What is it ?

Phraz is a screensaver, i.e. a program that will run automatically after the computer has been idle for a few minutes. The goal of a screensaver is to preserve the screen by forcing it to display varying pictures or shapes to avoid that the pixels stay lit too long and end leaving a print on the screen, known as screenburn.

Obviously, some will say that this doesn't happen on our current LCD or LED screens. Well, it's half true. Actually, the truth is that even if it doesn't happen the same way on LCD panels, a very analogue phenomenon may occur, even if it's less pronounced than it would be on a CRT monitor or TV. Regarding OLED screens, the screenburn may make a sounding come back, but we'll overlook that for now.

Is it any useful then ?

More or less, hardware preservation maniacs will get into configuring their computer to force the screen to shutdown quickly, using no screensaver, there you go, "and my screen will be preserved better yet". On another hand, there are people like me, who like to make their PC display something when they're not around. The simplest example is the well-known Windows™ logo screensaver which draws its logo randomly on screen and changes place at a certain rate.

As far as I am concerned, I rather appreciate screensavers, even more when they're free ! :)

What does Phraz do ?

Phraz is a screensaver which effects are both simple and beautiful. The user will have the opportunity to choose whether he wants to display a personal message or the system time. Without adding any parameter, the text will scroll from the right to the left with a smooth wave effect. Cool... A bit boring, maybe ? The three additional effects respectively allow to scroll the message in all directions (random directions), to apply a constant rotation to the message (rotation), and lastly to apply a persistence-like effect to the text (motion blur).

Of course, you can combine these effects altogether the way you like, my favourite parameters being system time combined with random directions and rotation, useful when you want to know what time it is without waking up the PC.

Can I kick it ?

Yes you can ! I'd be glad ! It's free, you just have to download it, unzip it, and once this is done, just right-click on the program icon, select "Install", and all you have left to do is selecting your parameters.

I sincerely hope you'll like it... All you have left to do is to download it. Thank you !

Download Phraz

if you feel like it, please leave a comment ! :)