# Does your monitor have trouble displaying this image?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-monitor-have-trouble-displaying-this-image/652052>\
**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:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**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, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-monitor-have-trouble-displaying-this-image/652052/41 "2013-03-05T22:56:07Z")

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> [@SenorBeef](#):
>
> I don’t think it actually flickers, I think it’s just an optical illusion along the same lines as [this](http://manigerz34.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/black-dots-optical-illusion.gif?w=614).

In that optical illusion it stops flickering when you stare at a spot. What happens with one of my monitors is that horizontal lines keep changing in brightness even if I keep staring at the same spot.

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**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, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-monitor-have-trouble-displaying-this-image/652052/42 "2013-03-05T22:58:17Z")

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> [@ftg](#):
>
> …If you see flickering, then something isn’t right. You’re using the wrong software to zoom or you have poor hardware.

The worst flickering on one of my monitors happens when it has the default 100% zoom.

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**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2013, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-monitor-have-trouble-displaying-this-image/652052/43 "2013-03-06T00:47:41Z")

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[QUOTE=Dr. Strangelove]  
The subpixels on an LCD go like this:  
RGBRGBRGBRGBRGB  
[/QUOTE]

That’s how most LCDs are, but depending on how you’re holding it, a tablet can be either RGB or BGR. Or, even worse, VRGB or VBGR, where the V stands for vertical. Some desktop monitors are BGR. I don’t know if that’s intentional, or if they just didn’t care which way the display panel is mounted.

As an aside, Microsoft’s ClearType defaults to RGB subpixels, but can readily be set to work on BGR panels. It doesn’t work on portrait displays, which would be either VRGB or VBGR.

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