Hardware: what you get is what you see - computer monitors - Small Business Computing

Nation's Business, Oct, 1994 by Albert Holzinger

Most business people have used PCs for several years or more, so they've learned the importance of adequate processing speed, memory, storage capacity, and other computer capabilities. Yet many still are unsure what features are important in a monitor, even though the size and quality of this component can markedly affect comfort, productivity, and health. And no wonder confusion remains widespread.

Monitors of each size look similar in computer stores' displays, and the explanatory literature accompanying the equipment is frequently littered with jargon, cryptic specifications, and mysterious acronyms. The following brief explanations of key issues and terms regarding moni- tors should help you when you make your next purchase.

Size. Monitors, like TV sets, are measured diagonally. A 15-inch monitor should be adequate for general business tasks, such as word processing and accounting, but if you can afford it, choose a 17-inch model it's easier on the eyes. If you regularly perform desktop-publishing or related graphics duties, consider a 19-inch or even a 21-inch monitor.

Many monitors of each size now have fiat, square screens, which, as implied, are less curved than conventional models. A result is somewhat reduced distortion, especially at the screen edges. But monitors like these aren't worth a substantial premium.

Resolution And Dot Pitch. Resolution refers to a monitor's capacity for displaying pixels (short for picture elements), which are minute spots of colored light. Resolution is expressed as two numbers:

The first is usually the monitor's horizontal caparty, the second is its vertical capacity. The higher the numbers, the crisper the letters and graphics displayed.

Common resolutions are 640 by 480, referred to as VGA (Video Graphics Array), 800 by 600, and 1,024 by 768 (the latter two are referred to as SuperVGA). We suggest buying a multifrequency monitor, which can accommodate a wide range of resolutions, depending on factors such as your software and video card.

A monitor's dot pitch refers to the shortest distance between two pixels of the same color; the shorter the distance, the better. We recommend monitors with a 0.28-millimeter dot pitch, which produce sharper pictures than "bargain" monitors with a dot pitch of 0.31 mm or 0.39 mm.

Interlaced/Noninterlaced. An interlaced monitor takes two passes to draw a full screen of text or images: The oddnumbered rows are drawn on the first pass; the even-numbered on the second. An interlaced monitor can flicker annoyingly if you look at it for long periods.

A noninterlaced monitor (abbreviated NI) draws the screen in a single pass and is easier on the eyes.

Interlaced monitors are easier to build and, therefore, cheaper, but for business use, a noninterlaced monitor is worth the additional cost.

Radiation. Several years ago, Sweden's labor department set a standard, now adopted internationally, for the maximum amount of electromagnetic radiation a monitor can emit. For safety's sake, we suggest buying a monitor that meets this MPR-II standard.

Not all monitors sold in the United States meet this standard. Moreover, because radiation emissions decline dramatically over even short distances, we recommend sitting no closer than arm's length from a monitor.

A Portable, Affordable Business-Card Reader

Collecting business cards has its pros and cons: Cards from suppliers, distributors, customers, and others can contain information of potential future business value, but organizing card data for easy access can be tedious and time-consuming.

The traditional method of archiving cards is to file them in transparent vinyl sheets and store the sheets in loose-leaf notebooks, but this system precludes quick searching and sorting. A popular high-tech solution requires transferring card information into a spreadsheet or data-base program, which is easy to search, but typing the information in is labor-intensive.

Devices capable of automatically converting text on business cards into a computerized data base have been available for several years, but early models had shortcomings, including a prohibitively high price.

Now, from UMAX Technologies Inc., a company that has a reputation for value pricing, comes BizCard Reader. This device is effective, portable, adaptive to the way you work, and has a list price of $249. BizCard Reader is about 3 by 5 by 1.5 inches and weighs less than a pound. It plugs into your PC's standard parallel port, and you can take it along for use--with a notebook computer--at conferences, trade shows, and other places where you're most likely to collect countless cards.

And BizCard Reader is as effective as it is handy. The accompanying software, which runs under Microsoft Corp.'s Windows graphical user interface, uses artificial intelligence to copy words and characters from cards to appropriate data-base fields. In a test of the 400 dots-per-inch scanner and its software, we used really oddball cards and marveled at how well BizCard Reader dealt with them.