Near Vision Tasks and Optical Quality of the Eye.

Purpose: To study the effect of near-vision reading task on optical quality of the eye when performed on a computer monitor and on printed paper, and to identify which of the two results in greater changes.

Methods: Two groups of subjects performed a 30-min reading task in two different conditions: on a computer monitor and on printed paper. Ocular, corneal, and internal wavefront aberrations (Zernike coefficients up to 6 order), root-mean-square of low- and high-order aberrations, spherical equivalent, vectoral components of ocular astigmatism (J45 and J0), and the compensation factor between internal and corneal aberrations were measured before and after the tasks.