Viewing Angle

The viewing angle is the widest possible angle a user can see accurately reproduced colors on display from edge to edge. Having a small viewing angle will show color shifts whenever you are not viewing that particular area straight on. Working with secure documents lends itself to using a monitor with a small viewing angle; however, a small viewing angle will make technical creative work difficult since even the slightest adjustment in angle can affect the color on screen. 

Response Time

This feature affects how heavily “ghosted” a screen is; you essentially see a lagging “ghost” behind objects that move across the screen. This phenomenon occurs because of a low response time. When an object moves across the screen the trailing pixels behind the object don’t change color quick enough, thus creating a ghost or shadow object trailing behind. Having a high response time for an entertainment application is paramount, since a “ghosting” movie can be unwatchable.

Contrast and Black Levels

Since an LCD is not self-illuminating it requires a back or edge light to illuminate the pixels. As a consequence, it is easier to reveal bright colors and whites with a back light but this severely affects black colors. The term “black levels” refers to how dark a pixel can actually become on-screen, which relates to how well the liquid crystals in the LCD can absorb the light from the back or edge light. If you want to show true blacks, you must block out all light coming in. For general computing, a low black level is acceptable but for watching movies it can ruin your experience when true blacks appear to be more of a dark gray than black.

Wide Color Gamut

This feature describes how well colors can accurately be displayed in any given situation. The wider the color gamut, the better the display can reproduce extended colors found in the Adobe RGB and NTSC color gamuts. For technical creative work, having a wide color gamut is necessary for producing accurate work for print.