How to reduce eye strain when working on a computer

[Thor]

I don't understand the point you're trying to make in the context of a sane discussion...

THOR: f.lux makes my 10k screen look like it costs R10.
ME: Yes but who cares about how it looks - it's saving your eyes.
THOR: Yes but graphic designers.

If you said: "Yeah but I'm a graphic designer who does graphic work late at night" I would understand your point but...in the event of you not even trying to make a point I'm just going to assume your point was: "I like milkshakes and what you said looks more like a banana."

That was implied.

I need the screen to reflect the colors as accurately as possible otherwise the next billboard you see will make you drive into the car in front of you.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Yea I gave all this a skip after trying it on my phone now and Flux on the pc.

Not a chance in helm I'm crippling my 10k dell display for this k@k.

Look how the phone looks as well.

Considering you basically have industrial lighting for home use I'm not even remotely surprised.

I don't think you know what night actually is.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Tell that to graphic designers.

Graphic designers, well professional ones anyway, use calibrated displays that already lean much more to the red colour spectrum and far away from the blue one.

So their default screens actually look more like what f.lux looks like on yours which is probably over blue in the first place and what you've come to accept as normal even though it's hopelessly colour inaccurate.

Windows by default has a default Gamma of 2.2 at 6500k Which is very "consumer" and fine for regular use but not very accurate.

What you want is a Gamma of 1.8 and colour of 5000k as that matches what comes out of your colour corrected printer etc, which is why that's the default setting on Mac.

The result being what looks like a more yellow image.

Often people dislike Movie mode on TV'S for the same reason, but the more yellow image is actually the more colour correct one.

 

[airborne]

Nope, Flux makes a calibrated computer screen look terrible, it totally screws the colour temperature.

Trying twilight on my phone as we speak and it's not to bad if you are just browsing Tapatalk etc but Instagram pics etc look nasty. Anything video or image/pic related looks terrible with twilight/Flux enabled and active, that's just the reality you have to accept if you choose to use either.

 

[Bryn]

I have a really nice calibrated IPS computer monitor, I tried Flux but it ruins the amazing colour fidelity so I ended up switching it off and on to view video/images accurately and then eventually just have up.

Same thing with the OLED displays on my phone and tablet, I think I should try twilight again on my phone at least.

Nope, Flux makes a calibrated computer screen look terrible, it totally screws the colour temperature.

Trying twilight on my phone as we speak and it's not to bad if you are just browsing Tapatalk etc but Instagram pics etc look nasty. Anything video or image/pic related looks terrible with twilight/Flux enabled and active, that's just the reality you have to accept if you choose to use either.

But f.lux isn't intended for users who need colour accuracy. If you double click on the f.lux icon and get the little window up, it even says next to the disable tickbox: "Disable for one hour (for doing color-sensitive work)".

I use a 46" Samsung LED for a PC monitor and everything looks fine once f.lux kicks in. The yellowing is obviously very noticeable during the transition, but you quickly adjust and forget about it. I've watched series, movies and played games even without concern (precisely because I forget that f.lux is even on). And I seldom notice anything while using social media or other websites (when I do - just a minor recognition of f.lux being on). This sounds like something that's an issue on some displays and not others.

It's only a few minutes into PyCharm, Brackets or Visual Studio when I always have the inevitable "what in the fu... oh f.lux is on" moment.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Nope, Flux makes a calibrated computer screen look terrible, it totally screws the colour temperature.

Trying twilight on my phone as we speak and it's not to bad if you are just browsing Tapatalk etc but Instagram pics etc look nasty. Anything video or image/pic related looks terrible with twilight/Flux enabled and active, that's just the reality you have to accept if you choose to use either.

I didn't mean to say it will magically calibrate a screen. Just that the untrained eye that has a problem with the way Flux makes it look probably also wouldn't know a colour correct screen if it smacked them in the face.

 

[Moosedrool]

Sh*t is I like blue... all my stuff is blue, my theme and background on everything...

 

[airborne]

I didn't mean to say it will magically calibrate a screen. Just that the untrained eye that has a problem with the way Flux makes it look probably also wouldn't know a colour correct screen if it smacked them in the face.

No that's not the case, people that see my display for the first time, ordinary non technical people, ooh and ahh about how amazing the image looks, you can tell straight away it's something out of the ordinary.

My perspective on high quality screens is its a quality of life choice, being able to see everything in vivid accurate colour is amazing. Using the cold washed out displays that the majority of people use is not a great experience. That's one area where Apple unequivocally excell, their laptop displays are very good and often pretty accurate out the box. Trying to find a Windows laptop with an Ips display is a mission of note.

It is a lot easier these days to get Ips LCD desktop screens though, but then most people don't spend the few thousand rand extra to get the tools to calibrate them so its still a technology that's not fully appreciated by even those who have them.

The bottom line is Flux functionality is useful but the results are not pretty at all, obviously people that are doing data capture or viewing type work/useage it won't have as much of an impact.

 

[Thor]

Just to make 100% sure. This bad color overly from Flux and the Android app see screen shot below.

Does this really work, if it's better for the eyes then I'll make a point to get use to it, but if it's a gimmick then hell I'll much rather want to experience my expensive toys in their vivid entirely.

 

[Moosedrool]

Just to make 100% sure. This bad color overly from Flux and the Android app see screen shot below.

Does this really work, if it's better for the eyes then I'll make a point to get use to it, but if it's a gimmick then hell I'll much rather want to experience my expensive toys in their vivid entirely.

Blue during night time has been researched to cause sleeping problems. Not sure about what is proved or not.

 

[Genisys]

Blue during night time has been researched to cause sleeping problems. Not sure about what is proved or not.

So the blue background on my desktop is causing me sleepless nights? Or is it just Windows in general causing sleepless nights?

 

[airborne]

So the blue background on my desktop is causing me sleepless nights? Or is it just Windows in general causing sleepless nights?

It's the colour temperature of the light emitted by LED/flouro tube in the back light of your LCD display, even if it was a white background it would have a significant portion of light emitted in the blue light wavelength/spectrum.

 

[gregmcc]

Just install f.lux as mentioned in the article. I've been using it for ages now and it's awesome. Really helps with eye strain at night.

Funny you should say that. I installed f.lux last night. Turned it off after a few hours of using - aggh, my bleeding eyes! How did I manage before f.lux!