Pc Monitors have been a vital part of computing since dawn of personal computers, the early 80′s. I think I speak for many when I say that early monochromatic orange or green monitors had some charm, but nostalgia aside, fast forward 30 years, we’re in the age of huge flat screens and enormous plasma televisions.
There are two major technologies on the market CRT and TFT, however TFT has been in the winning position for personal and office use due to numerous reasons.

Cathode Ray Tube

These monitors are basically made of an electron tube where an electromagnetic field accelerates and aims a beam of electron against a phosphorescent layer of glass which is the surface of the screen you see the picture on. This ray of electron keeps going left to right, up and down so fast that it achieves the illusion of a still image projected to the screen. There are cons and pros to using one of these monitors, best part is color representation. CRT pc monitor are still in use by designers because of their richness and precise presentation of colors and high contrast ratios, however a 21” device weights as much as 55 pounds and has quite a depth which requires special TV desk to be used. Older models are prune to burn-in, thus screen savers were born. These at first were pieces of software that moved an object on screen to prevent the phosphorescent layer to partially lose it’s original structure resulting in a shape seen on the turned off monitor. There also is a warm up period before correct colors and brightness can be achieved after turning the crt pc monitor on and don’t forget the enormous power consumption compared to a similar size LCD display.

Thin Film Transistor

Tft, known as LCD or flat screen is a layer of transistor grid. These transistors are normally clean whereas under voltage they (depending on solution) achieve to block light. This layer is lit from behind by either a light tube or leds. Led backlit pc monitors are becoming more and more popular at the time of writing because of their lower power consumption and generally better color presentation achievable. Light bleeding is also less severe with these panels. Light bleeding is the effect where the light source isn’t blocked by the transistors on while showing black usually seen on the edges and in corners of a tft monitor. There are quite a few advantages of TFT monitors over CRT.

-Less space used
-Lower power consumption
-Better geometric resulting in sharper image

And don’t forget touch screens. Touch panels are much easier to integrate into tft monitors because there is no need to think about curvature of the glass screen like it would be a problem with CRT monitors.

Related Articles:
How to Buy Graphics Cards?