Monitor Test Pattern Program
Some of us are old enough to remember this RCA "Indian Head" test pattern
Here we are in the 21st century, and most of us with computers still have a variant of the original Cathode Ray Tube. What personally has bothered me with the monitors I deal with is that they are not adjusted properly. I have come about various test patterns in the form of JPG or GIF images, but using them poses some disadvantages the biggest one being that you have to use your browser or some other viewer to display them on your screen. Additionally you have to deal with various sizes of images depending on the monitor resolution you are using.
Sooo . . . . .
I have written a tiny program that will display a test pattern. It is totally stand-alone and it automatically adjusts itself to whatever screen resolution you are using. Here is a screen capture:
Since I link to this site directly from my monitor testing program, you are very likely already running my little program. I hope you find it useful. Note that this test pattern does not deal with color factors such as gamma, and brightness. It only aids you in adjusting things such as width, and height.
Here is a basic rundown on the program
System requirements: Win95, Winnt or Win2000.
Installing and uninstalling the program: Just copy it to a directory of your choice. To uninstall, just delete it. I do not have it write to your registry in any way.
Running the program: When you first launch the program, the test
pattern will fill the entire screen covering up everything, even the task bar.
When you click with the mouse an "about" dialog will come up. Clicking
on "The Web" from the about dialog gets you to this page. Clicking on
"OK" dismisses the about dialog. To exit the monitor test program just
touch escape or enter. To minimize the program and have it appear on the task
bar, touch the m key.
If you want to make adjustments for different screen resolutions, you can
minimize the test pattern to the task bar then get to the screen properties
Windows provides.
I can't possibly cover how to adjust a monitor. Most of the monitors I deal with have controls on the front panel that get you into the adjustments. Be careful if you don't know what you are doing since you can really mess things up.
Download the program:
ftp://ftp.gate.net/pub/users/dawg/cstuff/draw.exe
A note to programmers:
Download the source files from:
ftp://ftp.gate.net/pub/users/dawg/cstuff/monitor.zip
This program is written in C. It compiles in: LCC written
by Jacob Navia; Microsoft © Visual C; and Borland.
You can download LCC here
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~lcc-win32/
Notes to everybody:
For a discussion of the Indian Head Test Pattern at the top of this page link
to:
http://www.moderntv.com/modtvweb/special/freegif-bw1.htm
Legal stuff: I hereby dedicate this program to the Public Domain
