I was playing around with the Xfce configuration box thing, and found a setting by which apparently Xfce can change the sub-pixel ordering (of the desktop I suppose), and there are 4 settings:

Vertical RGB
Vertical BGR
Horiz. RGB
Horiz BGR

So, I scoured the net, looked everywhere except the user manual for the monitor (which is in a box here somewhere) and I checked the monitor's specs on a dozen different sites, including the mfgr site (Samsung 2243WM). None of them make any mention of the sub-pixel ordering used by this monitor.

I found a great webpage all about this sub-pixel anti-aliasing stuff (on grc.com) which had some sample images, as well as close-up photos of the differences between the various configurations. It claimed that the one that matched my monitor's ordering would look great, while the one(s) that did not match the ordering would look really crappy. They both looked identical to me so should I even be spending time investigating this?

Anyone have anything to add that I should look into?

Sasha

Hi -

Short answer: I don't really know (sorry :-()

However ...

This link might help:

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/subpixe...pixel-font.png

Good luck - and please keep us posted what you find!

Hello Sasha

I guess you want to make the screen image easy on your eyes, in which case the right setting is the one that looks best for you regardless of the actual hardware design.

That said, the setting that looks best to you will almost certainly be the one that does reflect the actual hardware design.

I believe RGB is the commonest design so start with RGB+RGB (the default setting?) and try variations on it to see what looks best.

Best

Charles

@ catkin -- thank you for your response
I had been making some test changes to the Xfce anti-aliasing settings last night, but was sort of stumbling in the dark and not really knowing what to look for. And after a while, looking at those test-images gets really hard on the eyes!

@ paulsm4 -- Thanks!! The link you provided was *definitely* useful, and as best as I can tell, I DID learn what the layout of my monitor is ( and again, those test-images are really screwy on the eyes :| )! It appears that, as my monitors both have the ability to rotate 90'CCW into a "portrait" orientation, the mfgr decided to make the subpixel ordering "Vertical RGB" so (I guess) they planned on people mostly using it in the portrait orientation. Seems odd to me; the rotation ability is more a novelty to me, and one which I don't use; I have the monitors both in "landscape" orientation (as I suspect most people want wide-screen monitors for anyway!).

By looking at the test image at the link you provided, I can see the thin black line on the UPPER edge of that test image, which = V-RGB. So, I followed their advice: I set Xfce settings to "medium hinting + V-RGB", as well as adjusting my browser fonts a bit, and I can honestly say, WOW -- What a difference! I had been thinking what shi**y fonts I was seeming to have, and when scrolling a text page in Firefox, the font would kinda fade badly & be sketchy-looking. It is much improved now.

For the record: Samsung 2243WM LCD seems to be "Vertical-RGB" sub-pixel ordering. I consider this solved, and am going to move this thread to /Hardware.

Thanks to you both!
Sasha