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Sparky's

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 11, 2004
871
0
I was wondering about the best color surface to use for the infrared (ball less)mouse. I'm in commercial printing so I've been experiemnting with various colors of paper securely mounted on my mouse surface and have found that a Buff or Off White color seems to work well. Is there an "official" Apple surface you should use for these? and if so what is it?
 

Laser47

macrumors 6502a
Jan 8, 2004
856
0
Maryland
Do you mean Optical? Just use a regular old mouse pad.
If youre looking for a really precise surface, then look for one of those gaming mouse pads. Thay are made for precision and accuracy if that is a main concern.
 

Sparky's

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 11, 2004
871
0
Yes optical but the red light it emits will be read differently on various shades of color. for example on white it's seen as a red light, on a green surface the light will not reflect as well (green filters are used to cancel out red light in darkrooms). and I have seen a great deal of difference depending on the color of the surface I use the mouse on.;)
 

Chundles

macrumors G5
Jul 4, 2005
12,037
493
You shouldn't be using a solid colour at all, I use a hard mouse pad that has some texture moulded into the top surface so that the reflections aren't coming back uniformly. By reading the scattering of the light the mouse can determine movement more accurately.
 

Verto

macrumors 6502a
Jul 20, 2005
582
0
Denton, TX
Am I the only one who thinks the Apple mouse is rather poorly designed, when it comes to movement? It just seems to be a lot harder to move compared to my Logitech, and substantially heavier. Come to think of it, my Logitech keyboard only takes 2 AA batteries, while the Apple takes 4, while also requiring much more frequent battery swaps. I just think the Apple BT keyboard and mouse do a shoddy job of conserving power.
 
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