Essential Guide to Computing: The Story of Information Technology, The

Conclusion

We've mentioned that much of what constitutes acceptable quality in graphics is subjective. A corollary point is that the law of rising expectations applies in areas like this. For example, people once thought that monochrome monitors were great for text—after all they said, you don't need color to read a printed page. But once color systems fell in price, software designers began to take advantage of their features. Soon, no one wanted monochrome monitors—they're even hard to find now.

One change of this kind that we can reasonably expect in the not too distant future will be in monitor resolution. Once high resolution displays, e.g., 150 dpi, appear and start to fall in price, everyone will think their current 72 dpi versions are ...