ALady,

Executive summary: Go for it, you should be fine.

There is a difference between "dot pitch" (what you are asking about) and "dpi".

Dot pitch refers to the distance between two the centers of two dots of the same color on the CRT screen. Theoretically, a lower dot-pitch = a sharper image.

dpi refers to the number of dots per inch that make up a monitor's image. dpi doesn't really apply to monitors because they aren't fixed-resolution devices. That being said, the average dpi of a consumer desktop monitor is between 72 and 96 dpi.

What you're interested in is whether the images on the LCD panels will look as sharp as the images on the CRT monitors. In most cases, it will look much sharper.

The reason for this is that the LCDs have a 1:1 relationship between pixels (the dots that make up the image) and elements (the physical dots on the display). With a CRT, a beam of electrons shoots from the back of the tube to the front, being focused on a phosphorescent coating. At higher resolutions, the size of the electron beam, even tightly focused, will overlap the physical dots. This is why most CRTs have a softer image than LCD displays.

One caveat: if your husband is using 19" monitors, chances are he is running them at a fairly high resolution setting. The LCD's are going to be fixed 1280x1024 devices. You need to make sure that (a) your husband isn't running higher than that or if he is, (b) that there isn't a compelling reason he needs to do so.

Something to keep in mind: make sure you get displays compatible with your display adapter in the PC/PCs. The Samsung monitors likely have an analog ("VGA") connector, and you can get LCDs with either analog or digital ("DVI").

If you need help with the technical specifics ask here, since it's a gift and you don't want to tip your hat by questions like "do you have VGA or DVI connectors?" at the dinner table.

I switched about 5 months ago from a high-end 19" CRT monitor to dual 17" LCD panels (BenQ FP747). No contest. These are much sharper and easier on the eyes, especially after long periods of work.

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-alan in sitges

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