Avoid KSF phosphors and wide color gamut

Aquila

Pwm, Temporal Dithering are not the only triggers.
Suddenly a KSF phosphors monitor with HDR feature could be a main cause for eye strain and many others issues.

After ~2019, almost all manufacturers began adding HDR10 (even if weak) and using 8-bit + FRC panels for marketing.

🔍 How to Avoid KSF Backlights

Check the color gamut claims

Likely KSF: If a monitor advertises ~90–98% DCI-P3 (or >90% AdobeRGB) and it’s not a quantum dot panel, it’s very often a W-LED + KSF red phosphor system.

Safer (non-KSF): Standard sRGB (~99–100% sRGB, but only ~70–75% AdobeRGB / ~72% NTSC) usually means plain W-LED without KSF.

Panel technology marketing terms

Nano IPS / IPS Black / “wide color” VA → frequently KSF-based.

Plain IPS or VA with sRGB-only coverage → generally W-LED (non-KSF).

QD (Quantum Dot) backlights → also avoid KSF, since QDs provide the red instead.

Look for color depth specs

Many wide-gamut + KSF displays advertise 1.07B colors / 10-bit (8-bit + FRC).

Non-KSF sRGB displays are often 16.7M colors / true 8-bit.

Watch for reviews mentioning “red fringing” or “pink/purple glow”

This is a side effect of KSF phosphors, especially visible on high-contrast edges (white text on black).

Prefer professional / office monitors over gaming ones

Gaming and creative wide-gamut models often use KSF for P3 coverage.

Business/office 4K monitors (EIZO FlexScan, ViewSonic VA series, Dell UltraSharp sRGB-focused SKUs) usually stick to standard W-LED.

✅ Short rule of thumb

Want to avoid KSF? → Look for 32" 4K, sRGB-only (~99% sRGB), 16.7M colors (true 8-bit), standard IPS or VA.

Want wide-gamut but no KSF? → Go Quantum Dot backlight instead.

👉 If you want to avoid HDR entirely, here’s what to look for:

Older / office-focused 32" 4K VA models

Many business and productivity monitors from ~2018–2021 were released before HDR branding became common.

bluetail

yea that was what I was linking the other day from another thread as @qb74 said

Aquila

Here the AOC Q24G4RE (23.8" IPS 1440p)
The red spikes are typically on KSF panels.

Clokwork

This is an important part of the whole picture, but don’t forget the graphics processor. You can have a true sRGB monitor or display and still have FRC or temporal dithering if the GPU forces it. I have first hand experience with this after trying to upgrade my GPU.

So basically there are multiple places in the pipeline we can be screwed. GPU (hardware), the OS (software), and the Display driver (firmware).

Aquila

Clokwork Yes, of course . Is a rubik cube :-)

thunder

I found that this isn’t always the case (for laptops).

Example 1: Surface Go 3 has a 99.1% sRGB and 69% P3 but seems to be using KSF.

Example 2: BOE NE135FBM-N41, which should be Framework Laptop 13's old glossy panel. It has a 99.73% sRGB and 78.63% P3, but also seems to be using KSF. (The ti3 file seems to show that, see the image below).

Also I found this post claiming Surface Laptop 3 uses PFS (which should be an alternative name of KSF), while this device's both variants (13.5/15) have a nearly 100% sRGB and under 70% P3.

AshX

thunder

I’m curious if KSF became much more common around 2018. Seems like a lot of things changed that year.

Mrlokin

I have a xl2411p TN and is great for my eyes, but t any ips monitor kills me, i return 2 monitors and a notebook because the ips eye strain. Do you think oled have the same problem? Or its a diferent tecnology?

Aquila

Mrlokin Look at your gpu too.
I had heavy strain with Nvidia GTX 1080ti, Intel Arc a 770 and moderate strain on Amd 6750XT.
Now I'm fine with RTX 2080 Super.

Mrlokin

Aquila i tested with a notebook rtx 4060/desktop rx580 and 7800xt and ips cooked me in with all those gpus. but with others panels types are ok.