As with CRT monitors, LCD displays for computer use exist because of a larger market for television sets. Without that larger market displays for computers would be prohibitively expensive, if available at all. So, an LCD display made and sold for computer use might be appropriately considered a stepchild of the TV industry. A professional graphic display intended to meet the exacting demands of graphic users, pre-press, and digital photographers is an even more distant relative, but defined largely by its ancestry nevertheless.

EIZO's new ColorEdge CE210W 21" HD wide format LCD computer display is specifically designed to support creative professionals, including digital photographers.

Although CRTs and LCDs serve the same purposes, even though technically they are unrelated in how LCDs function, there is a new dimension and difference between CRTs and LCDs that affects how they are applied to their different kinds of use. CRTs were not very bright relative to normal room light, so all CRTs were configured to function close to their maximum brightness capacity for all applications, whether used in TVs, as a computer monitor or a specialized professional graphic monitor. With LCDs that has changed because the LCD-TFT screen that forms the image and the usual cold cathode light source are separate and essentially independent parts of the display, allowing for a much higher brightness and subsequent contrast potential.

Not that long ago the great concern about using LCD displays to do critical color editing was that color gamut was not equal to that of a pro graphic CRT. This new EIZO ColorEdge CE210W has a color gamut size greater than a top-of-the-line CRT in all dimensions of the color spectrum, providing a fuller reproduction of all of the colors in a photographic image than what was enjoyed in the past.

The result is that LCD displays made for general computer use primarily in home/office environments can reproduce text and web graphics with very high brightness and contrast to match normally bright office and home interior lighting. This very high brightness and contrast that is advantageous with text and some graphics in bright environments is not an ideal configuration for the effective display and editing of digital photographic images. They usually reproduce burned out highlight detail and too dark shadows that can obscure detail.

Although the latest premium models of general home/office computer LCD displays provide adjustment to levels of brightness, contrast, and color balance, the default settings out of the box often require substantial adjustment and fine-tuning to achieve an ideal balance for displaying pro graphic and digital photography applications. And, LCD models specifically designed for pro graphics and digital photography should be both factory configured with default settings consistent with that specialized use, as well as provide performance attributes and features that are complementary to pro graphic and digital photography use.

EIZO's ColorNavigator CE software provides a host computer's direct interface with the display that allows the user to choose very specific target values for brightness on a cd/m2 value scale, a specific number value white point color temperature Kelvin value, and a target gamma for the most precise and easy setup adjustment of an LCD display. Based on the targets set, any application wizard will calibrate and profile the display precisely using any one of the three major brand professional monitor sensor measuring devices.

EIZO ColorEdge CE210W Features
The EIZO ColorEdge CE210W is an HD wide format 21" LCD (and the larger 24" but similar CE240W) designed to be used for a wide range of professional creative graphic applications, including exacting requirements for color management and precisely controlled color reproduction performance. The EIZO CE210W provides a native resolution of 1680x1050, an adjustable contrast ratio up to 1000:1, and a maximum brightness of 450 cd/m2, with a 178Þ viewing angle. The features that most distinguish this EIZO model as a professional creative graphic display include factory adjustment of gamma, with a default to the most popular industry standard of 2.2 using the display's own 10-bit LUT (Look Up Table) that measures every shade of the RGB spectrum, setting each precisely. In addition, the 10-bit LUT supports a user-selectable gamma (other than 2.2) from 1.8 to 2.6.

The on-board display color processing is accomplished with the EIZO CE210W's own 14-bit ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), which provides color information and reproduction of smooth, accurate gray scale and color rendering in even the darkest values, which is necessary to display color images without blurring. This performance extends to video and 3D motion graphic reproduction, with a fast 8 ms midtone response time. The display's color management is also facilitated by EIZO's own ColorNavigator CE software, supplied with each display, that facilitates 10-bit hardware calibration via one of three popular professional monitor/display measurement devices, including GretagMacbeth's Eye-One, X-Rite's MonacoOPTIX and MonacoOPTIX PRO, and ColorVision's Spyder2 and Spyder2PRO.

The EIZO ColorEdge CE210W HD 21" LCD display provides high-resolution sharpness of detail and enough screen real estate to ideally support the image-editing/selection functions of an application like Adobe's Bridge.

Calibrating and profiling the EIZO CE210W is enabled using the ColorNavigator CE software application by a direct hardware interface through a USB connection between the host computer and the display. The ColorNavigator CE software provides precise target settings for brightness in 5 cd/m2 increments from 80-400 cd/m2 (and black level), white point color temperature in 100K increments from 4000-10,000K, as well as gamma in 0.1 increments from 1.0-2.6 (digital). Calibrating and profiling after the targets are chosen is then accomplished by following very simple on-screen instructions and using one of the supported monitor/display sensor measuring devices.