A French IT consultant says yes, but productivity experts disagree

Providing employees with 30-in. computer monitors can boost worker productivity at companies where 17- or 19-in. monitors are typically used, according to a French consultant hired for a study sponsored by Apple Computer Inc.

The study, which evaluated Apple’s 30-in. Apple Cinema Display, concluded that large screens can offer gains of up to 50% to 65% in productivity on a variety of specific office tasks and can earn back their extra costs in time savings over several years. The 30-in. display costs $1,999.

But other experts say those conclusions are wrong, arguing that the productivity improvement estimates are too high and that using two monitors side by side would likely be a better productivity booster than one larger monitor. The 40-page study was conducted by Andreas Pfeiffer, principal of Paris-based Pfeiffer Consulting, for Apple, which paid for the research (download PDF).

Pfeiffer looked at a range of computing tasks, from moving data between Microsoft Word and Excel files to image manipulation using Adobe Photoshop. In addition to studying the 30-in. LCD display from Apple, Pfeiffer also did the comparison using a 17-in. Samsung SyncMaster 172x LCD monitor. The Apple monitor has an optimal resolution of 2,560 pixels by 1,600 pixels, compared with 1,280 pixels by 1,024 pixels for the Samsung monitor.

The productivity gains, he said, occur because workers using larger monitors can avoid repetitive tasks such as switching between overlapping application windows. Instead, they can have more windows open side-by-side on a larger monitor.

The time savings are for commonly performed tasks and not meant to indicate overall productivity increases for workers, Pfeiffer said. Using a larger screen will only improve specific tasks where data is moved or manipulated quickly.

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Source: BBC News
By Jonathan Fildes

The devices, known as electrically tunable diffraction gratings, have been built by researchers in Switzerland.

They manipulate light to reproduce the full spectrum of colours on screen, impossible using existing technology.

The team says the devices could also be used to make computer displays with the same resolution as high-end LCDs.

“Today’s displays can only reproduce a limited range of colours,” said Manuel Aschwanden, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and one of the team behind the work.

“The main advantage of this technology is that it can display all colours.”

Blue sky thinking

Existing screen technology, such as TV cathode ray tubes, LCDs and plasma screens, reproduce colours using three lighting elements coloured red, green and blue.

Other colours are created by combining the primary colours. For example, yellow is created by mixing red and green.

To show complex pictures, a display must combine the colours at thousands of individual points across the screen.

Different types of screen do this in different ways. For example, an LCD is divided into thousands of individual pixels, further divided into three subpixels coloured red, green, and blue by filters.

Altering the brightness of each coloured subpixel creates a palette of millions of different shades that can be used to represent most pictures.

Methods like this are unable to reproduce every colour we see in the real world. This is particularly evident when reproducing images of the sky.

“When you take a picture and download it to your laptop the blues are never the same as the real sky,” said Mr Aschwanden.

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Press Release: Minneapolis, MN – Advertisers, agencies and major publishers have reacted favorably to last week’s SWOP certification of CGS Publishing Technologies International’s digital soft proofing system. With solid approvals by the review committee, CGS’ interactive soft proofing system, ORIS Soft Proof, was granted SWOP certification for the 23″ Apple Cinema and the Eizo ColorEdge CG2200 displays.

“SWOP certification of ORIS Soft Proof is an important step. Users can now benefit from a truly integrated soft proof / hard copy proof environment.”
– Lida Jalali Marschke, Color Management Group

The review committee commented favorably on the color quality and gray balance of the ORIS system, which produces color-accurate PDF/X-3 files and distributes them, automatically, to any location in the world. “As print production becomes increasingly global, there is a real need for uniform color in every phase of the process,” said Lida Jalali Marschke, co-founder of the Color Management Group consortium. “Because SWOP is so commonly used in desktop applications, like Adobe Photoshop and Acrobat, SWOP certification of ORIS Soft Proof is an important step in that direction. Users can now benefit from a truly integrated soft proof / hard copy proof environment – both of which can meet SWOP requirements.”

Details of the Certification Process
Both the Apple and Eizo displays were chosen for their color quality and consistency, as well as being preferred by CGS’ major publishing customers. As part of the SWOP certification process, the monitors were calibrated, using GretagMacbeth ProfileMaker and X-Rite MonacoProfiler software.

ORIS Certified Proof was used to measure specific color output from each monitor, to verify that each was capable of achieving the color gamut requirements of the SWOP specification. For visual comparison, a SWOP-certified press sheet was viewed under standard lighting conditions, using a Just Normlicht Image Pro 5000 XL DI viewing booth.

The four-member review committee evaluated both systems on September 29, at a scheduled review session at Arizona State University Polytechnic Campus in Mesa, Arizona. The solid approval of both systems was a consensus decision, based on visual analysis of the display output compared with the SWOP press sheet.

Integrated Soft Proofing Workflow
ORIS Soft Proof differs from other display-based systems, because it is a truly integrated solution. Both hard copy and monitor proofs use the same underlying color management engine. ORIS Soft Proof users have the option to print hard copy, contract-quality proofs at any stage of the process. The PDF-based system uses Adobe Acrobat’s extensive annotation and review tools, which are the de facto standard for digital collaboration.

ORIS Soft Proof PDF/X-3 files are generated automatically by ORIS Color Tuner at the origination site, using an add-on module. The ORIS Soft Proof plugin for Adobe Acrobat is used at the receiving site to verify the proof file, check the color management status and monitor profile, and mark the PDF file as “approved” or “rejected” as a valid soft proof — using a standard Acrobat annotation. The plugin may be distributed free of charge, and the user does not pay a “per-click” or “per-job” fee to view the soft proof.

About SWOP
SWOP (Specifications for Web Offset Publications) is part of IDEAlliance (International Digital Enterprise Alliance), an association of advertising agencies, printers, publishers, and technology partners. The mission of SWOP is to continue to raise the level of publication printing quality by setting forth specifications and tolerances, and by providing specifications for everyone involved in graphic arts workflow. More information can be found on the organization’s web site, www.swop.org.

Source: CNET News
Written By Michael Kanellos

The South Korean electronics giant is expected next week to show off a prototype 40-inch panel made from a single-sheet organic light-emitting diode (OLED). OLED panels consume less power than traditional flat panels because, among other reasons, they don’t require a backlight. OLED displays also offer higher resolution than liquid crystal displays (LCDs). So far, OLED panels have been incorporated into cell phones and other devices with small screens.

Creating television-size panels is considerably trickier, but Samsung has begun to pop out these larger prototypes. Last year, the company showed off a 14.1-inch OLED panel with a resolution of 1,280 pixels by 768 pixels and followed that up with a 21-inch screen capable of high-definition resolution (1,920 pixels by 1,080 pixels).

This latest prototype sports a 1,280-by-800-pixel resolution and a maximum screen brightness of 600 nits (A NIT is a measurement of light in candelas per meter square). The black-and-white contrast ratio is 5,000 to 1. The panel is 2.2 centimeters thick, and it can be fit into televisions that are less than 3 centimeters deep, Samsung said.

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