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Ask HN: How do you read/look at screens?

2 points by ArrayBoundCheck 3 years ago · 5 comments · 1 min read


I program a lot. After a few hours I can't easily read whats on the screen due to my eyes being uncomfortable. Sometimes I can look at my phone or read my kindle but even that can be a problem. I've gone on walks listening to books which I think is a partial solution but some days I only can do 4 hours of screen times while other days I do 9

LEDThereBeLight 3 years ago

You might look into QLED, RLCD, or E-ink monitors. There’s a lot of posts online about how they reduce eye strain or that you just don’t feel the “glare” that you normally get from looking at a screen. I use a QLED monitor for programming and an e-ink monitor for reading papers / anything static, and it makes a big difference. But, they’re expensive. I wouldn’t do it if I weren’t in software and looking at a screen constantly.

  • avinassh 3 years ago

    Do you have any recommendations for e ink monitors?

    Also, are there any good e ink tablets?

    • LEDThereBeLight 3 years ago

      I don’t know of any e-ink tablets. As far as e-ink monitors, I did a fair amount of research and landed on a Dasung 13.3”. It’s small compared to a normal monitor, so you’re not going to be split-paning VSCode and a terminal, it’s $1000, and it’s not good for things that move around a lot (you’ll have to use the etch-a-sketch-type clear screen button pretty often), but it is actually pretty good for reading PDFs, docs, etc etc which I end up spending a lot of time doing. Reading any more than a page on a normal monitor is just such a pain, I start to lose focus pretty quickly. Monitor arms that let you move them around easily helps a lot too, so it’s not sitting in front of your face while you’re coding. So it all costs money, but does work pretty well (for me at least).

helph67 3 years ago

I'm using dark mode provided by "HN Enhance" (A Firefox extension that enhances news.ycombinator website). Makes life a little easier. There are warnings about the `blue light' from some screens being harmful to the eyes. An optician told me recently that berries are healthy foods for our eyes.

pmontra 3 years ago

You should talk about this with an ophthalmologist. It could depend also on the lighting. Check that too.

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