eye-strain

is there anything one can do or buy to put the least amount of strain on the

eyes? while working many hours at a monitor, photoshop, re-touching etc...

Set the refresh rates as high as your video card/monitor combo will allow. This will help.

But the best thing to do is take a break every now and then and just rest your eyes for a few minutes. It'll also give your wrists and rear end a chance to move around.

Apropriate glasses for that job in that environment, means tell your friendly optician the measured eye - screen distance of your workspace, If your chair allows leaning back, measure this distance too.

 

Some people say flat screens are less challenging than CRTs. Are you already in pain or just worrying in general? - Don't visit your optician after getting up. Working or dancing all the night is much better; you(r eyes) should be really tired.

 

There are 2 known policies among eye doctors / opticians: The American approach: you're 20 and studying? - Get them glasses, someday you'll need them. // Conservative European approach: No close up glasses in the functional focusing range of a young eye. - Come back when you're 40+. (This info was gathered 12 years ago.) I avoided the term reading glasses because those would have another layout than those for screen work. I'm no expert. Personally I got reading glasses in my mid 20s and used them 2x per months in average.

 

Giving your eyes a chance to relax at infinity once in a while is a good idea. Rearange your working desk according to that need, have the wall behind your chair and not behind the monitor.

Every 30 minutes or so focus on an object far in the distance for a few minutes. It really helps and can save your vision.

thank you guys. gonzalez, how do i re-set the refresh rate of my video card/monitor combo...? new to all this. no, im not feeling any strain yet - just worried & looking ahead...

Assuming you're on a PC, right-click on your desktop for display properties, go to the settings tab, then click on Advanced. I'm on Windows 2000, but it's probably similar in XP. Then pick the highest refresh rate your monitor will allow, or at least something beyond 70Hz. I have mine set to a relatively conservative 85Hz.

 

This procedure may vary a bit depending on your video card make. You may also be able to adjust it via a utility program from the video card maker. Whatever method you use, just make sure your refresh rates fall into the range specified for whatever monitor you have. Don't exceed them or you could damage your monitor.

LCD screens don't flicker, at least at any refresh rate I've used. I find mine to be very easy on the eyes, and text is much clearer than on a similar sized CRT. You must, of course, use only the native resolution. Aliasing is horrendous if you violate this rule.

 

If anything, LCD screens are too bright, much brighter than a CRT. You can set the luminosity to any value you wish in calibration (e.g., Gretag-MacBeth Eye-One Match software). A CRT is typically 80-90 candella and an LCD is 150 candella or more. I set my Viewsonic VP191 to 120 candella, and keep the room lights up a bit.

 

You should observe other egonomic rules in your workstation layout, such as monitor height, chair height and keyboard position.