Amber screen was the common name for a monochrome CRT computer display using an amber "P3" phosphor screen. They succeeded teletype terminals and preceded colour CRTs as the predominant visual output device for computers. They were abundant in the early-to-mid-1980s, together with green screens (P1).

Some amber screen displays were furnished with a particularly full/intense phosphor coating, making the characters very clear and sharply defined (thus easy to read), but generating a somewhat disturbing afterglow-effect (sometimes called a "ghost image") when the text scrolled down the screen or when a screenful of information was quickly replaced with another as in word processing page up/down operations. Other amber screens avoided the heavy afterglow-effects, but at the cost of much more pixelated character images. Some had brightness and contrast controls to allow the user to set their own compromise.

See also

• Cathode Ray Tube
• Green screen

Computing output devices | User interface | Display technology