It's time to learn the difference between LCD and CRT monitors. While LCD monitors are the monitor of choice for the average computer user, CRT monitors still have an important place in the world. The average home user generally chooses an LCD monitor for everyday use, but CRT monitors are a great choice for people for whom picture accuracy really matters. How does a CRT stack up with an LCD for your computer use?

CRT: A Graphic Designer’s Dream
CRT monitors are still the monitor of choice among graphic designers, and are equally important in other industries that require accurate and high-performance color rendering. LCD monitors have made huge leaps in technology to close the gap in color quality, but CRTs still remain the top performer, with impressive contrast ratios and color display depth. The other advantage that CRT monitors have over LCD monitors is the ability to scale to various resolutions while still retaining picture quality. LCD monitors still only support a few factory-programmed resolutions, while CRT resolution is much more flexible.

CRT monitors aren’t all beauty and light, however, or LCDs wouldn’t have become the more popular monitor for home use. The most obvious difference is the size of CRT monitors. They’re large and heavy compared to LCD screens. From an energy-efficiency standpoint, CRTs are a poor choice because they consume more energy than LCDs and emit heat, while LCDs are slightly more eco-friendly. While CRTs have their place in the graphic design industry, there’s a reason they’ve been replaced by LCD monitors among mainstream audiences.

LCDs: The Monitor of Today
LCDs were once the monitor of the future, but today they’ve become the typical monitor choice for the average home user. LCD monitors are preferable in many applications, in part, because they reduce eye strain. CRT monitors flash images anywhere from 60-75 times per minute. While this flicker is too fast to consciously register, it does cause eye strain over long periods of use. LCD monitors don’t create this flicker, because they have a fixed pixel display. LCDs also function at lower intensities, barraging the eye with less light than the CRT monitor. LCD screens are ideal for people who do word processing or work in office settings and stare at their monitors for up to eight hours per day.

In addition to their obvious size advantages, sometimes up to 80% smaller than CRT monitors, LCD screens are also more eco-friendly. They consume less energy than CRT monitors, and emit less heat. On the down side, LCDs do not handle colors as well as CRT monitors, and the disadvantage of native resolution when scaling images can be crucial for people who rely on accurate image reproduction. Both monitors have their place in the world, and CRTs are likely to remain popular in the graphic design community until LCD screens can bridge the gap in color reproduction.