ScreenTek is proud to provide you this glossary of common terms in the laptop LCD screen industry, and in the laptop notebook industry. Feel free to become more familiar with the terms we use throughout our site. If you notice any glaring omissions, we'd be glad to hear about those. Drop us a line at sales@screentekinc.com.

G, H, I Terms » 12 definitions

Glare

A beam or ray of light being emitted from a light source. Glare is commonly, yet incorrectly, used in place of technically a phenomenon related to the surrounding environment of a display, and as such, is beyond the ability of the display engineer to directly control. As used commonly by display users, however, glare refers to a reflection from the display which is highly distracting. Typically a user will call an obvious reflection of a white shirt in a display as a glare which reduces his ability to perform his tasks. This is actually more correctly a specular reflection (see Reflections on Reflections). Treatments of the surface to minimize this are referred to as antiglare or antireflection treatments. Antireflection treatments reduce the difference in refractive index between air and the display in a way which is the optical equivalent to impedance matching in electronics. Antiglare treatments, on the other hand, leave the impedance mismatch present, but cause the reflections to be scattered into all directions.

(more Optics terms)

Gloss

The degree to which a surface exhibits specular reflectance or the quality of image a surface reflects. It is a measure of the image forming ability of a surface. A general way to describe gloss is to say the surface looks shiny or dull. A smooth and highly polished surface will be shinier or have higher gloss. Gloss or the image forming ability of a surface is affected by 1) the material being used, 2) the surface profile (rough versus smooth) and 3) the transparency of the material. Traditional laptop LCD screens which use an anti-glare polarizer create a low gloss surface while the newer shiny laptop LCD screens which use an anti-reflective surface have a high gloss surface.

(more Surface terms)

Gloss meter

A device used to measure the gloss or image forming ability of a surface.

(more Surface terms)

Gloss units

A unit of measure of the gloss or image forming ability of a surface measured in percentage of specular reflection.

(more Surface terms)

High Proformance Addressing (HPA)

An LCD display technology which provides a better response rate and contrast when compared to a traditional LCD display.

(more Hardware terms)

Horizontal back porch

The period of time between the end of the Horizontal Sync pulse and the start of the next horizontal active time.

(more Hardware terms)

Horizontal front porch

The time between the end of the horizontal active time and the start of the horizontal sync pulse.

(more Hardware terms)

Horizontal sync

During the horizontal blank time, the monitor receives the horizontal sync pulse which is used for synchronizing the monitor to operate exactly synchronous to the PC graphics card. After receiving the horizontal sync pulse, the monitor returns the beam to the left side of the screen.

(more Hardware terms)

Illuminance

The total luminous flux incident per unit area. It refers to the amount of incident light.

(more Optics terms)

Illuminance meter

Measures the brightness of illuminated objects.

(more Optics terms)

In-plane Switching

A proprietary LCD cell structure. IPS displays have an excellent off axis viewing characteristics, but have poor aperture ratios, contrast ratio and speed. Hitachi / NEC

(more Hardware terms)

Inverter

At its simplest, a circuit that converts DC current into AC current. Typically called an "inverter board", this roughly pencil-sized device provides power to the backlight of the LCD device. Every LCD has a small cable of two wires leading to the inverter, and if either this cable, the inverter, or the backlight fail, you'll see a faint, dark image on the LCD screen. With some laptop manufacturers, such as Dell, the inverter is attached to the LCD. In this case, you must remove both from the laptop before you'll be able to detach the inverter from the LCD.

(more Hardware terms)

Glossary index

Shop with peace of mind. We are D&B Rated, and BBB Reliable.