[PatrickC]

Hi

I hope I can pick your collective brains please. Firstly can I say I know nothing about graphics design!

My partner who is a graphics designer needs a new monitor to replace her CRT that is dying! From various searches etc I know a lot of people still rate CRT's and to get good colour replication on LCD is difficult. I know she uses pantone charts, sends artwork to printers (brochures / exhibition posters etc) so the colour and quality of the display image needs to be reasonable.

My budget is £500 UK Sterling max ....so for that kind of money should I stick to CRT or go with LCD? And most importantly do you have any product recommendations.

I apologise if this is something that you cover repetitively but I have searched a lot on the web and found very little in the way of monitor reviews aimed at graphics designers / desk top publishing.

Any help / pointers to where to go (for information ) greatly appreciated.

Patrick

[Boss Hog]

CRT would have been your best bet in the past but I am not sure if you can even buy these anymore?

Lacie make some fantastic monitors but are out of your price range unfortunately...

LaCie - LCD Monitors

This one is not so far out though...

http://www.lacie.com/uk/products/product.htm?pid=11034

Dell and Apple make some decent monitors too, does your partner use a mac?

[PatrickC]

Thank you for the response Boss Hog ..its appreciated.

Yes she does use a Mac..actually she runs

a Mac ..with Quark
a laptop with vista and quark
adobe InDesign on an XP machine

The replacement screen is for the Mac..A g4 PowerPc.

[IS-James]

Dell's Ultrasharp monitors have very good colour replication. The 2408WFP is a very good screen. It uses a S-PVA LCD panel so the colour reproduction and viewing angle are very good and it is well within your budget at £383 +VAT.

There is a very in depth review of this monitor at www.tftcentral.co.uk.

As with any screen unless it is calibrated the colour reproduction will be far from perfect but if your budget is £500 you can easily afford a cheap calibration device to go with it.

[Boss Hog]

Originally Posted by IS-James

As with any screen unless it is calibrated the colour reproduction will be far from perfect but if your budget is £500 you can easily afford a cheap calibration device to go with it.

Calibration.....Do you?

[PatrickC]

The Lacie Boss Hog suggested is out of my budget unfortunately ...although it looks very nice.

Any other options ...Anybody know a good CRT supplier?

And if I said what about the Dell 2408WFP or similiar would I cause mild amusement and pitying glances all around ?

[PatrickC]

IS-James you beat me to it! Well it sounds like I have chosen something not completely daft :) I will look at the reviews and get back

Cheers

[Boss Hog]

I would also wait and see what other members use, you may get some other recommendations.

[Eagle]

DELL all the way - they're generally bang-on straight out of the box. I dragged my heels for years over LCD but now I wouldn't go back. :)

[Pixels Ink]

Originally Posted by IS-James

Dell's Ultrasharp monitors have very good colour replication. The 2408WFP is a very good screen. It uses a S-PVA LCD panel so the colour reproduction and viewing angle are very good and it is well within your budget at £383 +VAT.

I have the 2407WFP Ultrasharp.

Cracking monitor.

Really handy that it rotates to portrait too :)