Trying to rediscover a curiosity: Black, white and blue LCD screens

Posted by Practical-Hand203@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 6 comments

I distinctly remember browsing an auction listing for what was probably an early 90s laptop a few years ago, looking through the image gallery with pictures of what appeared to be a monochrome display and doing a double take when noticing that the title bar of the active window was blue, while everything else still appeared b/w monochrome. IIRC, this display was specifically targeted at Windows 3.x users. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find any mention of the technology anymore. Is anyone familiar with this oddity?

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6 Comments

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GG-McGroggy@reddit

I don't think you're going crazy. Either that or we both are. I think that some really crappy 286 era laptops had CGA video coupled with questionable LCDs that produced this effect. If we're wrong we'll just post over on r/MandelaEffect & claim victory 🙌 😜

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Practical-Hand203@reddit (OP)

>If we're wrong we'll just post over on r/MandelaEffect & claim victory 🙌 😜 Heh 😄️ Glad to know I'm not the only one :)

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Quaigon_Jim@reddit

Could it have been an electroluminescent LCD?

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Gnissepappa@reddit

It might just have been a color theme in Windows 3.x. Also, on some old LCDs, black might appear dark blue, but then you wouldn't have black in addition to blue.

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homeguitar195@reddit

There are some LCD screens that used some polarizer trickery to make different colors in specific ways but were ostensibly monochrome. [Posy](https://youtu.be/jLew3Dd3IBA?si=VijjDf9p0ayIRz4W) has a neat video on a Casio color organizer and several watches that use the technology. I recall seeing a few other products using something seemingly similar back in the day.

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Practical-Hand203@reddit (OP)

It's possible. I know that memory can be tricky, but I also seem to remember looking the particular model up and finding comments in a forum that this was sold with Excel users in mind, to offer a slight edge over the typical formatting gymnastics with font styles and different types of hatching necessary on a monochrome screen.