Specifications

Apple’s display family offers excellent color uniformity over the entire screen, both
from top to bottom and from side to side. An important reason why edge-to-edge
color uniformity is possible with recent LCD designs is the development of wide-
viewing-angle technologies. Users viewing the 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display
from a typical distance of 20 inches will be seeing the color in the corners of the
display at an angle. Without wide-viewing-angle technology, the colors at those
extreme locations would shift.
Apple LCD displays deliver uniform color values across the entire screen.
Why LCDs are more stable
Viewing conditions can also vary widely around the globe. Terrestrial magnetism,
heat, humidity, altitude, and local electromagnetic fields all play a role in causing an
analog CRT display to become misaligned—leading to image degradation and color
distortion. LCDs are immune from the negative impact of such worst-case viewing
environments. Here are several real-world situations in which a CRT display could be
adversely affected by environmental factors:
• Position your CRT in a north/south orientation. It will behave differently than when
it’s in an east/west orientation.
• Position your CRT near a pair of unshielded stereo speakers or in an office building
next to an elevator shaft. You may see a dramatic change in screen colors because of
magnetic field interference with the electron beam being fired at the phosphors.
• Tap the side of a CRT that uses an aperture grille mask and notice how the vibration
of the grille distorts the image.
• Have a user in the Northern Hemisphere send an important color file to a client site
in the Southern Hemisphere, or vice versa. The different terrestrial magnetism of the
two hemispheres creates different effects on CRTs in the two locations.
In all of these real-world scenarios, Apple LCDs provide much more accurate and
predictable colors than CRTs.
Graceful aging
Another aspect of color uniformity is how predictable it is over time. With extended
use, every monitor will change. The goal for display manufacturers is to minimize the
impact of these changes on the display’s color performance. In this regard, the LCD
again has an advantage over CRTs.
CRT displays work by having an electron beam excite inorganic phosphors, which in
turn emit a red, green, or blue color. As the CRT ages, the ability of these phosphors to
uniformly emit color deteriorates. The red, green, and blue phosphors age at different
rates, eventually producing a color shift.
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Technology Overview
Apple Cinema Displays
R: 22
G: 15
B : 111