# Does your monitor have trouble displaying this image? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 4, 2013, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-monitor-have-trouble-displaying-this-image/652052 "2013-03-04T23:41:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-monitor-have-trouble-displaying-this-image/652052/1 "2013-03-04T23:41:49Z")
[![](https://pictat.com/i/2013/3/4/13942blueandyel.gif) ](https://pictat.com/i/2013/3/4/13942blueandyel.gif) It looks fine on my iPad but on my 1080p ViewSonic monitor it has lots of strongly flickering horizontal lines… from light to dark gray… ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-monitor-have-trouble-displaying-this-image/652052/2 "2013-03-04T23:48:09Z")
BTW the image is made up of just pure blue and yellow - you can see if you zoom in… ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-monitor-have-trouble-displaying-this-image/652052/3 "2013-03-04T23:49:02Z")
What’s it supposed to look like? On my 2500 x 1600 30" Apple monitor it looks like a small, slightly flickery gray rectangle in the middle of a big solid field of very dark gray or black. The title seems to imply that it’s supposed to be blue and yellow. I see neither blue nor yellow. ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-monitor-have-trouble-displaying-this-image/652052/4 "2013-03-04T23:53:23Z")
Yes it is blue and yellow - they are opposite colors and perfectly cancel out to make grey. If you zoom in you should see the blue and yellow… ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-monitor-have-trouble-displaying-this-image/652052/5 "2013-03-05T00:34:49Z")
No flickering on my laptop. I don’t know how to zoom in on an image opened in a tab in this Firefox clone browser (Pale Moon), but there’s no lines and I can see what you mean about blue/yellow pixels if I look close. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-monitor-have-trouble-displaying-this-image/652052/6 "2013-03-05T00:50:00Z")
**Ferret Herder** , did you try (Ctrl +)? No flickering on this 18 inch desktop, but also don’t see any color zoomed in as far as it will go. It’s an old lcd flatscreen. ---
**Author:** ![MacSpon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@MacSpon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacSpon)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-monitor-have-trouble-displaying-this-image/652052/7 "2013-03-05T00:57:18Z")
Hmm. It looks plain brown to me, unless I zoom in. Maybe that means my monitor is miscalibrated. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-monitor-have-trouble-displaying-this-image/652052/8 "2013-03-05T01:21:06Z")
No, but it flickers if I scroll, and perceptually it darkens for me. And image like this shows one of the few advantages CRTs have over LCDs (I’m guessing, haven’t tested on CRT). Zoom is also Ctrl+Mousewheel. When I do just one “click” in, the image changes drastically, it’s a field of dots. I wonder if people who keep it zoomed in for reasons like old eyes will see it differently. ---
**Author:** ![K.S.Masmacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/96bed5/32.png) [@K.S.Masmacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K.S.Masmacho)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-monitor-have-trouble-displaying-this-image/652052/9 "2013-03-05T01:23:52Z")
It is possible that the flickering is an optical illusion. However, if (as the OP says) it is strongly flickering, then maybe it is the monitor after all… ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-monitor-have-trouble-displaying-this-image/652052/10 "2013-03-05T01:26:45Z")
When zoomed, it loks like anti-aliased checkerboard of blue and yellow on an iPad 3 retina display. ---
**Author:** ![busterpickle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@busterpickle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/busterpickle)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-monitor-have-trouble-displaying-this-image/652052/11 "2013-03-05T01:26:51Z")
Looks fine on my Asus QGA (2560x1440) monitor. Zooms in to see the blue/yellow dots, scrolling has no artifacts, I do have to zoom in a bit to see the blue/yellow. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-monitor-have-trouble-displaying-this-image/652052/12 "2013-03-05T01:32:26Z")
Looks fine on my LCD screen. FYI you are not going to see the discrete blue yellow colors until you zoom in around 800- 1000% (ie 8X-10X) or so. But yes, it is blue and yellow. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-monitor-have-trouble-displaying-this-image/652052/13 "2013-03-05T01:34:51Z")
I have two LCD monitors. On my 19" monitor that’s about 9 years old I see the flickering. On my primary, newer monitor I don’t see any flickering. ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-monitor-have-trouble-displaying-this-image/652052/14 "2013-03-05T01:39:17Z")
> [@K.S.Masmacho](#): > > It is possible that the flickering is an optical illusion. > > However, if (as the OP says) it is strongly flickering, then maybe it is the monitor after all… Yes it is just on that monitor… it might be because it has 2 megapixels (1920x1080) yet is pretty small and there might be interferance… > **[How Apple Got a Retina Display in the New iPad](https://thenextweb.com/news/how-apple-managed-to-incorporate-a-retina-display-into-the-new-ipad)** > > The new iPad’s Retina Display was perhaps the most expected feature to be included in Apple’s new tablet, especially after it incorporated the high-resolution display into both its iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S smartphones. > But don’t let that take > [@](#): > > With so many pixels comes the opportunity for interference, when “signals get crossed and image quality suffers ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-monitor-have-trouble-displaying-this-image/652052/15 "2013-03-05T01:40:58Z")
It looks like alternating black and white pixels. Oddly, this is exactly how it should look, even though it’s made from yellow and blue. The subpixels on an LCD go like this: RGBRGBRGBRGBRGB Each RGB triple corresponds to one pixel. Yellow is equal to RG- (where the “-” is an unlit subpixel). Blue is of course --B. So the actual display is as follows: RG—BRG—BRG- So it actually forms an alternating pattern of BRG and —. Since BRG is just as good a cluster of white as RGB is, and — is just black, the overall pattern looks like alternating white and black. ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-monitor-have-trouble-displaying-this-image/652052/16 "2013-03-05T01:43:20Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > No, but it flickers if I scroll, and perceptually it darkens for me… When I move the window with the image in around the entire image flashes dark and light and that is on a monitor where the horizontal lines aren’t as bad. (I can’t currently check the original monitor) ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-monitor-have-trouble-displaying-this-image/652052/17 "2013-03-05T01:47:44Z")
If I zoom it to 450% I can see the blue and yellow. At 400% it still looks like gray (though I can see alternating dark and light gray squares). ---
**Author:** ![heathen\_earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/13edae/32.png) [@heathen\_earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heathen_earthling)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-monitor-have-trouble-displaying-this-image/652052/18 "2013-03-05T01:48:16Z")
> [@JohnClay](#): > > Yes it is blue and yellow - they are opposite colors and perfectly cancel out to make grey. Why don’t they make green in this case? ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-monitor-have-trouble-displaying-this-image/652052/19 "2013-03-05T01:51:39Z")
> [@heathen\_earthling](#): > > Why don’t they make green in this case? I originally made the image to show that yellow and pure blue don’t make green. They can only make green if your blue paint has some green in it… to make pure green (bright saturated green) you need yellow and cyan (mix of green and blue) paints/inks [![](http://www.diycalculator.com/imgs/console-09.gif) ](http://www.diycalculator.com/imgs/console-09.gif) In that picture, pure blue and yellow lights create white and pure blue and yellow paints create black - or gray which is light/dark white/black. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-monitor-have-trouble-displaying-this-image/652052/20 "2013-03-05T02:26:48Z")
I don’t see flickering, but I do sometimes see lines separating it horizontally and/or vertically. The color can be a little yellower in one of the quadrants. The position of the lines changes if I drag the image around the monitor. Zooming way in, I can see the blue and yellow dots, smoothly blurring into each other (with grey in-between). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-monitor-have-trouble-displaying-this-image/652052.md?page=2)