# Making laptop screen most visible outdoors on a bright day. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 17, 2006, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-laptop-screen-most-visible-outdoors-on-a-bright-day/380829 "2006-11-17T14:18:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-laptop-screen-most-visible-outdoors-on-a-bright-day/380829/1 "2006-11-17T14:18:07Z")
I’m holding an outdoor event in a couple of days. I want to put my laptop out with a looping slide show. I’ve never used a laptop outdoors, but I suspect there might be visibility issues with this arrangement. Am I right to be worried? If so, are there tips that might help the situation? I’ve thought about putting the laptop inside a cardboard box turned on its side; that would keep direct sunlight off the screen. But would that really help? Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-laptop-screen-most-visible-outdoors-on-a-bright-day/380829/2 "2006-11-17T16:18:15Z")
Keeping direct sunlight off will certainly make a difference, and will help prevent overheating to boot. And yes, you are right to be worried about visibility issues; very few laptop screens can really be used in very bright outdoor light. What sort of things are you planning to show? ---
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-laptop-screen-most-visible-outdoors-on-a-bright-day/380829/3 "2006-11-17T16:42:54Z")
A quick and dirty solution. Put the laptop in a large cardboard box, on its side, with the tops cut off, preferably in the shade, but if not, facing away from the sun. (Anybody want to parse that last sentence?) ---
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-laptop-screen-most-visible-outdoors-on-a-bright-day/380829/4 "2006-11-17T16:44:15Z")
Just full screen-sized images, with maybe simple captions – essentially a looping slide show of pictures. ---
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-laptop-screen-most-visible-outdoors-on-a-bright-day/380829/5 "2006-11-17T16:46:11Z")
[QUOTE=stuyguy] Just full screen-sized images, with maybe simple captions – essentially a looping slide show of pictures. [/QUOTE] Oops. Klondike slipped in there. This reply was in answer to Dervorin’s question. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-laptop-screen-most-visible-outdoors-on-a-bright-day/380829/6 "2006-11-21T19:15:57Z")
I don’t suppose [this](http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/techno-privacy-scarf) would work? ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-laptop-screen-most-visible-outdoors-on-a-bright-day/380829/7 "2006-11-21T22:36:27Z")
If the screen is clean, it doesn’t so much matter how much light hits it, but the angle between this light and the viewer matters a lot: Consider the screen a mirror, and think about having the darkest possible thing reflected in that mirror. A bright blue sky is bad, bright white clouds are worse, and a stright shot at the sun is worst of all… If you can arrainge to have a dark tarp behind the viewer that is ideal. A brick wall, or a large dense hedge or bush would be OK. The side of a large white truck, not so good. Next, consider your viewer’s eyes. If they are in a bright environ, thier pupils will be stopped down, making it hard to see your screen. This is a tough one to deal with, absent a real tent, but putting a large, dark background behind the laptop will help a lot, as will a shade canopy to prevent direct sunlight on the ground between them and the laptop. One excellent (optically, maybe not for your needs, though) solution would be to make a cardboard shroud with a face-fitting peep slot in it…think of those old nickleodions, or the eye test machines at the DMV…you could probably provide two slots so two people could watch at once.