CRT screens are fast becoming obsolete and are now almost reserved for LCD graphic designers, gamers, and photographic professionals. In fact, their large, heavy size has resulted in them being sent to recyclable bins forever. Nevertheless, their capabilities have surpassed even the most decent-priced graphic LCD or flat panel displays.
Why? Well, the refresh rate, color saturation, brightness balance, and multi-sync capability (having multiple native resolutions) mean they can still meet the needs of high-end digital users. So where do LCD displays lose the theoretical CRT? I’ve already noticed that they take up less desk space, but they don’t flash and flash much less. As a result, eye pressure is significantly reduced.
Liquid crystals were discovered in 1971 and contain a liquid chemical compound that can combine precisely under an electric field. 2 No light can enter by placing rows of liquid crystals in the polarizing filter (same filter used in sunglasses). After applying charges to the liquid crystals, they are excited which is why they are aligned with the polarizing filter.
If the light continues to shine through the layers, only the crystals that are excited allow the photons to pass by and align with the second filter. This is effectively how monochromatic screens were created (basically black and white or on and off). The backlight, which makes up the light source, is a cold sodium cathode tube like a ceiling strip light.
On a color LCD screen, each liquid crystal cell creates each pixel. Each of these three cells has a red, green, or blue filter in front of it. The light passing through the filtered cells creates the colors you see on the LCD. Almost all modern color LCDs use a thin-film transistor (TFT) to activate each cell, also known as an active matrix. The process of making TFT is similar to the process used to make silicon integrated circuits or silicon chips.
Extremely thin insulators, conductors, and transistors must be placed on a glass layer, which turns into the glass below the graphic LCD. TFT LCDs produce sharp, bright images. Previous LCD technologies provided slower, less efficient, and less contrast. This is because the electric field was not distributed directly to the liquid crystal because the TFT layer was not present.
Since LCDs address each pixel individually, they can create sharper text than CRT, which, when poorly focused, obscures the individual pixels that make up the screen image. CRTs soften the edges as well as the graphics, and while this can make it difficult to read and write at very small resolutions, this means that CRTs can blend finesse into photographs more than LCDs.
Also, LCDs have only a “native” resolution, limited by the number of physically generated pixels on the display. If you buy a modern TFT of 15 inches, its native resolution will be 1024×768. Simulating 800 x 600 on this screen will create an image where everything displayed appears to have blurred edges.
Basically, what we are saying in this article is if you are a gamer, artist, or graphic designer then stick to the CRT screen. LCD TFT (Active Matrix) monitors are still reserved for those looking for a small desktop solution for everyday tasks such as word processing and web surfing.