"One Surprising Reason Computer Screens Aren't Green-On-Black Anymore"

"In the early days of personal computing—think UNIX early—text was often white or green on a black screen. That didn't last long, of course, but there's a little-known reason that those shadowy screens weren't ideal for users. And it has to do with your poor eyesight.

First of all, for those of us who weren't around back then, a brief primer on how our LCD or plasma screens differ from those black-screened consoles of yore. These monitors used cathode ray tubes to shoot electrons at a fluorescent screen to produce pixels. Inside, these screens were coated with phosphor—a material that glows when struck with radiation (like the electrons), each creating a pixel of light. These early screens used a type of phosphor that emitted a greenish, yellowish glow—hence the early Matrix-style green-against-black monitors.

Later on, technology would advance to the point where each dot of light would contain a red, blue, and green phosphor, giving us color monitors. But considering that we started off computing on black backgrounds, what caused the switch over?"

At http://gizmodo.com/the-surprising-reason-computer-screens-arent-green-on-b-1643025374.