Many of us are stuck behind our desk and computer all day long, which makes the hardware we use quite important. Let's give some more thought to our monitors, with these ten tips for getting the most out of those screens. 10. Calibrate Your Monitor for the Best Picture Even if you're not a graphic design professional or video editor, color calibration ensures your screen shows consistent and accurate colors—important when touching up photos and correcting colors that just look "off." Here's our guide to both casual and more advanced monitor calibration. You can also rent a colorimiter on the cheap. 9. Play Games at a Higher Resolution Than Your Monitor Supports If your monitor's native resolution isn't compatible with the games you want to play, you can trick your monitor into getting sharper images during gaming by using a lesser-known type of anti-aliasing. This isn't without its downsides, but here's the explanation. 8. Hide Stuff Behind Your Monitor If you've got very … [Read more...] about Top 10 Ways to Improve Your Monitor, the Screen You Stare at All Day
Free monitor calibration tool
The best 4K monitors 2017: the top Ultra HD monitors and displays
4K or Ultra-HD was once the long sought-after pinnacle of computing, and now it’s an everyday staple for users. From operating systems and PC applications to games, everything is practically now designed for ultra high-definition resolution display, giving users a bigger, crisper work and gaming surface. And these 4K monitors are exactly what users need to provide them with a beautifully immersive experience.With the new wave of affordable 4K monitors recently hitting the market, considerably cheaper than 4K TVs, they’re naturally all the rage right now. If you’re one of the many currently in the market for a 4K monitor to meet your PC gaming needs while still keeping within budget, we’re here to help find the right one for you.1. Dell Ultra HD 4K Monitor P2715QThe best 4K monitor for most usersScreen size: 27-inch | Aspect ratio: 16:9 | Resolution: 3,840 x 2,160 | Brightness: 350 cd/m² | Response time: 9ms | Contrast ratio: 1,000:1 | Color support: … [Read more...] about The best 4K monitors 2017: the top Ultra HD monitors and displays
How to Calibrate Your Monitor
If your photos look different in print than they do on your PC, or movies just don't look as detailed as they should, chances are your monitor needs to be calibrated. Sure, you can bring it to a professional to have it done, by why spend the cash when you can get it done youself? By making a handful of adjustments, you can improve your monitor's image detail and color accuracy and reduce eyestrain while you're at it. There are several methods of calibration available depending upon your needs and budget. For photographers, content creators, and designers who use high-end monitors and require very accurate color and grayscale performance, a professional calibration may be the way to go. Certified isf (Imaging Science Foundation) calibration technicians use high-end color analyzers and test pattern generators to tweak things like gamma, white balance, black levels, RGB gain and offset, and a multitude of other settings, but as you might expect, this can get expensive (to the tune of … [Read more...] about How to Calibrate Your Monitor
The Best Free Software of 2012
It's simple math: Every year this list gets bigger and, consequently, the amount of money you can save gets greater. When we did our first Best Free Software story five years ago, the list contained a mere 157 products. This year, we've selected 273 apps in 40 categories. Keep in mind, in those first few years, we included more of a mix in terms of operating systems, with some Mac- and Web-only apps. We spun those titles off into their own stories (The Best Free Mac Software and Best Free Web Apps) so that this story could concentrate on Windows-based productivity apps and utilities. Yet, the list continues to grow, increasing by 65 products from last year's story. Why is free so popular with developers and readers alike? Well, for developers, there's a lot to be gained by giving things away. Peace of mind, for one, in creating and sharing free products. Many of the apps in this list are donationware, meaning that the software is given away for free, with the hope of optional … [Read more...] about The Best Free Software of 2012
The Best Free Software of 2017
Contents Anti-Malware Audio Back-up & Sync Browsers Clean-up & Maintenance Conferencing Ebooks & Digital Comics Email File Recovery & Deletion File Transfer File Viewers & Converters Finance Firewalls Graphics & Imaging Languages Maps Media Players/Centers Messaging Networking Notes Office Suites & Presentations Operating Systems PDF Tools Printing Remote Access & Screen Sharing Security Screen Capture/Recording Software Updaters Uninstallers & Installers Video Virtualization Windows Enhancers Writing Windows and macOS don't get the attention they used to in today's mobile world. But we have not fully abandoned the desktop. The real work (and a lot of the play) of computing requires a full personal computer system. To get the most out of that, you need software. Software can be expensive if you're not smart about it. Free programs have been a mainstay of the desktop experience for decades, and the offerings only … [Read more...] about The Best Free Software of 2017