Computer Monitors Overview

There are many ways to classify monitors. The most basic is in terms of color capabilities, which separates monitors into three classes:

• Monochrome: Monochrome monitors actually display two colors, one for the background and one for the foreground. The colors can be black and white, green and black, or amber and black.
• Gray-scale: A gray-scale monitor is a special type of monochrome monitor capable of displaying different shades of gray.
• Color: Color monitors can display anywhere from 16 to over 1 million different colors. Color monitors are sometimes called RGB monitors because they accept three separate signals -- red, green, and blue.