For longer than I care to admit, I’ve thought that the screen on my monitor needed alignment as every once in a while I noticed lines of text would appear to be slanted to the right.

I never did get around to “fixing” this problem as it really wasn’t that big of a deal…until I tried out my new eyeglasses.  I had lost one of the lens in my prescription sunglasses and decided it was time to get new glasses, both of the sun and regular variety.  I got a new prescription from my ophthalmologist and became the owner of two pairs of ridiculously overpriced eyeglasses a few days ago.

The first time I sat down in front of my monitor with the new glasses on, the slanted text was much more noticeable.  After getting over the initial shock, I realized the “slanted text” problem had nothing to do with the screen alignment.  When I looked at the screen with my right eye only, the text was level.  When I looked at the screen with my left eye only, the text was slanted to the right.  I was the problem!

It also occurred to me that most of the time I’m staring at the screen, I do so with my glasses off.  And that explains the mystery of why the slant appears occasionally.  With the glasses on, the prescription “levels the load” on both eyes and the slant becomes noticeable.  When I don’t have my glasses on, the slant disappears as my right eye does the most of the work since it is much closer to normal vision than the left.

Fortunately, as my eyes adjusted to the new prescription, the slant became less noticeable and now appears about the same it did with my old glasses.  I’ve have to remember to ask the ophthalmologist about this on my next visit.