What are these gradient-like bars on my monitor?

[mikac2014]

I just noticed it today. Next to colored elements there is a gradient (shade) bar that's gray or black, and it made me worry. I didn't overclock. What is it? I tried to reset all monitor settings. It's 6-7 years old. It's SyncMaster940N. My graphics is R7 240, overclocked only once, and 4 months ago. They're hard to see, so zoom in the picture. I can see it easily. It's next to everything, but at the Tom's Hardware logo it's most noticeable.
Picture: http://tinypic.com/r/xdib1g/8

 

[Kari]

The pic you linked is fine as far as i can tell (the usuall jpg packing artefacts are present of course). Could you do a .bmp version as well (but pls just a small portion of the screen area, otherwise the file size could be quite big)? The logo itself is a picture to begin with, so it probably has its own artefacts... What about the top most red bar, is it sharp around the edges? It seems to be a coded and shouldn't have any artefacts around it.

If it is caused by the monitor it won't show up in a screenshot.

You could try to adjust your monitor using the following link:
http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/
The sharpness might be set too high...

Also if you get the shading around text, then the Windows ClearType might be mistuned. (Windows Control Panel under Appearance and Personalization)