HP has unveiled a new high-end LCD monitor designed for graphics and animation studios.

The company touts the DreamColor monitors as a cheaper alternative to high-end backlit LCDs.

The screens offer more than a billion colours and support a range of colour display standards including AdobeRGB, NTSC and sRGB.

DreamColor will be targeted at graphics houses, film producers and animation studios in which accurate colour presentation is crucial.

HP said that the system was developed in cooperation with animation studio Dreamworks. The companies have been working for two years to develop a series of displays and printers that all provide identical colour displays.

"For decades, storytellers have struggled to manage colour in an accurate and consistent manner," said Dreamworks chief executive Jeffrey Katzenberg.

"Quite simply, when we make a movie about a big green ogre our concern is that our ogre is the same colour of green throughout the film."