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Reduce Screen Glare: The Guide to Sunlight Readable Screens

30th July 2025
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Picture this: You’re at a transit station kiosk, trying to buy a ticket or check a schedule on a screen flooded with sunlight, and instead of information, you see your reflection.

Frustrating, right?

For outdoor signage, industrial monitors, or marine displays, screen glare is an annoyance, it can ruin usability. This guide explores how to reduce screen glare, improve visibility, and future-proof display systems using sunlight readable screens.

Table of Contents

What Causes Screen Glare?

Showing Screen Glare Diagram

Glare is caused when external light (usually sunlight) reflects off a screen, reducing contrast and making content hard to read. Reflections act like mirrors, layering ambient visuals over your display. Together, they can render even high-resolution monitors useless outdoors.

Understanding and mitigating glare is vital in environments like public kiosks, transport hubs, outdoor digital signage, and control panels.

How to Reduce Screen Glare

Here’s how to enhance your display’s visibility outdoors or in brightly lit environments:

1. High Brightness Displays

  • Shock & Vibration compliance to MIL-STD 810F
  • Opt for screens with 1000 cd/m2 brightness.
  • Counteracts direct sunlight and ambient brightness.
  • Combine with smart brightness adjustment to manage energy use.

2. Transflective LCD Technology

  • Uses ambient light to enhance the image instead of competing with it.
  • Ideal for transportation displays, public info boards, and signage.

3. Optical Bonding

  • Fills the gap between cover glass and panel with a clear adhesive.
  • Eliminates internal refractions and condensation build-up.
  • Improves contrast by up to 400%, great for marine and industrial displays.

4. Anti-Reflective & Anti-Glare Coatings

  • AR coatings reduce mirror-like reflections from external light.
  • AG coatings scatter reflected light for softer, diffused glare.
  • Combining both works best for outdoor monitors and control screens.

Industry Applications

Sector

Application Examples

Transportation

Ticket kiosks, digital timetables at stations or airports

Retail & QSR

Outdoor menu boards, interactive signage

Smart Cities

Wayfinding kiosks, info panels in parks or walkways

Marine & Navigation

Boat dashboards, dockside displays

Industrial Control

Manufacturing dashboards, outdoor factory displays

Challenge

Solution

Energy drains from high brightness

Use adaptive lighting + transflective tech

Softened visuals from coatings

Select premium coatings with minimal visual degradation

Environmental extremes (heat, fog)

Optical bonding to prevent condensation build-up and enhance sealing

Visual washout in direct sun

Combine brightness, bonding, and AR layers for full-spectrum defence

7” WVGA TFT LCD Display

Perfect for outdoor kiosks, factory floors, public transport hubs, and marine installations.

  • Up to 2500 cd/m2
  • Optical bonding option for clarity and durability
  • Anti-reflective + anti-glare coatings option
  • TTL 24-bit RGB & 8-bit LVDS interfaces
  • PCAP & resistive touch
Access full details here

Predicted Future Trends

Future innovations in display technology are rapidly advancing to tackle glare-related challenges. Colour e-ink and reflective LCDs are emerging for ultra-low-glare digital signage, offering high readability even under direct sunlight. Smart glass and adaptive tint films are also gaining traction, allowing displays to automatically adjust their reflectivity in real time based on lighting conditions. Additionally, AI-driven layout adaptation is enhancing screen readability by dynamically adjusting on-screen elements to counter glare.

To ensure consistent clarity across environments, self-cleaning nano-coatings are being developed to maintain screen visibility and cleanliness in all weather conditions.

But this is all to come, watch this space…

Conclusion

To truly reduce screen glare and maximise readability outdoors, engineers and designers must combine:

  • Hardware innovations (brightness, bonding, coatings)
  • Environmental design (screen placement, hoods)
  • Smart technology (AI-based contrast and brightness control)

Clearer, more effective screens lead to better user experiences, and smarter systems.

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