Just got a new 19" flatscreen the other day. Booted up with my old xorg.conf, set up for a 17" CRT at 1024x768. Everything was pleasantly blurred, soft if you will, but I wanted to take advantage of the bigger screen space, so upped the res to 1280x1024. Now everything is just too sharp. Images on webpages come across all pixlelised and there's slight ghosting around everything. It's really not easy on the eyes.
Is this just the way things are with a bigger resolution or is there some way to get the best of both worlds - a nice sized resolution without the harsh, pixely display (and ghosts/shadows)?

Below is the monitor section of my xorg.conf, values taken from the OSD of the monitor.

i use this page to calculate a 'modeline' that i add to my xorg file. enter in as many values you KNOW--get your monitor manual ready.

after it calculates the modeline edit your .conf file as necessary, example snippet from mine:

My monitor was delivered without the manual unfortunately and I can't seem to find any results for HorizSync or VertRefresh for my monitor (a Nitstek MJ9BNK). When I bring up the OSD on the monitor this displays H 80.0 KHZ V 75.1HZ but I don't know if this is a minimum or a maximum or where to find the dot clock frequency.

I found a support page. There is a link to full spec for their 19" monitor at the bottom of the page.

http://www.nitstek.com/supports.html

Here is where I found the MJ9 monitor and a link to the page, above:

http://www.nitstek.com/lcd-mj9b.html

If you use the VGA connection for LCD monitor, the LCD monitor have to sample it and convert it into digital. All LCD monitors have poor conversions. If DVI-D is used, LCD monitors do not have to convert the signal into digital, so you get very high quality. The only problem with DVI-D is the length of cable that is used and the shielding.

The color depth is another issue with LCD monitors. Manufactures may advertise 16.7 million, but is it true. Cheaper the LCD monitor the less colors it can display. LCD panels comes either 6-bit and 8-bit. The 6-bit panels provides 6-bit for each red, green, and blue for all total of 18-bit color (262144). The 8-bit panel versions provides 8-bit for each red, green, and blue for a total of 24-bit color (16777216). The 6-bit panels also have the fastest response times than 8-bit panels. I suggest trying 16-bit (actually its 15-bit or 32768 colors) color depth and see if that makes it better.

About DVI - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVI

Higher resolutions increases workspace. Pictures may seem better quality, but they are actually smaller and you can not see the artifacts that you did in lower resolutions. Also the DPI or in this case PPI changes how text and pictures are shown on the screen.

I never heard of Nitstek. It sounds like a very, very cheap brand.

Oh it is a very, very cheap brand
What's the problem with the cable length and shielding of DVI cables, I'm not sure what you mean by that. My gfx card and monitor both have a DVI connector, so maybe it would be worth investing in a cable.
What's the difference between response time and reaction time? I always assumed it was the same thing, but apparently my monitor has a response time of 8ms and a reaction time of 12ms.
16-bit color depth won't allow me to use some applications unfortunately, so I kind of have to use 24-bit.
I still can't find any mention of the v and H synch values or the dot clock in Quakeboy02's links...

"I still can't find any mention of the v and H synch values or the dot clock in Quakeboy02's links..."

Well, maybe I can help, then. Looking at the Display Mode chart on page 8 of the manual for the 19" display, I can infer that your settings should be as follows:

Horizontal: 30-80
Vertical: 60-75

Strangely enough,those settings are the same as the settings for my ProView 19" LCD, which also isn't the most expensive one on the block. The native resolution is also 1280x1024, but just like you, I felt it was too small and it gave me eyestrain, so I use 1024x768 instead.

Quake

DVI can handle both analog and digital. Analog can work with longer cables. The length of cable depends on the sensitivity of the digital electronics of LCD monitor. I suggest a DVI cable that is not any longer than a meter when the transmission is digital.

The response times from one manufacture is not the same as other manufactures. I suggest visit anandtech.com or tomshardware.com to find a monitor that best suits you. These two sites provides standard testing for LCD monitors, so the comparison can be fair.

If you want the fastest monitor, CRT is the only monitor that is best for that. Also CRT is best for any resolutions.

LCD monitors have a fixed resolution. If you use a lower resolution, the electronics have to blow up the image to the native resolution of the monitor. If you can not see at the native resolution of the LCD monitor, change the size of the text and adjust anti-aliasing. Some desktop or window managers includes sub-hinting.

FCC and UL has a wide database of all electronics. If you know the FCC or UL number, you can enter it in and it will provide you with everything you want to know about.

I'm not able to make sense of that page... based on the PDF manual Quakeboy02 linked to, I put
63.981 and 79.976 as the min/max values for HSynch and 60.020 and 75.024 as the VSynch values.
I still have no idea what the dot clock frequency shoudl be, so I left that blank and put in 1280x1024 as the resolution. When I calculate the Modeline it gives me

Why is it generating this if it knows itself that it's wrong?

Why not just add "1280x1024" to your Mode Line and let xorg figure out the rest? My monitor seems to be the same electronics-wise. Here's one of my modelines.

Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"

As you can see, it's nothing special. It comes up as 1024x768 60KHz x 75Hz and I didn't have to calculate anything. By the way, when you poke the button and bring up the OSD, that's the current display rate.

Use gtf to create modelines.

For LCD monitors, the refresh rate is between 60 to 70 hertz.

try and do the link i posted earlier, but only fill out the middle section ('basic configuration').
also, in your "Monitor" and "Modes" section of your .conf file, make sure only the two lines (similar to the ones i posted above, but not exactly the same, of course) are used. that is, make sure every other line in these sections is commented out (# at the beginning).

Nice! I tried both this and gtf which gave me a very similar modeline
and things look a whole lot better already

Thank you all very much.

Hmm, spoke too soon. Either I wasn't looking hard enough or the display has reset itself. Images are back to being all blocky and text more and more difficult to read. Kind of regret switching to an LCD at this stage

can you post your .conf file? also verify with your desktop settings from KDE (if in fact you are using kubuntu) and make sure it is using 1280x1024. also, try lowering the refresh rate to say 50 or 60. mine is running at 51hz, and looks fine. with CRT monitors the refresh rate makes a big difference, for almost all LCD monitors it is usually best to leave at maximum 60hz.