Build Date: Sun Feb 1 18:50:18 2026 UTC
Did somebody step on a duck?
-- Rodney Dangerfield
Resolution Maximizes Productivity
1999-05-20 06:17:23
Pao-Tzu reviews a clinical study of fatigue among workers using various resolution display media.
This German scientist guy, Ziefle M, conducted a
clinical trial investigating the effect of media
resolution and human response. Two experiments, one
where the subjects proofread documents, another where
their fatigue and screen fixation were measured.
In the first experiment, the subjects have to
proofread a document on either a 60dpi monitor, a 120
dpi monitor, or 255 dpi printed sheets of paper. The
findings showed that the people using the 255 dpi
media worked far quicker and with less stress than
those using the monitors. Imagine that, people using
actual paper to do work.
Experiment 2, monitor showdown. The experiment clearly
showed that people using shitty 62 or 69 dpi monitors
had far more fatigue than those using 89 dpi monitors.
In his discussion, Ziefle argues that more workplaces
should put emphasis on the resolution of their media
in the interests of productivity and worker health.
Good monitors, 120 dpi+, translate into a more
efficient workplace.
But as we know, corporations are dumb asses. They keep
rolling out the whole palmpilot and notebook computer
30 fucking dpi shit every day. These pieces of
shit are incorrectly
marketed by their manufacturers as ``productivity
tools.'' And regular monitors keep getting chincier.
Look at the standardization of the 640x480 res shit.
Monochrome monitors had 768 pixels licked a decade
ago. But the basic lesson still is to work with paper
whenever possible. At 255 dpi, any plain vanilla dot
matrix printer kicks the shit out of the cream of the
crop monitors.
bib:
"Effects of display resolution on visual performance."
Ziefle, M, Hum Factors (GE5), 1998, Dec;
40(4): 554-68
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