A display’s color subpixel geometry provides an intriguing opportunity for improving readability of text. True type fonts can be positioned at the precision of subpixel resolution. With such a constraint in mind, how does one need to design font characteristics? On the other hand, display manufactures try hard in addressing the color display’s dilemma: smaller pixel pitch and larger display diagonals strongly increase the total number of pixels. Consequently, cost of column and row drivers as well as power consumption increase. Perceptual color subpixel rendering using color component subsampling may save about 1/3 of color subpixels (and reduce power dissipation). This talk will try to elaborate the following questions, based on simulation of several different layouts of subpixel matrices: Up to what level are display device constraints compatible with software specific ideas of rendering text? How much of color contrast will remain? How to best consider preferred viewing distance for readability of text? How much does visual acuity vary at 20/20 vision? Can simplified models of human visual color perception be easily applied to text rendering on displays? How linear is human visual contrast perception around band limit of a display’s spatial resolution? How colorful does the rendered text appear on the screen? How much does viewing angle influence the performance of subpixel layouts and color subpixel rendering?

Date Published: 8 February 2015
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 9395, Color Imaging XX: Displaying, Processing, Hardcopy, and Applications, 939510 (8 February 2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2083217

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9395:
Color Imaging XX: Displaying, Processing, Hardcopy, and Applications
Reiner Eschbach; Gabriel G. Marcu; Alessandro Rizzi, Editor(s)