ALL MONITORS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL.  (5.2)
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	Choosing a monitor used to be simple.  Like the Model-T Ford 
  you could have any color you wanted as long as it was black (and 
  white), 9", 512 by 342 pixels, 72 dpi. The PC drones made fun of the 
  small size and lack of color, but it was obvious to any unprejudiced 
  person who looked at a Macintosh that its display was far superior 
  to the CGA and EGA monitors being foisted on ignorant PC consumers.  
  Mac monitors are no longer so simple.  Now one needs to be concerned 
  with such arcana as resolution, size, bit depth, dot pitch, and 
  refresh rate.

       Size is the most obvious characteristic of a monitor.  It's 
  measured diagonally from one corner of the screen to the opposite 
  corner.  Actual monitor area is roughly proportional to the square 
  of the diagonal length so a twenty-inch monitor is more than four 
  times as large as a nine-inch monitor.  Most manufacturers cheat on 
  their monitor sizes by measuring from one corner of the screen (or 
  even the case) to the other rather than from one edge of the visible 
  display to the other.  Then they round up to the nearest inch with 
  the result that most "fourteen-inch monitors" are closer to twelve 
  and a half inches when measured truthfully.  For many years Apple 
  was one of the more honest manufacturers, advertising it's twelve 
  and a half inch monitor as a thirteen inch monitor while other 
  manufacturers touted their "larger fourteen-inch" twelve and a half 
  inch monitors.  However Apple has succumbed to the pressures of the 
  market, and like everyone else it now advertises twelve and a half 
  inch monitors as "fourteen inch displays."

       Of course it's not the size that matters; it's how you use it.  
  Resolution defines how much information can be squeezed onto the 
  screen.  Most monitors sold today are "multi-sync"; that is they 
  are capable of displaying more than one resolution.  A fifteen inch 
  monitor at 1024 by 768 pixels displays two and a half times as much 
  information as the same monitor at 640 by 480 pixels.  However 
  everything will appear smaller at the larger resolution since the 
  monitor has to fit more pixels into the same space.  The clearest 
  resolution for a monitor is whatever comes closest to fitting 72 
  pixels (or dots) into each inch.  This is the dpi rating of the 
  monitor.  72 dpi is the proper "WYSIWIG" (Pronounced Whizzy-wig, 
  What you see is what you get.) resolution though some people prefer 
  to work at a higher resolution that fits more information on the 
  screen.  Here are the WYSIWIG resolutions for common monitor sizes.  
  If you do the math you'll notice that the resolutions seem too small 
  for the given size.  That's because I've listed sizes here in their 
  commonly advertised form rather than by the actual paintable area on 
  the screen.

                  Size         WYSIWIG Resolution

                    9             512 by 342
             13,14,15             640 by 480
                16,17             832 by 624
                   20            1024 by 768
                   21            1152 by 870
                   25            1280 by 1024


       Resolution and bit depth define how much you can see on your 
  screen.  Dot pitch defines how well you can see it.  It's the 
  size of each individual pixel.  Larger dot pitches look fuzzier.  
  Trinitron monitors paint the picture in lines rather than dots so 
  this doesn't really apply to them.  However the "line stripe" of a 
  Trinitron display means virtually the same thing in practice as dot 
  pitch does for other monitors, and most salesmen and copywriters are 
  quite happy to confuse the two for you.  Most monitors have dot 
  pitches of .39 mm, .29 mm, or .25 mm.  The larger the dot pitch the 
  fuzzier your screen looks.  .39 mm dot pitch monitors (the standard 
  in the PC world) look bad.  .29 mm dot pitch monitors are acceptable 
  for all but the most demanding users.  .25 mm is the best dot pitch 
  available with current technology.
       
       Refresh rate also affects how clear the picture appears.  72 Hz 
  is the standard refresh rate for Mac monitors.  That means the screen 
  is repainted 72 times a second, more than twice as fast as your 
  TV screen.  A few monitors even repaint at an 80 Hz refresh rate 
  though I suspect that's overkill for all but the most sensitive 
  eyes.  However many cheaper PC monitors have refresh rates of 60 Hz 
  or even less.  This begins to reach the level that contributes to 
  eyestrain.  Worse yet these monitors are interlaced, which means 
  that only half of the screen is redrawn on each pass.  Interlaced 
  monitors have a visible flicker effect, and should be avoided at all 
  costs.  Leave them on the shelves for the deluded PC users who think 
  saving $50 on a monitor is worth spending $500 at the optometrist.

       Most Mac monitors are at least 69 dpi, 0.29 mm dot pitch with 
  refresh rates of 72 Hz.  This is acceptable for most work.  The 
  only common exception is the Apple Basic Color Monitor.  This was 
  Apple's VGA monitor for low cost systems and was laughed out of the 
  marketplace.  (It's the standard in the PC world which gives you 
  some idea of the lower standards on the other side of the fence.)