continuous curve.  So the 
issue is  "What is the minimum dot pitch required to display an 
apparently step-free curve?"  With antialiasing and 270 px/in., I would 
suggest that is more than adequate.  In fact, I have set my browser to 
use a serif font as default when the page does not specify a font, and 
likewise in Thunderbird, precisely because it is more readable than sans 
serif.
>     * No dot crawl and moiré effect (unless
> deliberate or double scanned) issues with paper.
>   
Pardon?  The only dots crawling on MY screen are some annoying ants that 
have come in out of the currently cold weather.  I hope they go blind.
>     * No colour saturation or brightness / contrast issues
>   
Unlike paper, you can alter the brightness and contrast of a monitor.  
Unfortunately, the brightness/contrast issue with paper is that it 
doesn't have any.   The contrast in a typical outdoor scene is about 100 
000 : 1 compared to about 30 : 1 for paper.  We seem to have evolved 
over the past couple of million years to cope with the former pretty 
well.  And what is the saturation problem?  Oh, do you mean the 
inability of paper to properly render a bright red?
>     * The feel, portability and user friendliness of paper.
>   
I'm guessing you are not referring to toilet paper made from recycled pulp?
>     * No operating system or other hardware /
> software required, except a brain (software /
> CPU) eyes (human Web cams) hands and a suitable light source.
>   
Oh dear, we had better tell the manufacturers of the Kindle, ePaper, and 
various other book substitutes to get rid of the operating system 
immediately.  On the other hand, the monitor holds itself up, leaving 
your hands free to write notes, and it doesn't suddenly kink over in 
your hands like The Age.

And when I pile up windows, sorry, documents, 16 items deep they don't 
fall over like that stack of open books just did.
>     * Taking your laptop to read in the loo could raise some eyebrows.
>   
And not just your eyebrows you dirty little brat!
>     * Few monitors match A4 size and layout.
>   
Yeah, my 22 in. LCD monitor is 297 mm deep (viewable), and 472 mm wide, 
making it equal to  2.25 A4 pages.  Has anybody got any suggestions 
about how to make it smaller, say 210 x 297 mm, like a single sheet of A4.
>     * Paper contains no animated distractions
> (pop up dialogs only tend to occur in pop-up books).
>   
Yeah, I find it much easier to understand how a Carnot cycle (internal 
combustion) engine works by staring at a static diagram in a book.

Regards,
Hedley

--

Hedley Finger

28 Regent Street   Camberwell VIC 3124   Australia
Tel. +61 3 9809 1229   Fax. (call phone first)
Mob. (cell) +61 412 461 558
Email. "Hedley Finger" <hfinger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>




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