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THE SOAP BOX 1997/08/13

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1997/08/13: Brightness and Contrast Why can't monitor manufacturers tell the difference between brightness and contrast?
As far as I can remember, all of the monitors I have ever used have had the symbols for brightness and contrast reversed. On the monitor that I am using right now, the brightness control is indicated by this symbol:

. To me, that symbol looks as if it represents contrast, judging by the sharp contrast between light and dark.
However, the symbol for the contrast control is

, which looks like the sun shining brightly.
I know that the control marked with

is for brightness because it dims the screen all the way to black. And the control marked

has a detent in the middle, which is a "sticky" place where the knob stops to indicate the mid-point or standard setting.
While I can see that the image used for the brightness control (

) could be interpreted as "ranging from dark to light" (thus brightness), I cannot see how

could possibly stand for contrast. It just looks too much like a bright sun.
Here is a summary:

What the Manufacturers Think		The Way I See It
contrast		brightness
brightness		contrast

Although I am accustomed to the problem now, and I always remember to reach for the "wrong" knob when I make an adjustment, I would really like to hear someone from the monitor industry explain this weirdness. [an error occurred while processing this directive]