Monitor for graphic design.

Hi,
For your limited budget I recommend the BenQ BL2420PT, it has a good fidelity of reproduction, QHD resolution, multiple ports and a fully ergonomic stand to accommodate the screen at your viewing angle.

Now if you can extend your pocket a little further the BenQ EL2870U is an excellent alternative with UHD resolution and 10 bits of color depth.

Never save costs by settling for a $200 screen when you are doing any graphics work - it is generally just a bad idea.

It does, however, depend on the type of design work you do. I work predominantly with web, app, 3d, and game development nowadays. I used to work more in graphic design, and at the time I had a dual setup of professional Lacie CRT screens - they were very expensive at the time. The quality was outstanding (and still is compared to the lacking black on any flat screen, even expensive ones).

Currently I work on a three screen system. Two more expensive ~$900 27" Samsung screen which are colour calibrated with a Spyder, and a cheaper old hp w2408h 1920x1200 screen tilted in portrait mode for web browsing and testing my designs to see how they work out on a lesser quality screen.

The Samsungs are incredibly sweet on the eyes while coding (no IPS grain, no TFT vagueness), and the colours are very good. But the black is not exactly black - that is the main downfall. However, this is not important for my line of work.

Quite the opposite, I would argue that, in my case, I do not want to work on a very expensive Eizo, because it would distort what things would look like for 99% of people out there who work on lesser quality screens - because my designs and games are supposed to be viewed on those, being the most common denominator. If I'd have true blacks my eyes would see colours somewhat differently in relation to that true black, while no-one else viewing those graphics would have true black. Bit over-simplified, but I hope you catch my drift here.

An Eizo is great for press and photo critical work, though.

Anyway, I would say the choice of the screen depends in part on the type of design work you do. Having said that, there is a threshold below which a screen just becomes unusable for any design work. Invest in a good screen - and that means spending somewhere in the $500~$1000 range.

I think with that budget you should be able to find a good monitor from the name brands. Whats more important is to think about your intended audience. If your designing for screen (i.e. web)  try to remember that most people viewing your finished work will be doing so from cheapo budget monitors that came bundled with their computers. You're medium is dusty displays with greasy finger prints and Cheetos-tinged bezels. Don't just design for the 1%, design for them.

If for print, well your working toward ink on the page. Getting that consistently across large scale print runs, the colour accuracy nightmare of an RGB monitor vs a CMYK environment, of additive and subtractive colour environments that seem perpetually at war in the designers environment. Even the best monitors can't predict what happens when your work hits the press. There can and will be surprises. Experiences has led me be more conscious of how I mix a colour then what the screen shows me. A finally calibrated, expertly tuned monitor is pointless if I'm using 4 colour black.

Colour accuracy is great, and is important; you should be commended for extending your budget to a higher quality display; but you don't need to go to the extremes of buying Eizo, NEC or whatever other displays commonly found in camera stores. Even as an experienced designer I find their prices excessive. No doubt the experience of using that monitor is the most earth-shattering trans-formative moment when pixel peeping, but for that kind of money; buy an iMac instead. With that you get an led backlit IPS display (a perfectly adequate choice for general design work) and a modern computer to boot.

I also don't really accept that a monitor costing thousands is that much appreciable better than ones in the original posters budget range. Maybe when LCD were first starting out, when they were still figuring out how to mass produce the things, and what the standard would be; but today? It's a ubiquitous and well understood technology. Is a monitor costing 5 times more really 5 times better?

So go out and enjoy your new found appreciation of design. Keep playing in Photoshop and Illustrator. Be master of the pen, swift with the keystroke and artful with the brush. Enjoy and expand, and learn and grow. It's a world filled with design and you enter in to make your mark. Buy what your budget allows (hopefully something tasteful in appearance). Move on and create.

Any other alternatives to Dell ? Not particularly found of Dell

This question may seem hard to answer but is there any good monitors that are good for the eyes for hours upon hours of staring, natural fatigue or bad eyes not included

DIOV, I re-read Herbert2001's post and there are a lot of good points there.

