A liquid crystal display (commonly abbreviated LCD) is a thin, flat display device made up of any number of color or monochrome pixels arrayed in front of a light source or reflector. It is prized by engineers because it uses very small amounts of electric power, and is therefore suitable for use in battery-powered electronic devices.
TFT-LCD (Thin Film Transistor-Liquid Crystal Display) is a variant of Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) which uses Thin-Film Transistor (TFT) technology to improve image quality. TFT LCD is one type of active matrix LCD, though it is usually synonymous with LCD. It is used in both flat panel displays and projectors. In computing, TFT monitors are rapidly displacing competing CRT technology, and are commonly available in sizes from 12 to 30 inches.
LCD Means Liquid crystal display TFT means Thin Film Transistor Liquid Crystal Display. What I think you mean is Active and Passive matrix LCD panels. This is where there is a difference in price. A typical active TFT panel capable of resolutions of just 1024x768 is made up of nearly 2.5 million transistors (commonly known as small 3 legged lumps of silicon found in TV's and most other electronics) eccept in this case, the transistors are etched onto glass, to microscopic precision hence the name "Thin Film Transistor". A normal LCD basicaly has two layers of glass, one with rows, one with columns, this makes up a grid that can be referenced to control each pixel. The control is done with an IC (integrated circuit or silicon chip) on the LCD's circuit board/s. TFT's tend to be quicker ( response time) and nicer to look at in general.
A TFT monitor uses thin-film transistor technology. Nearly all LCD monitors today use TFT technology. The benefit of a TFT monitor is a separate, tiny transistor for each pixel on the display. Because each transistor is so small, the amount of charge needed to control it is also small. This allows for very fast re-drawing of the display, as the image is re-painted or refreshed several times per second. Prior to TFT, passive matrix LCD displays could not keep up with fast moving images. A mouse dragged across the screen, for example, from point A to point B, would disappear between the two points. A TFT monitor can track the mouse, resulting in a display.