The problem is of course that to get properly set up right away you need almost unlimited funds, which no one has. We all have budgets. So you have to think strategically. The suggestion to get a good monitor now and pay what it takes, and in turn manage with a less than optimal computer for the time being, has a lot of merit.

And then of course there is the issue of calibration/profiling, which I specifically didn't bring up, but Herbert did. The higher end Eizos and NECs come with dedicated calibrators, but anything less and you have to factor that in. If you work in a closed loop (only printing to your own desktop printer) it's not a critical priority as long as you get a good match.

But the moment you become a link in a production chain, handing your work off to others, it becomes absolutely critical and something you simply cannot work without, or you'll be out of work faster than you can turn around. Again, it's an investment in future work.

Among third-party calibrators, the overall best (but not the cheapest), is the x-rite i1 Display Pro. The reason it's a particularly good investment is that the sensor is supported in virtually every calibration solution out there, including NEC Spectraview and Eizo ColorNavigator. So it's very future upgrade-proof. But it is around 250 euro right there.

Thanks a ton everybody! Really helpful insights and aspects I should consider, I'll take a look and study a little more what I can do in terms of budgeting...

My answer is probably not going to be very popular - bit of a warning ;-)

DIOV, you are approaching this the wrong way. Let's take this for an analogy: suppose you are a sound engineer or musician. You buy the best computer hardware and best audio processing hardware and software. Then you realize you are out of a budget and you are forced to purchase inexpensive monitors (speakers) and a generic cheap microphone.

All that great hardware will be useless and the final quality of the productions you make will be average at best - because you skimped on the most important components: the output and input.

You stated you are about to invest in a new computer system - I would take a long and hard look at how you plan to invest your money. Good quality monitors recommended for graphic design start at a minimum of about $500. For example, the 2410 from Dell can handle wide range gamut (almost full Adobe RGB), while the 2412 does not even match the sRGB range and only 77% of Adobe RGB.

For video work the 2412 is okay, but not for colour critical GD jobs. Another candidate is the Asus PA248Q which sells for 365€, and does 99% of Adobe RGB. That one would be a more realistic choice for serious GD jobs.

You will also have to invest in a Colour Spyder Pro, Color Munki or other equivalent hardware calibration tool - which is another ~130€. Because for GD work you MUST color calibrate the screen you work with. And that requires a hardware colorimeter.

All in all, about 500€ investment in your monitor and color calibration setup. The thing you will be looking at ALL DAY LONG and the thing that is CRITICAL for high quality output. The thing you need to rely on to make money. Why would you go for a screen that only hinders you in your work?

So do yourself a service, and rethink your strategy: even less expensive CPUs are more than enough to deal with most GD work. Instead of getting a more expensive graphics card, perhaps a slightly less inexpensive one will do the job just as well.

You have not listed your intended computer hardware - but try to allocate twice as much as you currently have in mind to your screen setup, and less into the computer hardware. I mean, you did mention you are planning to get serious about graphics design - so why would you skimp on the most important part: your screen?

twenty_one has given you a straight answer with very good suggestions.

The Eizo FORIS FS2333 23" LED LCD Monitor - 16:9 - 3.40 ms  can be had for US $400 from http://www.newegg.com in the USA.

When my older but high-end LaCie and Mitsubishi finally die, I would hope to replace them with something like the Eizo RadiForce MX270W 27' LCD Monitor, but that's definitely way outside your budget.

From the NEC line, the 2690 and 2490 with SpectraView software were very good choices when I looked into them sometime ago.  I don't know what the current replacement models are, but they should be around $1,200 or so from a source such as B&H.

Dell is a good choice if you want to stay within your present budget.  Look into the DELL refurbished models at the eBay Official-DELL-store:

http://www.ebay.com/usr/dell-official-store-usa-refurbished?_trksid=p2053788.m1543.l2754

some phenomenal bargains can be had there.  Just don't expect the same performance and quality as with Eizo or NEC.

Good luck.

I have 3 Dell U2410 monitors.  The updated 2412, although considerably cheaper as still highly regarded.